Sideways Listening: Doing Space Sideways to the Norm with Superhero Franchise Kamen Rider

Abstract

This article asserts that the social construction of space and the social construction of childhood are mutually informing. Different social practices within the broader domain of childhood reflect different constructions of childhood through their construction of space. These practices include watching television in the family home, attending an educational institution, or playing in a park. Sound, however, affords the possibility of non-linear development as it imbues a child’s experience of sites with affect carried over from different situations. The authors use social practice theory to reconceptualize the relationship between the social practices of childhood and their sites, space, and the role of sound in facilitating sideways growth. They focus on the Japanese children’s superhero franchise Kamen Rider and its use of sound both onscreen and in the design of its tie-in merchandise. The authors argue that combining affect (through sound) with space in this way allows us to see moments in which the child practices space disobediently and non-lineally. The portable affect created by the media design of the Kamen Rider tie-products, the authors argue, offers an excellent case study of how sound can create non-linear, crosswise movement between the sites at which childhood is practised. We further argue that the retention and pretension of affect associated with Kamen Rider sounds facilitate an experience of space sideways to its dominant construction.