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Course Description
This is an introductory level course exploring different areas of study within sound culture, an emerging field in the human sciences. This course will introduce students to ways of thinking historically and culturally about sound and listening. It prepares students for intermediate and advanced level courses in the area, including MS114: Film Sound and MS115: Sound, Art, and Power.
Sound studies is an inherently interdisciplinary field. While this course is grounded in media studies, it also intersects with history, visual and performing art, architecture, music, cultural studies, anthropology and ethnography, as well as other disciplines. The course will survey wide ranging topics and cultures including American and European industrialization; rainforest soundscapes of Papua New Guinea; cassette sermons by Islamic preachers in Cairo, Egypt; avant-garde music and DJ culture, to name a few.
This course has no prerequisites.
Statement of Student Learning Outcome
By the end of this course, students are expected:
- To develop an understanding of the major schools of thought and areas of study within the field of sound studies;
- To develop a sense of the historical and cultural contexts of sound, listening, and sound reproduction technologies;
- To develop a beginning knowledge of major sound theories;
- To develop the tools to critically address sound across styles and modes of practice, presentation, and acoustic experiences;
- To be able to discuss and convey the above-mentioned knowledge and skills in critical written arguments, oral presentations and discussion, as well as through other forms, including sound recordings and media projects;
- To be able to work and learn in both individual and group contexts.
Course Organization
Attendance is mandatory at all sessions every week. Tuesday classes are normally comprised of a lecture and media presentation. You need to complete all of your readings for the week by class on Tuesday. Thursday class sessions are normally reserved for discussion of the readings, media, and other relevant class topics. There is ample time allotted to discuss the readings and other course material.
You are required to help frame at least part of the discussion on Thursday by posting 2-3 discussion questions to Sakai/Forums by Wednesday night. Asynchronous discussion of these questions can take place on Sakai forums before and after the class discussion, which should focus the important questions and discourses for the class. Any additional media (e.g. sound recordings, video and other media clips, link to blog posts and articles, etc.) that you think might be relevant to class can be posted to the Sakai/Forums for reference during class meetings. Starting in Week 3 or 4, a group of students will go over the discussion questions each week, and work with me to plan and facilitate the class discussion for that week. If I assign required events (e.g. field trips) outside of the class meeting time, I normally compensate students with some time off from class.
Laptop computers with an internet connection and appropriate software, sometimes smart phones and other mobile digital devices can be used in class only for class-related activities (e.g. taking notes or relevant web searches). I ask students to agree to these conditions for class: no recording of audio, photo, or video unless pre-approved by instructor; no emails, texting, messaging, checking your social media accounts and other non-class related activities on your device. I encourage thoughtful experimentation with new media technologies (e.g. AI) in your work, and that you make these transparent in your projects or papers. Violation of class media technology policies will, in some cases, affect your class grade or result in your removal from class.
Course Requirements |
1. |
Attend all classes |
2. |
Participation in all class activities |
3. |
Completion of all class projects |
Attendance
You are expected to arrive on time for class and be present for the entire class period. Your attendance and active participation is central to the class’s success and to your success in the class. Attendance is determined by when I take roll. Illness, COVID-19 symptoms, isolation, emergencies, or religious observances will be excused, and I normally ask for documentation (e.g. a note from Student Health if you are ill) Please contact me as soon as possible if you need to miss class for one of these reasons. If you are absent, you will need to submit any work that was due that day, within one week. We will not be offering Zoom as a method to attend class. You have two “free passes” for when you need a personal day. All other absences will negatively impact your total grade percentage by one point.
Class Participation
Your active, well-prepared participation in class discussions is essential
to creating a dynamic (i.e. not boring!) learning environment. Although
you will not receive a letter grade for class participation, it will figure
into your final grade based on my observations.
We may study sexually explicit, political, and otherwise challenging
material in this course. These are not included for shock value, but are
legitimate investigations of controversial subject matters in media. You
are certainly encouraged to explore difficult and complex subject matters
in your work, and you should be prepared to consider these issues intellectually
and emotionally. Our class is a safe space in which students can express
their beliefs and opinions. You always have a voice, but please be respectful
of others as well. Abusive language and behavior are not be tolerated.
Open-mindedness is encouraged!
