The Killers: Investigating Binaural Sound Design Through the Making of Headphone Theatre (Portfolio)

The Killers is the world premiere of a live site-specific binaural sound work commissioned by MAYK for Mayfest 2018. MAYK is a theatre producing organisation that ‘makes important, unexpected, revelatory work’ including Mayfest international festival that commissions pioneering contemporary theatre, dedicated to presenting boundary pushing performance making that engages with site-specificity, engagement with non-traditional theatre audiences, and advances in new technology. The performance was the practice-based outcome of a research project into headphone theatre that first introduced the term ‘theatrical latency’ as a pleasurable effect experienced when listening to sound in relation to visual perception. Through the precision of binaural sound design, the practice based investigation foregrounded the interplay between live and recorded sound and how latency refers to both the phenomena of audio delay (in feedback from analogue to digital conversion) and a theatrical sensation that comes from the reanimation of visual environments through aural framing. The process exemplified how binaural technology can be central to the making of contemporary performance practice through detailed and extensive field recordings, site visits and critical audience engagement exercises. The development of the work required exacting feedback, reflection and revisions on the composition of the sound design and ultimately the precise relationship between hearing and looking for a spectator. The Killers was performed to sold out audiences in The Regent seaside diner in Weston Super-Mare. The show created a compelling first time experience for an audience, as they wore wireless headphones, immersed in the atmosphere of the diner. The show received excellent national reviews including being voted one of Exuant Magazine’s most memorable pieces of theatre of 2018. The findings of the process was further disseminated through an invited speaker series on ‘Headphone Theatre’ as part of the Ambient Literature Research Group (UWE) at the Pervasive Media Studio in Bristol in 2018