A Sound of One’s Own

Historical accounts of film sound technology are often marked by hegemonic technologies that grew to become standardised across diverse national industries. However, the focus on these dominant technologies often obfuscates matters of power and subversion in technological development, thus effacing histories of innovative sound technologies developed to provide competitive advantages to emerging industries. This essay explores one of these obscured histories by addressing the existence of a technology developed in the early years of synchronous sound in Mexico: the Rodríguez Sound Recording System (RSRS). I argue that this technology constitutes a relevant precedent of tactics that exist at the border between subversion and compliance with dominant film technologies and discourses. To explore this idea, the text traces the industrial context and development of the RSRS, as well as the possible reasons for its demise and the implications of its effacement from film history. This exploration demonstrates that the RSRS is a relevant case for study of often effaced subversive practices in early synchronous sound, disrupting the presumption that only the industries that could afford the costs associated with novel sound technologies were able to access synchronous sound film-making.