Email Policy
Responding to students via email is a courtesy we extend to you. During the week we will do our best to respond to you within 48 hours (so please note: a “night before” email may not get answered in time!). If you write to us over the weekend you will not receive a reply until Monday. The best way to get our time and attention is to visit listed office hours or, if these conflict with another commitment, to email to make an appointment. Office hours are yours; please use them. We do not discuss grades or class performance over email; please see us during office hours.
Class Assignments
1. |
Reading assignments should be completed by the Tuesday of the week they are assigned, unless announced otherwise. These assignments are crucial to your understanding of the course material, your ability to participate in class discussions and to complete other class assignments, and will figure in your class participation grade. (part of class participation grade) |
2. |
Discussion questions should be posted to Sakai by 10PM each Wednesday night, unless announced otherwise.
These questions serve two main purposes: the first is to give you a place to ask questions about the readings and other class material I may present. Some of the readings in this class are difficult and the discussion question gives you an opportunity to address any confusion you may have, or to highlight an idea or topic you are excited about. The second function is to allow myself and the students in the discussion group to see what the students in the class are having a hard time with or most interested in as we prepare for discussion on Thursday. No letter grade will be given for each week's questions, but I do keep track of who has posted them.
You will get one 'free pass' on discussion questions, but if you miss more than that for an undocumented reason your grade will be impacted. (10% of your class grade) |
3. |
Discussion group: starting in Week 3 or 4, each week a group of 2-3 students will look over the posted discussion questions, select ones that interest them or address important class topics, and lead a 30 min. discussion in the Thursday class of the same week.
You are welcome to incorporate additional class material, including video, PowerPoint slide shows, or sound recordings, into the discussion. Each discussion group is required to meet with me before the day of their class to discuss and coordinate your lesson plan with mine. Each discussion group will summarize the main ideas, debates, and conclusions discussed in the class they led with 500-700 word post on Sakai/Forum, due a week after the class you led.
See guidelines and grading criteria on group projects. (20% of your class grade) |
4. |
Autobiographical essay (3-5 pages, typed and double-spaced) exploring your relationship to sound. Some ways you may consider approaching this assignment are:
- Describe one of the listening practices that you engage in regularly and how it impacts your day-to-day activities;
- Describe an acoustic experience or space that you have experienced, singularly or repeatedly, that has influenced you in significant ways;
- Describe and trace your relationship to a specific sound object (recording, instrument, device, artwork, etc.)
Regardless of the approach that you take you will need to use your personal experience to construct an argument about the nature of sound and how it relates to your life. Then, you begin to relate your personal experience to at least one of the theoretical concepts and terms we have studied thus far. The more specific you can be in pointing to that experience, and then relate it to a specific idea or concept, the better. (10% of your class grade)
Students have the option of extending this assignment as a final paper or project. |
5. |
Final paper or project: your final project will consist of a research paper (8-10 pages, typed, double-spaced) or a media project (5 mins. max) from a class topic of your own choosing. See link for more detailed prompts and suggestions. You are required to turn in a one-page proposal in Week 8. You will meet with me to discuss your proposal in Week 9 or 10. See guidelines for final paper or project. (25% of your class grade) |
6. |
Final presentation: during the last two weeks of this semester, all students will do an oral presentation of their final paper or project in class. These presentations will take a form of a series of panels and performances. Each student will present for 15 min., and each panel / performance will have 60 min., including time for feedback from and discussion with the class. The panel / performance groups will be organized according to your Final Paper / Project proposals. Each group is responsible for organizing their own presentation. See guidelines and grading criteria on group projects. (15% of your class grade) |
Unless an extension is approved by myself in advance
of the due date, your grade are reduced by one letter grade (i.e. B to C)
per class day your project is late. You are encouraged to meet with
me individually during my office hours to discuss your assignments, your
grades, and your overall performance in class. I am always open to suggestions
and feedback!
Reading Assignments
You should complete all the reading assignments by the Tuesday of the week when they are assigned. Please purchase the Sterne textbook. Required readings, when selected from optional textbooks, will be posted on Sakai/Resources. Reading assignments are drawn from the following texts:
Required Textbook (can be purchased at the Huntley Bookstore)
Jonathan Sterne, ed., The Sound Studies Reader, New York: Routledge, 2012
Optional Textbooks (Required readings from these books will be posted on Sakai, some are available as ebooks through Claremont Colleges Library)
Michael Bull & Les Back, eds., The Auditory Culture Reader (Sensory Formations), London: Berg Publishers, 2004
Michel Chion,Audio-Vision: Sound on Screen. trans. Claudia Gorbman, New York: Columbia University Press, 1994.
