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Autoplaying, Unmuting, Attending: (Re)formatting the Twenty-First-Century Digital Sensorium

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 November 2022

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Abstract

In this article, I analyse the implications of autoplaying video as a driver of ‘audile techniques’ in the 2010s digital ecosystem – in particular, techniques that respond to the realities of the separability of image and sound, even in media that contain both elements. I then examine a number of strategies through which this audio/visual split has been negotiated, monetized, and creatively bridged by consumers, creators, and corporate personnel – from the creation of new audiovisual genres and aesthetics, to the rise of particular platform pricing models, to the adoption (and, potentially, exploitation) of accessibility features. Ultimately, I seek to show how negotiations of sound and listening factor deeply into contemporary attempts to harness and monetize ‘attention’ as a commodity in a digital economy of platforms, advertisements, and data.

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Article
Information
Twentieth-Century Music , Volume 19 , Special Issue 3: Listening In: Musical Digital Communities in Public and Private , October 2022 , pp. 427 - 443
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Copyright © The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press

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