The Oxford Handbook of New Audiovisual Aesthetics ed. by John Richardson, Claudia Gorbman, and Carol Vernallis (review)

In the last year, OUP has published three volumes in their ever-expanding handbook series that will be of particular interest to readers of this journal. Designed to provide authoritative and up-to-date surveys of research in particular areas, these large and often loosely-defined collections of essays can cut across several subjects. Thus, in considering the present volume we might note the similar ground covered in the more recent handbooks devoted to Film Music Studies (ed. David Neumeyer, 2014) and Sound and Image in Digital Media (ed. Carol Vernallis, Amy Herzog, and John Richardson, 2014). Undoubtedly, this is not only an indication of the increasing numbers of scholars interested in music, sound, and the moving image, but also a sign that such research is increasingly seen within wider disciplinary or scholarly contexts, no longer separable and marginalised by university presses as a niche study. The lamenting of a lack of scholarly attention that used to accompany early studies of Hollywood film music, it seems, can now safely be relegated to the footnotes of an, as yet, unwritten study of screen-music historiography.

Simultaneously, though, the busy scholar or graduate student faced with these handbooks may secretly bemoan the ever-increasing body of literature with which they are seemingly required to be familiar (in addition to the ever-increasing numbers of films, TV shows, and video games – both of the contemporary variety and, thanks to the explosion of access opportunities made possible through user-generated internet content, those of an historical nature). Faced with yet another 700-page handbook, and with a price tag in its hardback version that all but guarantees its accessibility only via an institutional library, the potential reader may find themselves both excited and slightly daunted at the prospect of wading through its contents.

Certainly, that was my first reaction when gazing at the contents pages and reading the introduction by John Richardson and Claudia Gorbman. On the one hand, there is an ambitious agenda to this handbook that is certainly beguiling: the introduction outlines a vast field with a series of associated research questions that could keep us all busy for many years, only some of which are covered by the chapters that follow. On the other hand, there is little doubt that some of the volume’s chapters are somewhat (and needlessly) impenetrable, and a casual dip can result in that sense of being overwhelmed by topics and repertoires that, although of great interest, require a degree of familiarity gained through a sustained period of study if they are to be thought about in anything other than a superficial manner. Although it is unlikely that the entirety of the volume’s contents will appeal to all, it is nonetheless worth persevering since there is some important and thought-provoking work here that will interest a wide readership. As a result, I want to concentrate in what follows on chapters that I feel might be of most significance to a Music, Sound, and the Moving Image reader, before making a few general comments about the editing. First, however, I want to give a general overview of the volume and its approach.

The handbook is certainly impressive in the variety of media, technologies and repertories with which it engages. From traditional live-action and animated film and television, video games, video art, and music video to internet video responses and iPod listening, it ranges across the full gamut of contemporary audiovisual culture. It is also good to see a wide geographical spread, both in terms of the repertoire discussed (which, in addition to Anglo-American traditions, also includes Chinese, Turkish, and Hong Kong cinema, and Latin American video culture) and the mix of institutions represented – though, as ever, there is still sometimes a presumption of a US perspective that occasionally goes unacknowledged.

The thirty-eight chapters include position pieces by powerful voices such as Lawrence Kramer, Michel Chion, and K...