---, The Voice in Cinema. trans. Claudia Gorbman, New York: Columbia University Press, 1999.
Christoph Cox & Daniel Warren, eds., Audio Culture: Readings in Modern Music, London: Continuum, 2004
Caleb Kelly, ed., Sound, Documents of Contemporary Art Series, London/Cambridge, MA: Whitechapel Gallery/MIT Press, 2011
Trevor Pinch and Karin Bijsterveld, eds., The Oxford Handbook of Sound Studies, New York: Oxford University Press, 2013
Mark M. Smith, Hearing History: A Reader, Athens: Georgia University Press, 2004
Elisabeth Weis and John Belton. eds. Film Sound: Theory and Practice. New York: Columbia University Press, 1985.
Additional References (Many are available as ebooks at the Library. A good place to start your research for final paper and projects)
Rick Altman, Silent Film Sound (Film and Culture Series). New York: Columbia University Press, 2007.
---, editor, Sound Theory Sound Practice. New York: Routledge, 1992. G. Douglas Barrett. After Sound: Toward a Critical Music. New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2016.
Jacques Attali. Noise: The Political Economy of Music. Minneapolis: Univ. of Minnesota Press, 2002.
Jean-Francois Augoyard & Henry Torgue. eds. Sonic Experience: A Guide To Everyday Sounds. Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2006.
G. Douglas Barrett. After Sound: Toward a Critical Music. New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2016.
Jay Beck & Tony Grajeda. eds. Lowering The Boom: Critical Studies in Film Sound. Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2008.
Karin Bijsterveld. Mechanical Sound: Technology, Culture, and Public Problems of Noise in the Twentieth Century (Inside Technology). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2008.
Barry Blesser & Linda-Ruth Salter. Spaces Speak, Are You Listening? Experiencing Aural Architecture. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2006.
Michael Bull. Sirens. New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2020.
---,
Sound Moves: iPod Culture and Urban Experience. New York: Routledge, 2007.
John Cage. Silence: Lectures and Writings, Middleton, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 1961.
Adriana Cavarero. For More Than One Voice: Towards a Philosophy of Vocal Expression. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2005.
Michel Chion. Sound: An Acoulogical Treatise. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2016.
---, Film, A Sound Art (Film and Culture Series). New York: Columbia University Press, 2009.
---, Audio-Vision: Sound on Screen. trans. Claudia Gorbman, New York: Columbia University Press, 1994.
Seth Kim-Cohen. Against Ambience and Other Essays. New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2016.
---, In the Blink of an Ear: Toward a Non-Cochlear Sonic Art. New York: Continuum, 2009.
Steven Connor. Beyond Words: Sobs, Hums, Stutters and Other Vocalizations. London; Reaktion Books, 2014.
Donald Crafton. The Talkies: American Cinema's Transition to Sound, 1926-1931. History of The American Cinema, Vol. 4, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1997.
Mladen Dolar. A Voice and Nothing More. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2006.
Leslie C. Dunn, and Nancy C. Jones. eds. Embodied Voices: Representing Female Vocality in Western Culture. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994.
Frances Dyson. The Tone of Our Times: Sound, Sense, Economy , and Ecology. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2014.
---, Sounding New Media: Immersion and Embodiment in the Arts and Culture. Berkeley: Univ. of California Press, 2009.
Nina Sun Eidsheim. The Race of Sound: Listening, Timbre, and Vocality in African American Music. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2019.
---, & Katherine Meizel. eds. The Oxford Handbook of Voice Studies. New York: Oxford University Press, 2019 .
---, Sensing Sound: Singing and Listening as Vibrational Practice. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2015
Veit Erlmann. Reason and Resonance: A History of Modern Aurality. New York: Zone Books, 2010.
---
ed., Hearing Cultures: Essays on Sound, Listening and Modernity. London: Berg Publishers, 2004.
Scott Eyman. The Speed of Sound: Hollywood and the Talkie Revolution 1926-1930. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1997.
