From schizophonia to mediated auditory dislocation: mediated tension in interactive VR soundscape composition

The contemporary listening environment is characterised by extensive mediation, in which environmental recordings are continually detached from their original contexts and reconfigured elsewhere. Earlier soundscape research used the term schizophonia to describe the separation of sound from its source and the consequent result of a disembodied and unsettling sonic experience. However, this framing has come under growing criticism for regarding mediation as a defect. This article proposes an alternative concept, ‘mediated auditory dislocation’, to describe an analytically non-normative condition in which environmental sounds are recorded, displaced from their original time and place, and re-embedded within new audiovisual and interactive settings. The argument is developed through a practice-based case study of Shifting Horizons (Bai 2025), an interactive VR audiovisual soundscape work. The case study shows how control over sonic layering, electroacoustic processing, and audiovisual coupling allows listeners to reconfigure the relation between recorded sound and its mediated presentation, making mediation itself available for comparative and reflexive listening. The article concludes by introducing a three-layer collaborative media model that clarifies how VR can support comparative and reflexive listening through parameterised layer control. The model is proposed as a transferable analytic heuristic, intended to be tested and refined across further VR soundscape works.