Experiment with Failure Prompt

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From the course by Duke University

Art of the MOOC: Experiments with Sound

11 ratings

Duke University

Art of the MOOC: Experiments with Sound

11 ratings

Students of this course may try their hand at their own sound interventions and musical compositions, or simply focus on learning more about diverse musical traditions, sonic experimentation, and acoustic phenomena in everyday life. Designed by artist and Duke professor, Pedro Lasch, and UdK composer Mathias Hinke, this course is also co-taught by scholar and musician Jace Clayton (DJ Rupture) and curator Candice Hopkins (Documenta 14). The lectures link major artistic developments of recent decades to wider ideas about sound in specific social and spatial contexts. Also included are guest presentations from key thinkers and practitioners, like: Christopher DeLaurenti, Jen Delos Reyes, Tina Haver Currin, Quran Karriem, Christina Kubisch, Thomas Kusitzky, Scott Lindroth, Mark Anthony Neal, Bill Seaman, and John Supko. As the ‘ART of the MOOC’ title implies, learners and participants are encouraged to treat the MOOC itself as a public art medium. This happens mostly through the course’s optional practical components, local project productions, global exchanges, and critical feedback. While no prior sound production or musical experience is required, projects also offer challenging options for advanced learners. For other course offerings or language versions in this series, just search 'ART of the MOOC' in the Coursera catalog.

From the lesson

Project: Experiment with Failure

The practical component of this module is optional, asking learners to produce their own experiment with media and technical failure.

Experiment with Failure Prompt4:27

Meet the Instructors

Pedro Lasch
Visual Artist and Associate Research Professor
Duke Art, Art History & Visual Studies
Candice Hopkins
Documenta 14 Curator, Producer, and Author
Jace Clayton
Composer, DJ, Author, and Lecturer
Mathias Hinke
Composer, Researcher, and Professor University of the Arts (UdK) - Berlin

In this prompt, we're going to ask you to experiment with failure.

That is a catchy title.

And in fact what we're actually asking from you is to

really do identifying failure and in a very simple way,

open a file with a wrong software.

In the text information for this prompt,

you will find the details you need to do that.

So, we're recommending specific software which some of you may already have it,

but others may have to download it.

And we are recommending free software that works on your computer or your mobile device.

So, as you open a file with the wrong software,

it's important that you identify that original file.

So, pay attention to this.

Choose a file that you think is interesting.

It maybe a PDF,

an image that is relevant to you, like a JPEG,

any type of image file format or an important document like the United Nations,

no treaty or something like that.

So, that first selection is already important.

But then, as the software turns that by mistake into something that can be listened to,

you've entered the next step in the project.

And that next step would be to

start filtering out those things that you really like from those that you don't like.

So, let's say you have a text that at

particular places produces sound that really annoys you.

Well, the next time you use a text you will avoid those kind of stuff.

But then of course you might find places where the texts or the picture,

whatever it is, gives you a wonderful result that you would like to further manipulate.

So, then you manipulate

your source at the beginning so that the result would be exactly what you want.

You may discover in fact that the color red in an image,

produce some of the nicest effects in the sound.

Well, that may lead you to even change the image so that you

use an image that has a lot more wrath or it has a different set of color balance.

The next step, which is the last one,

is that we want you to actually,

having done all that experimentation,

use the sound that is a result of it,

and stage it publicly in some way.

It can be a small intimate gathering with friends but it can also be

highly public situation and it can be

either the projection of sound from that sound file that you've

produced through like loudspeakers or even shared headphones,

whatever device you use,

but it can also be an interpretation of it.

Working with musicians, friends of yours or people you work

with to present that sound material to an audience.

When arranging these new setting for the performance you might envision,

think of course of how things are heard in a space.

Maybe you have headphones tuned up.

But it's very important you think about perception and perspective,

because when you usually open these files with the wrong software,

you're probably listening by the speakers of your computer or your headphones.

And that is not necessarily the most interesting hearing space you might envision.

So, think about all these concepts we've been talking about to place

sound in the room in particularly interesting combinations.

And just to give you an example of that,

depending on what your original file was that

then ended up by mistake, intentional mistake,

turned into sound or music,

what was richest for some of you

may have been something that needs to be expressed in short form.

So, then you need to find a social setting that can deal with that,

with sound production being extremely brief.

So, there you're using the concept of time frame, very deliberately.

But some of you may have used an original file that

create something that is best when it lasts for like an entire day.

Right.

And so, that leads you to find a very different type of social setting.

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