Robert Wallace Fink, Melinda Latour, Zachary Wallmark. eds. The Relentless Pursuit of Tone: Timbre in Popular Music. New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 2018.
Ana Maria Ochoa Gautier. Aurality: Listening and Knowledge in Nineteenth-Century Colombia.
Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2014.
Steve Goodman. Sonic Warfare: Sound, Affect, and the Ecology of Fear.
Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2012.
Simon Frith & Andrew Goodwin, eds. On Record: Rock, Pop, and the Written Word. New York: Pantheon Books, 1990.
Claudia Gorbman. Unheard Melodies: Narrative Film Music. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1987.
Greg Hainge. Noise Matters: Towards an Ontology of Noise. New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2013.
Paul Hegarty, Rumour and Radiation: Sound in Video Art. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2014.
---, Noise Music: A History. London: Continuum, 2007.
Stefan Helmreich. Sounding The Limits of Life: Essays in the Anthropology of Biology and Beyond. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2016.
---, Alien Ocean: Anthropological Voyages in Microbial Seas. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2009.
Charles Hirschkind, The Ethical Soundscape: Cassette Sermons and Islamic Counterpublics. New York: Columbia Univ. Press, 2006.
Don Ihde, Listening and Voice: Phenomenologies of Sound, Albany, NY: State University of New York Press; 1976.
Yael Kaduri. The Oxford Handbook of Sound and Image in Western Art. New York: Oxford University Press, 2016.
Lilya Kaganovsky & Masha Salazkina, eds. Sound, Speech, Music in Soviet and Post-Soviet Cinema. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2014
Douglas Kahn. Earth Sound Earth Signal: Energies and Earth Magnitude in The Arts. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2013.
---, Noise, Water, Meat: A History of Sound in the Arts. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2001.
Kathryn Kalinak. Settling The Score: Music and The Classical Hollywood Film. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press, 1992.
Brian Kane, Sound Unseen: Acousmatic Sound in Theory and Practice. New York: Oxford University Press, 2014.
Anahid Kassabian, Ubiquitous Listening: Affect, Attention, and Disturbed Subjectivity. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2013
---, Hearing Film: Tracking Identifications in Contemporary Hollywood Film Music, New York: Routledge, 2000.
Michael C. Keith. Radio Cultures: The Sound Medium in American Life. New York: Peter Lang Publishing, 2008.
Caleb Kelly. Gallery Sound. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2017.
---, Cracked Media: The Sound of Malfunction. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2009.
Friedrich A. Kittler, Gramophone, Film, Typewriter. trans. Geoffrey Winthrop-Young & Michael Wutz, Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1999.
Dan Lander and Micah Lexier, eds., Sound by Artists. Toronto and Banff: Art Metropole/Walter Philips Gallery, 1990.
James Lastra, Sound Technology and the American Cinema: Perception, Representation, Modernity. New York: Columbia University Press, 2000.
Amy Lawrence, Echo and Narcissus: Women’s Voices in Classical Hollywood Cinema. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991.
Brandon LaBelle, Sonic Agency: Sound and Emergent Forms of Resistance. London; Goldsmiths Press, 2018.
---, Lexicon of the Mouth: Poetics and Politics of Voice and the Oral Imagination. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2014.
---, Acoustic Territories: Sound Culture and Everyday Life. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2010.
---. Background Noise: Perspectives on Sound Art. London: Continuum, 2006.
Alan Licht, Sound Art: Beyond Music, Between Categories, New York: Rizzoli, 2007.
Ming-Yuen S. Ma, There is No Soundtrack: Rethinking Art, Media, and the Audio-Visual Contract, Manchester: University of Manchester Press, 2020.
---, & Erika Suderburg, eds. Resolutions 3: Global Networks of Video. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2012.
John Melillo, The Poetics of Noise from Dada to Punk. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2020.
Paul D. Miller, Sound Unbound: Sampling Digital Music and Culture. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2008.
David Morton, Off the Record: The Technology and Culture of Sound Recording in America, New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2000.
John Mowitt. Sounds: The Ambient Humanities. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2015.
Jean Luc Nancy. Listening. Charlotte Mandell, trans., New York: Fordham University Press, 2007.
David Novak. Japanoise: Music at the Edge of Circulation.
Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2013.
