Sloppy Realism

Abstract

Abstract This chapter explores the use of field recording in radio and audio drama, arguing that nonstudio sound capture imparts an aesthetic of sloppy realism to a variety of productions. The chapter explores the use of this aesthetic from the 1930s to the early twenty-first century, arguing that although sloppy realism has been a marginal and difficult practice, it has proven persistent, in part because it has been a way for dramatists to “think” their medium through technique. The chapter then draws on interviews with thirteen practitioners using the method today, exploring what they see as its appeals: allowing creators to show inheritance as well as innovation, providing settings with mystique, prompting creative mic technique, making performances more physical, and embracing contingency. Ultimately, the revival of sloppy realism represents a way of figuring the liveness of old radio as a lingering “repressed other” in contemporary soundwork.