Sound 1
Sec 03 - Spring 2005
SMFA - Tara Rodgers

Sound 1 introduces basic techniques of working with sound as a creative material. Topics covered include an introduction to recording techniques, digital audio editing and mixing, aesthetics of sound, acoustics and psychoacoustics, synthesis and signal processing techniques, circuit bending, and sound installations. Students will gain hands-on experience using a MiniDisc recording kit with microphones. We will also work extensively with ProTools Free to learn basics of digital audio. Throughout the course, we will listen to examples of experimental music and sound art that provide historical background and complement the work we are doing in studio. We will also read about and discuss the history of recording technology, with an ear for how technology (as a cultural artifact and a social process) is implicated in the work that sound artists do.

Format

This is a studio class that meets for two 3-hour sessions every Friday. Generally we will spend the morning session doing a brief historical overview with listening examples, and a short technical lecture and demo. Afternoons typically will be lab time, with a class critique of works in progress at the end of each day.

Projects

I will assign 7 short projects during the semester, which we will work on during class time, and which are based around learning a particular technique. For the final class session, you should revise 4 out of these 7 assignments based on feedback from critiques. Additionally, you'll do a final project, which can be any sound piece you choose (recording, performance, or installation), involving more substantial work than the in-class assignments. During the final class session, we will discuss and critique your portfolio, which should include 4 revised short assignments plus the final project.

Project list: (more details to be provided)
1 - pulse recording
2 - voice project
3 - opposites mix
4 - graphic score, homemade instrument, or sound sculpture
5 - musique concrete piece
6 - minimalist, grid, or chance operations piece
7 - electronic music project
+ Final project

Readings

ProTools Manual (PDF online)

Oliveros, Pauline. "The Poetics of Environmental Sound" and "Sonic Images." In Software for People: Collected Writings 1963-80. Baltimore: Smith Publications, 1984, 28-35, 52-54.

Sterne, Jonathan. The Audible Past. Durham and London: Duke University Press, 2003, 225-240, 282-286.

Pierce, John. "Hearing in Time and Space." In Music, Cognition, and Computerized Sound: An Introduction to Psychoacoustics. Edited by Perry R. Cook. Cambridge and London: MIT Press, 2001, 89-103.

Levitin, Daniel J. "Memory for Musical Attributes" (excerpt). In Music, Cognition, and Computerized Sound: An Introduction to Psychoacoustics. Edited by Perry R. Cook. Cambridge and London: MIT Press, 2001, 209-217.

Keightley, Keir. "'Turn it down!' she shrieked: Gender, Domestic Space, and High Fidelity, 1948-59." Popular Music 15, no. 2 (1996): 149-177.

Thibaud, Jean-Paul. "The Sonic Composition of the City." In The Auditory Culture Reader. Edited by Michael Bull and Les Back. New York: Berg, 2003, 329-341.

Ussachevsky, Vladimir. "Afterword: Random Thoughts on Creative Collaboration With Machines." In Ussachevsky and Otto Luening, Electronic Tape Music: The First Compositions. New York: Highgate Press, 1977 (1952), 41.

Minard, Robin. "Musique Concrete and Its Importance to the Visual Arts." In Resonances: Aspects of Sound Art. Edited by Bernd Schulz. Kehrer Verlag Heidelberg, 2002, 44-48.

Rose, Tricia. "Soul Sonic Forces: Technology, Orality, and Black Cultural Practice in Rap Music." Chap. in Black Noise. Hanover and London: Wesleyan University Press, 1994.

Link, Stan. "The Work of Reproduction in the Mechanical Aging of an Art: Listening to Noise." Computer Music Journal 25, no. 1 (Spring 2001): 34-47.

Cascone, Kim. "The Aesthetics of Failure: 'Post-Digital' Tendencies in Contemporary Computer Music." Computer Music Journal 24, no. 4 (Winter 2000): 12-18.