--- & Matt Sakakeeny. eds. Keywords in Sound. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2015.
Walter J. Ong. Orality and Literacy: The Technologizing of the Word. New York: Routledge, 1991.
Dominic Pettman. Sonic Intimacy: Voice, Species, Technics (or, How to Listen to the World). Stanford: Stanford Univ. Press, 2017.
Dylan Robinson. Hungry Listening: Resonant Theory for Indigenous Sound Studies. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2020
Tara Rodgers, ed. Pink Noises: Women on Electronic Music and Sound. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2010.
Holly Rogers. eds. (with Jeremy Barham) The Music and Sound of Experimental Film. New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 2017.
---, ed. Music and Sound in Documentary Film. New York: Routledge, 2015.
---, Sounding the Gallery: Video and the Rise of Art-Music. New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2013.
Tricia Rose. Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary America. Middleton, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 1994.
R. Murray Schafer. The Soundscape: Our Sonic Environment and the Tuning of the World. Rochester, VT: Destiny Books, 1977.
Leigh Eric Schmidt. Hearing Things: Religion, Illusion and the American Enlightenment. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2000.
David Schwarz. Listening Subjects: Music, Psychoanalysis, Culture. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1997.
Hillel Schwartz. Making Noise: From Babel to The Big Bang and Beyond.
Cambridge, MA: Zone Books, 2011.
Kaja Silverman. The Acoustic Mirror; The Female Voice in Psychoanalysis and Cinema. Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1988.
Mary Ann Smart. ed. Siren Songs: Representations of Gender and Sexuality in Opera. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2000.
Jacob Smith. Vocal Tracks: Performance and Sound Media. Berkeley: Univ. of California Press, 2008.
Mark M. Smith. Sensing the Past: Seeing, Hearing, Smelling, Tasting, and Touching in History. Berkeley: Univ. of California Press, 2007.
---, Listening to Nineteenth-Century America. Chapel Hill, NC: Univ. of North Carolina Press, 2001.
Jonathan Sterne. MP3: The Meaning of a Format (Sign, Storage, Transmission), Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2012.
---, The Audible Past: Cultural Origins of Sound Reproduction. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2003.
Jennifer Lynn Stoever. The Sonic Color Line: Race and the Cultural Politics of Listening. New York: NYU Press, 2016.
Peter Szendy, Listen: A History of Our Ears. New York: Fordham University Press, 2007.
Michael Taussig, Mimesis and Alterity: A Particular History of the Senses. New York: Routledge, 1993.
Timothy Taylor, Strange Sounds: Music, Technology and Culture. New York: Routledge, 2001.
Emily Thompson, The Soundscape of Modernity: Architectural Acoustics and the Culture of Listening in America (1900-1933). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2004. (ebook available)
Marie Thompson. Beyond Unwanted Sound: Noise, Affect, and Aesthetic Moralism. New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2017.
Gary Tomlinson. The Singing of the New World: Indigenous Voice in the Era of European Contact. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 2007.
David Toop. Sinister Resonance: The Mediumship of the Listener. London: Continuum, 2010.
Steve Waksman. Instruments of Desire: The Electric Guitar and the Shaping of Musical Experience. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press, 1999.
Alexander G. Weheliye. Phonographies: Groves in Sonic Afro-Modernity. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2005.
Grading
Your final grade will be based on the following |
• |
Discussion questions - 10% |
• |
Discussion group - 20% |
• |
Autobiographical essay - 10% |
• |
Final paper or project - 25% |
• |
Final presentation - 15% |
• |
Class participation* 20% |
* Your general performance in class including participation, attendance,
and punctuality, except in the special cases listed above, such as if
you have more than 3 unexcused absences.
Generally, outstanding ('A') students in this class have good attendance
and completed all their assignments on time. They are consistently well
prepared for class, and actively participate in and advance our discussions
with pertinent information, questions, and observations. Their work demonstrate
their ability to innovate and respond to the topic at hand, awareness of the issues addressed by and the historical context for the media works and genres they are referencing, as well as their ability to articulate
their observations and analyses in a clear and concise manner. Only letter
grades are given out in this class.
