The Sound of Seeing

I had no idea what I was doing but it all seemed very important, so the learning curve was steep.

– Tony Williams

The film was a manifesto for New Zealand film-making as an art that could 'enlarge' both eyes and ears.

– Roger Horrocks, in Art New Zealand

The narrative premise of The Sound of Seeing—that there is no narrative, just a gradual unfolding of the thesis of the title—meant that the matching and editing of music, incidental sound and image had to be approached with care.

– Composer Robin Maconie in his essay, Composing Runaway in NZSA Bulletin of New Zealand Studies, Issue 2, 2010

Unusually for the time, the music included improvised sounds plucked and drummed directly on the piano strings, aleatoric ensemble work involving a young chamber ensemble of fellow university student musicians, and tape-recorded sounds and music transposed to higher or lower than normal speed.

– Composer Robin Maconie in his essay, Composing Runaway in NZSA Bulletin of New Zealand Studies, Issue 2, 2010