Sound Art and Practice

Monday, May 12, 2008

Welcome to RT362i Summer Sound Art Practice

Professor: Dr. Phylis Johnson, 453-6901, phylisj@yahoo.com
Teaching Assistant and Lab Instructor:
Adam Pearson at adamdpearson@hotmail.com
Meeting Times: M-F, 1 – 3
Office Hours: 12:00 to 1 p.m. – Tuesday, Wednesday, and by appointment

Blogs:
http://www.soundpractice.blogspot.com/
http://transonicmission.blogspot.com/
http://sonicwalden.blogspot.com/

RT 362i Sound Art and Practice
Text: Audio Culture: Readings in Modern Culture (ed., Christoph Cox & Daniel Warner, Continuum, 2004)

Recommended Reading :
A NATURAL HISTORY OF THE SENSES,
DIANE ACKERMAN,1990, Vintage Books

The idea that artists are capable of producing organized sound that is somehow distinct from that created by musicians and composers has existed ever since the publication of Italian Futurist Luigi Russolo's manifesto "The Art of Noises" in 1913…(Doug Harvey, The Noise of Art) http://www.laweekly.com/ink/02/12/features-harvey.php

Course Objective:
to introduce students to the critical theory, art, and practice within the field of sound

Learning Outcomes: *understand/apply sound theory*develop critical listening/expression*nurture creative expression through sound and related audio arts*develop writing and storytelling skills through sound*understand/apply specific terminology of sound *participation in some aspect of audio production outside of class.

Everyday Links: In Class ListeningThe ABC Classic/Australia Listening Room
http://www.abc.net.au/classic/listeningroom/
Also see: http://www.abc.net.au/arts/adlib/

Ear Clips (3 minutes)
http://www.abc.net.au/arts/earclips/default.htm
Deep Wireless
http://www.trentu.ca/trentradio/csirp/rwb04/
Hearing Voices
http://www.hearingvoices.com/
Sound Galleries
http://www.earthear.com/catalog/gallery.html
Sound and Spirit Program
http://www.wgbh.org/pages/pri/spirit/previous.html

"Today, music heralds... the establishment of a society of repetition in which nothing will happen anymore." - Jacques Attali

Robert Minden/Otter BayA playfully eclectic composer whose engaging and emotive works are populated by instruments such as vacuum cleaner hoses, glass bottles, and theramin. His web site includes a fun Flash presentation on several of his favorite instruments: http://www.lostsound.com/http://www.lostsound.com/sounds/default.html


John HudakHas released some real gems, including a quietly mesmerizing pondscape and a piece built of recordings of the Brooklyn Bridge . He also posts new pieces regularly on his Live365 streaming radio channel.
http://www.turbulence.org/Works/itravel

Week 1 (5/12-5/16) Noise

Music has always inhabited the space between nature and technology; intuition and artifice. It is said to be rooted in the heartbeat and the voice, but it is no less bound up with the history of the machine.
- “Music in the Age of Electronic (Re)production,” p. 113

“‘The present-day composer refuses to die...’ Edgard Varese”- Frank Zappa

Negotiated Sound Spaces: Noise
Mon: Introduction – Sound Survey
Tues: Hearing is Believing (W), Audio Perception (W), Hearing & Perception (W)
Wed: Jacques Attali (1), Luigi/Antonio Russolo (2), Edgard Varese (4)
Thurs: Henry Cowell (5), John Cage (6), Russo/Warner (9), Simon Reynolds (10)
Show and Listen Day1
Fri: Listening Exercise – Field Writing on Noise (Essay 1)

10-Day Journal: daily entries of sound observations must be completed before the end of Week 3. Write legibly.

Adam's: 10-15 minutes per week of music listening; if you wish to bring in music talk to Adam.

