Sound as a Mediatized Production of Space
Seminar
-
- Language of instruction
- English
- Semester offered
- WS 2022/23–WS 2023/24
- Schedule
Weekly sessions and intensive workshops
- Date(s) & Time
- 10:00 – 17:00
- Contact hours per semester
- 32
- Location
- as announced
- Instructor(s)
- Dr. Gerriet K. Sharma
- Co-instructor(s)
- Lorenz Schwarz
The course explores forms, architectures, conditions, modes, and transfers of acoustic perception in medial spaces by focusing on the developments in the production of spaces and perceptual worlds through innovation in art, design, and VR technologies.
Challenging common assumptions about “natural,” “augmented,” and “virtual” realities, participants are invited to consider what, for example, a “supernatural” reality (SNR) might be if we acknowledge that different forms of world-making interact as “combined universes” (Cristofol).
An everyday confrontation with acoustic virtual realities, such as in the car, at the workplace, in the context of intelligent living, at concerts, and in computer games, is imminent. But who creates these virtual environments, and with what intention? And how can media studies, sound art, architecture, and sound design contribute to understanding these spatial realities with their particular strategies aesthetically, but also exploratively and research-wise?
This gives rise to the following research questions: What can we learn from the interstices and frictions between the different modes of reality production and their inherent technical logic? How can we perceive these spaces of different realities together, and how do these experiences communicate with each other? What approaches do sound art questions and artistic as well as design-based practices provide for these endeavours?
Continuing the questions and experiences of the last semester with virtual sound environments, this semester's artistic research will focus on sound installations and acoustic interventions in public spaces. First, practical-technical as well as artistic-aesthetic questions will be discussed on the basis of smaller tasks and examples. Subsequently, the students will develop their own approaches to artistic spatial installations.
In addition, the works created in the last semester in 3D audio will be deepened, followed up and critically questioned against the background of the installlative challenges that arise in playing in public space. In this process, differences, overlaps and peculiarities of these interpretations of acoustic V-/A-/Hyper-realities will be experienced and readable.
Prerequisites
- No prior knowledge required; open to students from all disciplines
Learning Objectives
- Understand the role of sound in constructing spatial and perceptual realities
- Develop artistic and technical strategies for creating sound installations and interventions
- Explore the intersections of sound art, architecture, and virtual technologies
Credits
- Leistungsnachweis Medienkunst (graded Course Credit)
Methods
- Develop and document smaller sound installation concepts or acoustic interventions
- Collaborate on public space sound installations incorporating artistic and technical elements
- Present a completed sound installation or acoustic intervention with reflective analysis
Assessment tasks
- Develop and document smaller sound installation concepts or acoustic interventions
- Collaborate on public space sound installations incorporating artistic and technical elements
- Present a completed sound installation or acoustic intervention with reflective analysis
Workload
- In-class time approximately 60 hours (four full-day sessions and ten half-day sessions)
- Independent work approximately 10–15 hours for reading, research, and project development
- Total approximately 70–75 hours
Recommended literature
- Blesser, Barry, and Linda-Ruth Salter. Spaces Speak, Are You Listening?: Experiencing Aural Architecture. MIT Press, 2006. https://doi.org/10.7551/mitpress/6384.001.0001.
- Truax, Barry. “Soundscape Composition as Global Music: Electroacoustic Music as Soundscape.” Organised Sound, vol. 13, no. 2, 25 June 2008, pp. 103–109. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1355771808000149.
- Lennox, Peter. “Spatialization and Computer Music.” The Oxford Handbook of Computer Music, edited by Roger T. Dean, Oxford University Press, 2009, pp. 258–273. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199792030.013.0013