Exploring & Creating Sonic Environments

Catalog description

Sound is all around us. The way we perceive or experience these sounds are largely dependent upon their environments, whether artificially constructed or naturally present. In this studio-based course, students will learn about the development of sound art through readings and listenings by artists, musicians and designers who investigate our sonic environment through field recordings, sound compositions, multi-channel immersive installations, and soundscapes. The course will begin with an introduction to the physics of sound with time for deep listening exercises. We will read selected texts and listen to pieces by artists working in the field of Acoustic Ecology, an interdisciplinary field that employs ethnographic practices to create sound studies and art. We will study experimental composers and the history of experimental music, exploring various approaches to composition including graphic and text scores, chance operations, and generative systems. There will be weekly exercises that will develop the student's spatial awareness of sound and music. We will take listening and recording trips into the field to understand the acoustic urban environment. We will use different types of microphones and students will learn how to build their own contact microphones. Students will have the opportunity to create works for multi-channel speaker systems. The final project can take on any form within the realm of sound art–multimedia, narrative, non-narrative, music, installation are a few examples.