You have a couple of options with this production.
Option 1: UNPACKING THE ARTICLE & RESONATING
In this weeks readings, the authors use the phenomenon of audio/sound synthesis to explore questions about sound and music technologies; the ‘stabilization’ of certain technologies and environments at the expense of obscuring other possibilities; inclusion, access and disability-led design; and alternative pathways and interfaces for sound based inquiry and learning (a practice) from the inside out...
Your job this week is to pick out a theme (noted above, or something of interest to you that you identify in the reading) and then use a key passage from the reading to explore or extend ‘what is going on’.
1) Locate a key passage (or set of related quotes) in the reading; 2) Briefly summarize the meaning(s) of the passage in your own words; 3) Try to briefly articulate how the passage connects to main theme(s) in the article as a whole 4) and then offer a critical commentary or reflection that explores what or how the ideas/practices in the text might connect to or resonate with wider learning contexts and practices, or experiences in your own life/world, or other theories and practices within or beyond this class, etc.
500 words-ish (not including passage or quotes).
Option 2) THE PROPERTIES OF SOUND AND THE ORGANIZATION OF NOISE
In the reading, the authors use the work of Allan Strange to approach sound (the properties of sound) and music (the elements of music, aesthetics) to develop non-traditional ways of approaching sound materials and music learning. For example:
Strange points out that all musicians and composers are, at root, ultimately concerned with forces and materials and their ‘different manners of vibration’…Throughout Electronic Music, Strange draws several analogies between electronic tools and acoustic ones, giving us insights into the fundamental properties of vibrotactile materials across material contexts and aesthetic environments (bows, reeds, strings, hair, metal cylinders, fingerboards, frets or tone holes, muting materials, membranes, etc.) to explore their common auditory and vibrotactile properties in relation to the bodily forces in play when we interact with various instruments and their respective inputs, structures and outputs. – pp. 351-354
Your job is to go forth and, with a recording tool of some kind, including smartphones (voice memo or other apps), interact with various materials in your environment (including, but not restricted to musical instruments) and record sounds you find interesting or ‘musical’ to you…Be sure to experiment with any recording device and positioning to ensure your recording input is not ‘distorting’ (clipping into the red) or too low (not loud enough).
As with the Street Art Video project, put your sound samples (files) in a folder on your computer and then use a free digital audio workstation (Garageband is user friendly, Audacity is free and does the trick, but there are many others out there). Familiarize yourself with environment and what you can do.
Then: Compose (arrange, edit, add effects like reverb/or delay when desired, and organize your sounds into a short soundwork or sound design project that you find pleasing or aesthetically interesting/musical).
As a deliverable you have a few options. You should be able to export your soundwork as a .wav file or a .mp3. Consider either creating a free Soundcloud account and uploading there or consider dropping the file into your production 6 video work (soundtrack element) if you feel it fits.
If you are competent with musical instruments or have a practice with instruments, you may certainly integrate your practice with this project, along with other sounds and sonic gestures curated through your material explorations with things.
Finally: Provide a brief informal summary of what you ‘did’ and if/how you learned through the process of inquiry, recording and making, including engagement with tools and materials.
See interfaces for Garageband and Audacity below. Please avoid using digital instrument presets or samples unless you want to make a point about them.
Due with Video Work (if you wish to integrate) or the following week.
PLEASE IGNORE ANY LINKS TO OTHER PRODUCTIONS BELOW