Text Readings
Chapter 1: “Noise and Politics” by Jacques Attali, p. 7
Also see: Attali Interview at http://www.sinologic.com/newmusic/sub/attali.html
Chapter 2: “The Art of Noises: Futurist Manifesto” by Luigi Russolo, p. 10
Chapter 4: “The Liberation of Sound” by Edgard Varese, p. 17
Chapter 5: “The Joys of Noise” by Henry Cowell, p. 22
Chapter 6: “The Future of Music; Credo” by John Cage, p. 25
Chapter 9: “Rough Music, Futurism, and Postpunk Industrial Noise Bands” by Mary Russo & Daniel Warner, p. 47
Chapter 10: “Noise” by Simon Reynolds, p. 55

Web Readings
Hearing is believing
www.kent.ac.uk/sdfva/sound-journal/thorn981.html
Audio Perception and Sound
http://www.kent.ac.uk/sdfva/sound-journal/forrester001.html
Hearing and Perception
http://arts.ucsc.edu/ems/music/tech_background/TE-03/teces_03.html

In Class Listening:
1. radio art/deep wireless
http://www.soundtravels.ca/
2. John Cage http://www.hearingvoices.com/cage.htmlhttp://www.bbc.co.uk/music/profiles/cage.shtmlhttp://interglacial.com/~sburke/stuff/cage_433.html
Cage’s Choir of Angels (slow link)
http://www.amazon.com/gp/music/clipserve/B000002W0S001003/1/ref=mu_sam_ra001_003/102-1710202-8905710
3. Dada Movement - Luigi Russolo, Art of Noise (Futurist Manifestos)http://www.ubu.com/sound/dada.html
Additional Readings
1. The Futurist Manifesto, F. T. Marinetti, 1909
http://cscs.umich.edu/~crshalizi/T4PM/futurist-manifesto.html
2. Futurism
http://www.unknown.nu/futurism/
3. Luigi Russolo’s Art of Noises
http://www.unknown.nu/futurism/noises.html
4. Attali Interview
http://www.sinologic.com/newmusic/sub/attali.html
5. Ferruccio Busoni
http://csunix1.lvc.edu/~snyder/em/busoni.html
5. Edgard Varese
http://www.zakros.com/mica/soundart/f02/varese.html
You TUBE - http://youtube.com/watch?v=a9mg4KHqRPw
6. Frank Zappa on Edgard Varese
http://home.online.no/~corneliu/edgard_varese.htm
7. International Bioacoustics Council (IBAC)
http://www.ibac.info/links.html
8. Information Transfer in Noisy Channels (Penguins)
http://www.cb.u-psud.fr/page6.html

Related Web Sites
1. Sound Terminology
http://www.zakros.com/mica/soundart/f02/glossary.html
2. Edison –Phonograph Invention
http://www.tinfoil.com/edison.htm
3. Two Essays:
10 hours of Sound from (1) France (Listen)
(2) Australia - Variable Resistance; Jacques Attaili
http://crossfade.walkerart.org/
4. Luigi Russolo
http://www.zakros.com/mica/soundart/f02/futurist.html
http://www.obsolete.com/120_years/machines/futurist/
Also see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luigi_Russolo
5. David Tudor Interview (John Cage)
http://www.emf.org/tudor/Articles/hultberg.html
Listening - Rainforest
6. City Noise Report
http://www.city.vancouver.bc.ca/ctyclerk/cclerk/970513/citynoisereport/
7. Cities crack down on noise
http://www.acousticecology.org/urban.html
8. Military Use of Silent Sound
http://www.raven1.net/silsoun2.htm
9. Ultra Sound Physics (PPT)
http://www.sci.port.ac.uk/MH/
10. Subliminal Recorder
http://subliminalrecorder.com/


The moment we begin to fear the opinions of others and hesitate to tell the truth that is in us, and from motives of policy are silent when we should speak, the divine floods of light and life no longer flow into our souls." ~ Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815 - 1902), 1890