Academic Accommodations
The Claremont Colleges value diversity and inclusion; we are committed to a climate of mutual respect and full participation. As such, our goal is to create learning environments that are equitable, inclusive and welcoming. If you have a learning disability for which you are or may be requesting an accommodation, please contact the academic support service of your home campus by email at the beginning of the semester if you have not already registered for accommodations. Your home campus is responsible for establishing and providing accommodations and notifying the faculty teaching the class. Below is a list of contacts for each campus:
CMC: accessibilityservices@cmc.edu
HMC: access@g.hmc.edu
Pitzer: academicsupport@pitzer.edu
Pomona: disability@pomona.edu
Scripps: ars@scrippscollege.edu
Academic Integrity
You are responsible for reading and adhering to the colleges’ policies regarding academic dishonesty and plagiarism (see below). If you have any questions about what constitutes plagiarism, you should direct them to the professor. All academic papers should include proper citations. Here are two of the often used forms of academic citations:
MLA: https://libguides.libraries.claremont.edu/mla
Chicago: https://libguides.libraries.claremont.edu/chicago/
Read your home college's policies on academic integrity here:
Claremont McKenna College Catalog
Harvey Mudd College Student Handbook
Pitzer College Student Handbook
Pomona College Student Handbook
Scripps College Student Handbook
Questions About Grading
I try my best to make my grading criteria as clear as possible,
and you are welcome to come and discuss your grades and your class performance
with me. However, I only consider legitimate concerns, and be aware that
your grade is as likely to go down as it is to go up after I reassess
your assignment. I do not tolerate haggling, bribing, threats, and any
other pointless arguments. I consider all aspects of your performance
before I assign a grade, please respect my assessment as I respect your
efforts.
Extra credit
Students are
encouraged to attend screenings, concerts, conferences, lectures, exhibitions and
web events related to this course. Write a two-page (typed and double-spaced)
report of the event or activity. Incorporate the event's relevance to
the class as well as your personal responses to it. Proof of attendance
is required (keep your ticket stubs, programs, etc.) Students are allowed
two extra credit papers. Announcements for events of interest to this
class are done in the first 5 mins. of each class.
Technology and Equipment
Although this is not a media production course, students are expected to be able to perform basic tasks, including downloading class readings from the class web site, posting on Sakai, and in some cases, uploading or creating links to the class blog. PowerPoint maybe useful in designing class presentations, but they are not required. Group projects are a good place for you to learn from each other and acquire new skills. If you are having problems with the technology we use in this class, please come and talk to me during my office hours.
If you are planning to do a media project for the final, please choose a format that you have worked in previously. The IMS Production Center has sound recording equipment (e.g. different microphones, headphones, both digital and analog recorders)
that can be checked out by students in this class, but you have to demonstrate to the staff that you know how to use them properly before doing so. The same applies to sound editing software. For Production Center equipment check-out days and policy, please go to their web site.
If there is sufficient interest and common ground, I will consider organizing sound recording workshops during the second half of the semester. These will take place outside of our class meeting time, and will be organized in conjunction with the Production Center staff.
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Course Schedule:
Week 1: Introduction
Tuesday 8.27 / Thursday 8.29
