Screen + Sound + Stage
Text and videos by Zaral Shah
During the initial days of the lockdown, I found myself uncharacteristically oversleeping. It turns out that this was because my usual secondary “alarm” – the sound of the doorbell ringing thanks to the various people who would visit our home like clockwork each morning – had stopped. I slept on without realising that 7 a.m. had come and gone.
This lack of house bells and the sudden surge in birdsong brought up the other recent changes in my “surround sound” and how I unconsciously relied on them to add dimension to the happenings of my day. I began to acutely miss hearing the ambient noises of the office: the lightly buzzing compressor of the AC; the microwave beeps; the creak of the lift; and, most of all, the voices of my colleagues.
And as the days of confinement melt into months, with movies and streaming shows becoming my constant companions during a period of heightened…