Week 2 (5/19-5/23): Natural Sound

Mon: Transcendentalism (W) and Thoreau (W); Listening to The Naturalist Realm (Earth Ear), Vancouver Soundscape
Tuesday: Fuller (W), Westerkamp (W) - Hearing Difference, Results of Sound Survey
Wed: Show and Listen Day2
Thur: Steven Feld (W), Murray Schaffer (7), Mark Slouka (8)
Friday: Personal Walden – Listening to Natural Sound, Field Writing (Essay 2)

Text Readings
Chapter 7: “The Music of the Environment” by Murray Schaffer, p. 29
Chapter 8: “Listening for Silence: Notes on the Aural Life” by Mark Slouka, p. 40

Web ReadingsOn Soundscapes (Quotes)
http://www.earthear.com/about/onsoundscapes.html
Transcendentalism
http://www.transcendentalists.com/what.htm
Go to “Sounds” in Walden by Henry David Thoreau, 1854 http://www.transcendentalists.com/1thorea.html
Sarah Margaret Fuller - Chapter 1: “ Niagara, June 10, 1843” Summer on the Lakes, 1843 http://www.gutenberg.org/files/11526/11526-h/11526-h.htm
Steven Feld, “The Sound World of Bosavi” http://www.acousticecology.org/edu/educurrbosavi.html

In Class Listening
1. Natural Sounds
http://www.naturalsounds.org/listen.html
2. Earth Ear Sound Gallery
http://www.earthear.com/catalog/nature.html
http://www.earthear.com/catalog/rainsoundwalks.html (Feld)
3. Khan’s Song (and photos) (short clips)http://www.hearingvoices.com/works/chance/mongol/index.html
4. Rainbow Gatherings (10 minutes)
http://www.hearingvoices.com/bg/rainbow/index.html
5. Murray Schafer (About/Interview) – Music Behind Walls (3 min)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R._Murray_Schafer
Patria (read) http://www.patria.org/pmtp/index.html
6. Patria (listen)
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00000HX64/202-3897135-7293437
7. Hildegard Westerkamp (About)http://www.emf.org/artists/mccartney00/index.htmlhttp://www.earthear.com/catalog/profiles/westerkamp.html8. Hildegard Westerkamp – Living Sounds (Interview) (3 min)http://paulagordon.com/shows/westerkamp/
9. Moments of Laughter (19 min)
http://www.emf.org/artists/mccartney00/moments.html
10. Hildegard Westerkamp Web site
http://www.sfu.ca/~westerka/

Related Web Sites
1. Living on Earth
http://www.loe.org/
3. Worldscape Project
http://www.sfu.ca/~truax/wsp.html
Also see: World Forum of Acoustic Ecology http://interact.uoregon.edu/MediaLit/WFAE/home/
4. 1st Conf. Acoustics and Animals
http://asa.aip.org/communication.html


We are the music makers, and we are the dreamers of the dream. Wandering by lone sea breakers, and sitting by desolate streams. World losers and world forsakers, for whom the pale moon gleams. Yet we are movers and the shakers of the world forever it seems." - Arthur O'Shaunessey

Week 3 (5/26-5/30): Reconstruction

Moonwalks & Soundwalks

Mon: Reconstructing Sound – Film & Radio, Sci Fi Sounds – Show and Listen Day3
Tues: Marshall McLuhan (12), Lopez (15), Pierre Schaeffer (14); Janet Cardiff, Ian Chambers (18) and other Soundwalkers
Wed: Soundwalk – Field Essay 3 and Map
Thurs: Soundwalk – Field Essay 3 and Map
Fri: Soundwalk – Reconstruct as Class

Text Readings
“Modes of Listening,” p. 65
Chapter 12: “Visual and Acoustic Space” by Marshall McLuhan, p. 67
Chapter 15: “Profound Listening and Environmental Sound Matter” by Francisco Lopez, p. 82
Chapter 14: “Acousmatics” by Pierre Schaffer, p. 76
Chapter 18: The Aural Walk by Iain Chambers p. 98