• |
Introduction |
• |
Go over syllabus, assignments, reading, etc. |
• |
What
is sound? |
• |
Hearing and listening |
• |
What is sound studies? |
• |
Sound, vision, and Modernism |
• |
PPT |
Required Reading (for Thursday's class)
The Sound Studies Reader, pp. 1-17
Audio Culture, pp.10-14
I. Sound Theories
Week 2: Listening
Tuesday 9.3 / Thursday 9.5
• |
Listening as phenomenology |
• |
Modes of listening |
• |
Ontology of vibrational forces |
• |
Case study: cassette sermons in Cairo |
• |
PPT |
Required Reading
The Sound Studies Reader, pp. 23-28, 48-72
Audio Culture, pp.10-14
Suggested Reading
Audio Culture, pp. 65-112
The Auditory Culture Reader, pp. 1-18, 25-60, 77-112
The Oxford Handbook of Sound Studies, pp. 3-35
Sound, pp. 112-143
The Sound Studies Reader, pp. 73-90
Media on class blog
Week 3: Noise
Tuesday 9.10 / Thursday 9.12
• |
Silence and John Cage |
• |
Noise: The Political Economy of Music |
• |
Industrial noise and noise pollution |
• |
Avant-garde noise |
• |
noise music |
• |
PPT |
Required Reading
Audio Culture, pp. 25-28
The Sound Studies Reader, pp. 29-39, 152-167
Suggested Reading
Audio Culture, pp. 15-61 (pp. 59-61 is an interview with Merzbow)
Hearing History, pp. 51-53, 319-330
Sound, pp. 93-107
The Sound Studies Reader, pp. 427-448
Media on class blog
Week 4: Voices
Tuesday 9.17 / Thursday 9.19
• |
Voice as presence / difference |
• |
The grain of the voice |
• |
Posthuman voices |
• |
Vocal uniqueness |
• |
Uncanny voices |
• |
Prelinguistic and postlinguistic voices |
• |
Discussion group: Biance & Janet |
• |
PPT |
• |
Autobiographical essay assignment |
Required Reading
The Sound Studies Reader, pp. 495-519; pick one to read: 520-532, 533-538, or 539-554
Suggested Reading
The Auditory Culture Reader, pp. 381-480
Sound, pp. 93-107
Michel Chion, The Voice in Cinema
Leslie C. Dunn, and Nancy C. Jones, eds., Embodied Voices: Representing Female Vocality in Western Culture
Amy Lawrence, Echo and Narcissus: Women’s Voices in Classical Hollywood Cinema
Kaja Silverman, The Acoustic Mirror; The Female Voice in Psychoanalysis and Cinema
Media on class blog
II. Histories of Sound
Week 5: Listening to History / Histories of Listening, Autobiographical Essay Due
Tuesday 9.24 / Thursday 9.26
• |
Aural history |
• |
The role of bells in 19th Century French village life |
• |
Feminist historiography of electronic music |
• |
PPT |
• |
Autobiographical essay due Thursday 9.26, upload to your Sakai Drop Box by 5PM, MS Word files (.doc or .docx) only. |
Required Reading
Hearing History, pp. ix-xxii, 184-204
The Sound Studies Reader, pp. 475-489
Suggested Reading
The Auditory Culture Reader, pp. 117-217
Hearing History, the whole book!
Media on class blog
Week 6: Histories of Sound & Technology
Tuesday 10.1 / Thursday 10.3
• |
Listening and medicine in 19th Century Edinburgh |
• |
The soundscape of modernity |
• |
Music and electronic reproduction |
• |
Discussion group: Nikai & Olivia |
• |
PPT |
Required Reading
Hearing History, pp. 151-168
The Sound Studies Reader, pp. 117-129, 213-224
Suggested Reading
The Oxford Handbook of Sound Studies, pp. 176-197, 201-223, 298-319, 459-479
Media on class blog
Week 7: Acoustic Archive, Final Paper / Project Assignment
Tuesday 10.8 / Thursday 10.10
• |
Preserving the voices of the dead |
• |
Gender and early telephone culture |
• |
Mechanical to digital: sonification |
• |
PPT |
• |
Discussion group: Cole & Dante |
• |
Proposals for final paper / project due after Fall Break. See guidelines for final paper or project. |
Required Reading
Hearing History, pp. 295-318
The Sound Studies Reader, pp. 336-350
The Oxford Handbook of Sound Studies, pp. 544-560
Suggested Reading
The Sound Studies Reader, pp. 304-324, 475-489
Required Media
PHANTOM OF THE OPERATOR (2004, Canada) Directed by Caroline Martel
THE TAILENDERS (2005, U.S.) Directed by Adele Horne
Media on class blog
III. Sound as Media
Week 8: Media Networks and Communities; Proposal for Final Paper / Project Due;
Fall Break - No Class Meeting on Tuesday 10.15
Thursday 10.17
• |
