The idea of perfectly orchestrated synchronised scores is debunked by the notion of found sound. Found sound is pre- or previously recorded music or sound that is rediscovered and used in a new context.

The effect of using found sound is to make self-conscious the use of illustrative sound. An old song or incongruous piece of sound design points up the unsynched nature of sound and image. Juxtaposition generates an awareness in the audience response of how sound is employed. For instance, if the recording quality of a 78 record is placed alongside an image filmed on the latest sharpest digibeta recorder an audience is made aware of the texture of different recording processes they might otherwise take for granted. The application of found sound asks for a larger cultural understanding of the immediacy of the emotional moment in the film.

Using found sound also has a commemorative effect. For instance, John Smith literally commemorates where sound is found in Lost Sound, a real adventure in the art of sound curation. And Cordelia Swann exploits to perfection the evocative nature of popular music in Desert Rose. She presents the nuclear poisoning of desert round Las Vegas in a cunning interweaving of image, voice over and the twangy musical sounds of the mid 20th century desert city to ghostly effect.