The craft of the noise makers far from the attention on Jack Foley’s recording stage

Despite the growing awareness of the diverse sonic identities of the supposedly silent film, many actors in sound work remain scientifically neglected and historically invisible. This is particularly evident in relation to the work of noise makers (foley artists), whose participation in variety cinemas, movie theaters and production facilities has been sparsely documented. Above all, the wide lack of recognition as an independent professional category in Hollywood, as well as the supposedly secondary status in the production hierarchy, can be understood as catalysts for marginalization also in film history research practiced in Germany. The hierarchization between image and sound work is made quantitatively clear precisely by the footnote status of the early (and also the late) noise makers and sound workers of German film history in archives, collections and publications. The aim of this work is to understand the craft of sound making as an experimental counter-history to the German film history narrative in the form of case studies. This common narrative is to be questioned by searching for canonically non-represented actors. The research project consists of searching for the sound makers of Weimar cinema precisely with the help of scraps, fragments and gaps – including their anecdotes, speculations and conceptual difficulties. The focus of the project is the development of a network of actors in sound work who were active not only in the film industry, but also in the radio industry, in the exhibition context and in art, theater and recording studios. However, the project does not see itself as an epochal-historical study on Weimar cinema, but as a contribution to making visible and localizing sound work in the film production and sound work cluster during, around, as part of or apart from the much-researched Weimar cinema.

Simone Nowicki is a researcher and Foley artist specializing in experimental sound practices and the labor history of sound design in film. She is currently pursuing her doctorate on the history and significance of sound design in film, highlighting its experimental character and marginalized position within traditional film history. Nowicki studied, taught, and conducted research at the Institute for Film, Theater, Media, and Cultural Studies at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz and is a member of the GFK Graduate School Configurations of Film in Frankfurt am Main. Her research interests also extend to transnational perspectives on German film exile, and she is a member of the DFG Research Network “Mapping German Film Exile. A Transnational Perspective”.

In addition to her academic work, Nowicki is also active as an Foley artist, creating auditory collaborations with institutions such as the Arolsen Archives, the Prussian Museums in Berlin, and documenta 15. She provided live sound for Germany’s first gaming concert “Let’s Play” at the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg. For her innovative communication of exile research with the audio feature “Verortung unmöglich?” (Localization Impossible?), she was awarded the Claus-Dieter Krohn Prize in 2022. In March 2024, the SWR-TV format “Handwerkskunst!” (Craftsmanship!) accompanied Simone’s work as a sound designer and doctoral student in the episode “Wie man eine Filmszene vertont”.

Further information can be found here:  https://www.simone-nowicki-foley.de/ and https://linktr.ee/simonenowicki

Publications:
Nowicki, Simone: Verzettelt. Der Nachlass von Günter Peter Straschek, in: Johannes Praetorius-Rhein, Lea Wohl Von Haselberg (eds.): Einblendungen. Elements of a Jewish Film History of the Federal Republic of Germany, Berlin: Noefelis publishing house, 2022.