Phonograph and Gramophone: media technology a priori |
• |
Gender and early telephone culture |
• |
Radio programming and community |
• |
Online music sites killed the radio star - or did they? |
• |
PPT |
• |
Proposal for Final Paper / Project due, 1 page, typed and double-spaced, plus preliminary bibliography, upload to your Sakai Drop Box by 5PM, MS Word files (.doc or .docx) only. See guidelines for final paper or project. |
Required Reading
The Sound Studies Reader, pp. 234-247, 351-362
The Oxford Handbook of Sound Studies, pp. 480-502
Suggested Reading
Audio Culture, pp. 329-350
The Auditory Culture Reader, pp. 281-295
Hearing History, pp. 279-294
The Oxford Handbook of Sound Studies, pp. 254-264, 411-439, 440-458
The Sound Studies Reader, pp. 40-47, 283-303, 329-335, 363-387
Sound, pp. 204-206
Media on class blog
Week 9: Film Sound
Tuesday 10.22 / Thursday 10.24
• |
Sound and film theory |
• |
Film sound as representation |
• |
Audio-vision |
• |
Voice in cinema |
• |
Sound in new media: computer animation |
• |
Sound in experimental narratives |
• |
PPT |
• |
Discussion Group: |
Required Reading
Audio-Vision, pp. 3-13
Film Sound, pp. 162-176
The Sound Studies Reader, pp. 225-233
The Oxford Handbook of Sound Studies, pp. 367-386
Suggested Reading
The Auditory Culture Reader, pp. 281-295
The Oxford Handbook of Sound Studies, pp. 347-366, 387-408
Sound, pp. 200-203, 206-208
The Sound Studies Reader, pp. 248-253
Required Media
Excerpts from PERSONA (1966) Directed by Ingmar Bergman - screened in class
Excerpts from PSYCHO (1960) Directed by Alfred Hitchcock - screened in class
Additional media on class blog
IV. Sound Space
Week 10: Soundscape
Tuesday 10.29 / Thursday 10.31
• |
The soundscape |
• |
History and acoustic spaces |
• |
Walkmans & iPods: music and urban space |
• |
Sound in art and installation |
• |
PPT |
• |
Discussion group: Fiona & Yannik |
Required Reading
The Sound Studies Reader, pp. 95-104, 197-208, 468-474
Suggested Reading
Audio Culture, pp. 40-46, 88-93, 94-109
The Auditory Culture Reader, pp. 137-163, 303-374
Hearing History, pp. 85-111, 267-278, 319-330
The Oxford Handbook of Sound Studies, pp. 39-78, 273-319, 526-543
Sound, pp. 187-193, 208-210
The Sound Studies Reader, pp. 105-116, 140-151, 186-196, 265-282, 329-335,
Bring your mobile music device to class on Thursday
Week 11: Acoustemology & Representation
Tuesday 11.5 / Thursday 11.7
• |
Anthropology of sound |
• |
Representing soundscapes |
• |
PPT |
• |
Discussion group: |
Required Reading
Audio Culture, pp. 82-87
The Sound Studies Reader, pp. 168-185
The Auditory Culture Reader, pp. 223-239
Sound, pp. 123-129, 219-222
Suggested Reading
Audio Culture, pp. 67-72
The Auditory Culture Reader, pp. 241-279
Sound, pp. 112-117, 187-193 197-199
The Sound Studies Reader, pp. 409-418
Media on class blog
Week 12: Open Class Topic - Psycho, Audiovisual Analysis, Voice in Cinema
Tuesday 11.12
• |
Audiovisual analysis |
• |
PPT |
Thursday 11.14
• |
The Acousmetre |
• |
Corporeal Implication |
Required Reading
Audio-Vision, pp. 185-213 - read for Tuesday, skim pp. 198-205
The Voice in Cinema, pp. 17-29, 125-151 - read for Thursday, skim pp. 125-140
Suggested Reading
Audio-Vision, pp. 3-13
The Voice in Cinema, pp. 48-57, 72-79
Required Media
PSYCHO (1960) Directed by Alfred Hitchcock - watch on Sakai
PSYCHO (1999) Directed by Gus Van Sant - screened in class
Week 13: Student Presentations
Tuesday 11.19
• |
Student presentations: Cole, Janet, Nikai, Yannik |
Thursday 11.21
• |
Student presentations: Bianca, Dante, Fiona, Olivia |
No Required Reading
Week 14: Thanksgiving Holiday - No Class Meeting
Tuesday 11.26
• |
No Class Meeting Today, I am available for individual meetings |
No Required Reading
Week 15: Last Week of Classes, Paper / Project Due
Tuesday 12.3 / Thursday 12.9
• |
Individual meetings |
• |
Wrap-up discussion (on Tuesday or Thursday) + class party! |
• |
Class evaluation |
No Required Reading
Thursday 12.12
Revised papers due, upload to Drop Box by 5PM
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