Welcome to Experiments with Sound

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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

Introduction & Analytical Concepts

This module introduces the four co-teachers of the course (Lasch, Clayton, Hinke, Hopkins), along with five analytical concepts that we will use throughout its sections and projects: Frequency, Perspective, Material Frame, Time Frame, and Concurrency. These concepts are designed to encompass a wide range of acoustic phenomena within spatial and social experience.

Welcome to Experiments with Sound5:23

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

Hi. I'm Pedro Lasch.

I'm an artist and Duke university professor

and I'm the creator of the art of the Mooc series.

The previous two courses in the series,

were produced with Creative Time in New York and were on the topics of

public art and pedagogy as well as activism and social movements.

We are now very excited to share with you this third course on experiments with sound.

The course was designed with composer and professor

Mathias Hinke and it's a partnership with the University of the Fine Arts in Berlin.

Hi. My name is Mathias Hinke,

I'm a composer and a professor at the University of the Arts in Berlin.

I write music for all sorts of ensembles and orchestras,

but I also focus a lot on writing music for people without any musical background.

You will learn in this course,

not just historical and theoretical aspects of the production of sound,

acoustic phenomena, and contemporary composition,

but also you will have the opportunity to make your own experiments with sound.

In addition to composer Mathias Hinke and myself,

you will have two other co-teachers.

Hello. My name is Jace Clayton. I'm a musician.

Some people know me from my work as

Deejay rupture and I most recently wrote a book called,

Uproot troubles in 21st Century Music and Digital Culture.

Hi everyone. I'm Candice Hopkins.

I work as an independent curator and a writer.

Two examples of projects I've worked on is one called Saga Han,

which took place in 2013 at

the National Gallery of Canada which was a survey of recent indigenous art.

Another is working as curator of Documenta 14 which is

an international exhibition that for the 14th edition of Documenta,

took place in both Athens,

Greece, and Kassel Germany.

Experiments with sound covers a very broad approach.

It's designed both as an introductory course,

but also as a course that lets you explore

really unexpected angles when it comes to music and sound.

We have both conventional,

what now have become canonical figures of compositions,

like John Cage and his Empty Words or Alvin Lucier's,

I am Sitting in a Room.

[inaudible] But we also have phenomena that belong in the social sphere for example,

grunting that tennis players make when they hit a ball in

the court or the sound of fan clubs as they are in the stadium.

Contemporary composers are making compositions for all kinds of

settings like a harbour where the sound of horns becomes

the instrument in the orchestration

or music made specifically for airport.

Some other composers like Cornelius Cardew,

wanted to work with every day participants and sound producers.

So, he created the now famous Scratch Orchestras.

In New York City,

there has been an environment that for decades has not changed and its called the

dream house.. We will also study the history of experimental notation systems,

even musical instruments that have been built from

objects that were left across the US-Mexico border by undocumented immigrants.

From the beauty of Quranic recitation,

to the use of artikings in the work of

Moroccan wedding singer Hafida or

the experimental distribution of a new work by

hip hop star Kanye West in

different public spaces around the world, challenging commodification.

Last but not least,

experiments with sound includes guest presentations by a range of artists,

composers, activists, and scholars

who bring their own backgrounds to this very rich conversation.

An air horn orchestra protesting discriminatory laws.

A record player you can make with cardboard and a nail.

The influence of black music and its sounds on global culture.

A metal ensemble playing music in a garage.

People discovering the hidden sounds of electromagnetic waves.

Chicks on speed performing over data visualization.

Research projects and auditory architecture and urban planning.

A database art memorial for all black men killed by police in the United States.

Electric delivered with a rock band while playing the drum.

And a computational opera that has never performed the same way.

So, we hope you will join us.

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