57991 Ways of Listening

Handbook description

This subject presents a range of critical perspectives and approaches to the uses of sound and the act of listening across film, television, radio and new media platforms. While the subject overall is aimed at understanding the uses of sound within various media, the emphasis (both in practice and theory) is on listening; students are encouraged to attend closely to their own acoustic environments, and have the opportunity to audition a range of audio art and radiophonic works. With a focus on contemporary practice, a number of key historical sound texts are also presented.

Subject objectives/outcomes

At the completion of this subject, students are expected to be able to:

1. demonstrate a sophisticated and critical awareness of the ways in which sound operates to create meaning within a variety of media and environmental contexts
2. address theoretical issues regarding the use of sound within media, art and environmental contexts through extensive reading, in-depth discussion and analysis of case studies
3. apply these conceptual and critical tools within their own production and theoretical activity
4. demonstrate listening skills.

Contribution to graduate profile

At the end of this subject, students will:

• have some knowledge of aesthetic and industry issues in relation to the production of sound works
• have had the opportunity to develop their conceptual skills and critical thinking in relation to various areas of media production
• are able to develop and critically revise their own work.

Teaching and learning strategies

The subject will be conducted as weekly seminars throughout the semester. It also includes:

• reading
• listening/viewing film, video, websites, CD ROMs, radio programs and other media productions
• researching, writing and presentation of seminar papers in small teams/pairs
• listening skills activity such as individual keeping of a 'sound journal'
• lectures, seminar discussions and an extensive program of audition (in film, video new media and radio)
• students present seminar papers, produce a 'listening journal' and participate in workshops.

Content

The subject presents a range of critical and conceptual approaches to listening and the uses of sound.

Topics such as the physical properties of sound; acoustics and psychoacoustics; sound and subjectivity; intimacy, interiority and memory; sound as site for producing meaning; an ecology of sound.

Assessment

Assessment item 1: A listening exercise (such as a listening journal)

Assessment item 2: Seminar presentation

Assessment item 3: Major research project

Minimum requirements

Students are expected to read the subject outline to ensure they are familiar with the subject requirements. Since class discussion and participation in activities form an integral part of this subject, you are expected to attend, arrive punctually and actively participate in classes. If you experience difficulties meeting this requirement, please contact your lecturer. Students who have a reason for extended absence (e.g., illness) may be required to complete additional work to ensure they achieve the subject objectives.

Indicative references

Attali, Jacques, Noise, The Political Economy of Music, Trans. Brian Massumi, Manchester University Press, Manchester, 1985.

Barthes, Roland, The Responsibility of Forms, Hill and Wang, New York, 1985

Burt Warren, Musical perception and Exploratory Music, Art & Text, 5, Autumn,Prahran, 1982

Cascone, Kim, 'Grain Sequence System: Three Levels of Reception in Performance of Laptop Music,' Hz, http://www.hz-journal.org, 2004

___________, 'The Aesthetics of Failure,' Computer Music Journal, 24:4 Winter, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2000

Chion, Michel, AudioVision, Columbia University Press, 1994

Earshot, 3rd degree, number 4, Sydney, Student's Association, Univeristy of Technology Sydney, 1988.

Essays in Sound, Eds. Cavallaro, Davies, Dyson, Jonson Sydney, 1999

#1, #3 and #4 Sydney, Contemporary Sound Arts 1992 – 2000

Fontana, Bill 'The Relocation of Ambient Sound: Urban Sound Sculpture' in Leonardo Vol 20 No2 1987

Forster, E.M. 'The Story of a Panic' in Short Stories Penguin Books, London & Sydney 1965

Fluxus, A long Tale with many Knots: Fluxus in Germany 1962-1994, Stuttgart, Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen, 1997

Harrison, Martin, Towards a History of Listening, Essays in Sound ,#3, Sydney, Contemporary Sound Arts, 1996

Kahn, Douglas, 'A better Parasite,' Art & Text, 31, 1989

Kirby, Michael, Futurist Performance, New York, Dutton, 1971

LaBell, Brandon, Background Noise: Perspectives on Sound Art, (New York : Continuum International, 2006).

LaBelle, Brandon, Migone, Christof, and Roden, Steve (eds) Site of Sound: of Architecture and the Ear, Errant Bodies Press, Los Angeles, 2000

LaBelle, Brandon and Migone, Christof (eds), Writing Aloud: the sonics of language, Errant Bodies Press, Los Angeles, 2001

MacGregor Tony 'The Jericho Effect' and The Black Box' from Sympathetic Vibrations unpublished Master thesis, UTS 2000.

Mudede, Charles, 'The Turntable,' Ctheory, http://www.ctheory.net , 2003

NMA, 8, Brunswick 1990

Mills, Jane 'Andrew Plain: an eye on the sound' in Real Time #46, Sydney 2002

Potter, Keith, Four Musical Minimalists: La Monte Young, Terry Riley, Steve Reich, Philip Glass, Cambridge, UK., Cambridge University Press, 2000

Rothenberg, David (ed), Terra Nova: Nature and Culture, Music from Nature, Vol. 2, no 3, Summer 1997

Russolo, Luigi 'The art of Noises' in Futurist Manifestos U. Appollonio, ed, Thames & Hudson, London 1973

Serres, Michel 'Noises' in The Parasite, University of Chicago Press, 1982

The Drama Review 40, 3 (T151), Fall '96 New York University and MIT, 1996

Reich, Steve, Writings about Music, Halifax, The press of Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, 1974

Richards, M.C. 'John Cage and the way of the ear TriQuarterly #34 Northwestern University Press, 1982

Thomas, M (ed.), Uncertain Ground, Sydney, Art Gallery of New South Wales, 1999

Thompson, Emily Ann, The Soundscape of Modernity Architectural Acoustics and the Culture of Listening in America, 1900 – 1933, MIT Press, 2002

Sound by Artists, Arts Metropole, Ontario 1990

Tulane Drama Review, Volume 10, Number 2, Winter, New Orleans, 1965

Weiss, Allen S, Experimental Sound and Radio, MIT Press, 2000

Williams, Neville 'Sound Waves' in HiFi: An Introduction An Electronics Australia Publication. 1991

Young, la Monte, Notes on the Theatre of Eternal Music and The Tortoise, His Dreams and Journeys 91964-present). http://melafoundation.org/lmy.htm