Web Readings
Janet Cardiff’s Audio Walk in Central Park
http://publicartfund.org/pafweb/projects/05/cardiff/cardiff-05.html
Route 66 – Memories and History
http://www.national66.com/
http://www.route66fest.com/
Tesla’s Lounge (Raymond Scott, Bob Moog, etc.)
http://transonicmission.blogspot.com/
Related Web Sites
1. NYC Soundwalk http://www.soundwalk.com/
2. Sound Artists Online
http://www.earthear.com/about/artistsites.html
3. Sonic City (Mobile Wearable Sound)http://www.tii.se/reform/projects/pps/soniccity/index.html
4 Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/hitchhikers/ (radio)
5. Audio Theater
http://www.audiotheater.com/
6. Science Fiction on Radio
http://www.otr.com/sf.html
7. 2001 Space Odyssey
http://kubrickfilms.warnerbros.com/video_detail/2001/


"Music is well said to be the speech of angels; in fact, nothing among the utterances allowed to man is felt to be so divine. It brings us near to the infinite." - Thomas Carlyle

Week 4 (6/2-6/6): Digital Sound Culture

Mon: Brian Eno (17), David Toop (36, 51), Paul Miller (W)
Tues: Rap, Techno, and Digital Culture: Susan McClary (41), George Lewis (40)
Wed: Scavenger Hunt Presentations
Thurs: Scavenger Hunt Presentations
Fri: Final – Essay 4

Text Readings
Chapter 17: “Ambient Music” by Brian Eno p. 94
Also see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ambient_music
Chapter 36: “Generation Game: Experimental Music/Digital Culture” by David Troop, 239
Chapter 51: “Replicant: On Dub” by David Troop, 355
Chapter 41: “Rap, Minimalism & Structures of Time in Late 20th-Century Culture” by Susan McClary, p. 239
Chapter 40: Improvised Music after 1950: Afrological and Eurological Perspectives by George E. Lewis, p. 272

Web Readings :“Loops of Perception” by Paul Miller (DJ Spooky)http://www.horizonzero.ca/textsite/remix.php?is=8&art=0&file=3&tlang=0%0Dhttp://www.djspooky.com/articles.html

Additional Readings
1. “Experimental Musics,” p. 207
2. Chapter 32: “Towards (a Definition of) Experimental Music by Michael Nyman, p. 209
3. Chapter 33: Introduction to Themes and Variation by John Cage,” p. 176
4. “Minimalisms,” p. 287
5. Chapter 46: “Minimalism in House and Techno” by Philip Sherburne, p. 319
6. David Toop
http://www.davidtoop.com/
http://music.aol.com/artist/david-toop/21074/biography
7. David Toop (interview) Rap Attack 3, 1999
http://www.furious.com/perfect/toop.html
8. David Toop (Wiki)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Toop
9. Ocean of Sound (Book Excerpt, 1996)http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/1852427434/ref=sib_dp_pt/103-3730183-7826245#reader-page

Assorted Links

Leonardo Music Journal
http://www.leonardo.info/lmj/index.html
Live Sound
http://www.livesoundint.com/
Physics of Ultra Sound
http://www2.umdnj.edu/~shindler/physics.html
Sound Culture
http://www.soundculture.org/texts.html
Shaun Davies
Lost in Space: Adventures in Australian Sound Art
Frances Dyson
A Philosophonics of Space Circuits of the Voice: From Cosmology to Telephony
Douglas Kahn
Eisenstein and Cartoon Sound Audio Art in the Deaf Century
Dan Lander
Introduction to Sound By Artists
Thomas Y. Levin
Before the Beep: A Short History of Voice Mail
Virginia Madsen
Notes Towards Sound Ecology in the Garden of Listening
John Potts
Schizochronia: Time in Digital Sound
Larry Wendt
Narrative as Genealogy: Sound Sense in a Hypertext Age
Nicholas Zurbrugg
Sound art, radio art,and post-radio performance in Australia

and new finds....

Sounds from Steven Feld and others

http://www.acousticecology.org/feld/index.html

http://www.acousticecology.org/presentation/intro.html