Course Number: IAT 243
Course Title: Sound Interaction
Credit Hours: 3 Vector: Lecture-Lab
Course Description
An introduction to the acoustic and psychoacoustic properties of our sense of space as provided by sound and their digital mediation. Recording, editing and interactive audio design are introduced and used for the composition of audible spatial environments. Students learn the theory and practice of sound as it interacts with visible images and explore fundamental audio techniques for interactive audio-visual presentation.
Prerequisite:
None.
Recommended: None.
Corequisite: None.
Special Instructions: Students with credit for IART 243, 244 and 245 may not take this course for further credit.
Course(s) to be dropped if this course is approved:
IART-243-1 Significant Sound
IART-244-1 Composing Audible-Visible Images
IART-245-1 The Audible Open Work
This course consolidates three 1-credit module-based (5 week) courses into a single 3-credit semester-based course.
Will this be a required or elective course in the curriculum; probable enrolment when offered?
This is an elective course in the curriculum dealing with audio theory and practice in interactive media. Probable enrollment is 60 per semester offered.
Indicate Semester and Year this course would be first offered and planned frequency of offering thereafter.
2005-1 and annually thereafter.
Which of your present CFL faculty have the expertise to offer this course? Will the course be taught by sessional or limited term faculty?
Current faculty exist to teach this course. Being at an introductory level the course can be taught by either skilled sessional or limited term instructors.
Are there any proposed student fees associated with this course other than tuition fees?
Students will be required to purchase recordable media such as mini-disks and CD-ROMs to document and store their projects.
Is this course considered a `duplicate' of any current or prior course under the University's duplicate course policy? Specify, as appropriate.
This course duplicates IART 243-1, IART 244-1, IART 245-1.
Note: Senate has approved (S.93-11) that no new course should be approved by Senate until funding has been committed for necessary library materials. Each new course proposal must be accompanied by a library report and, if appropriate, confirmation that funding arrangements have been addressed.
Provide details on how existing instructional resources will be redistributed to accommodate this new course. For instance, will another course be eliminated or will the frequency of offering of other courses be reduced; are there changes in pedagogical style or class sizes that allow for this additional course offering.
This course will use the resources already in place for the three 1-credit modules it replaces.
Does the course require specialized space or equipment not readily available in the department or university, and if so, how will these resources be provided?
Space and equipment are already in place to support this course at the Surrey campus.
Does this course require computing resources (e.g. hardware, software, network wiring, use of computer laboratory space) and if so, describe how they will be provided.
No new resources are required by virtue of this course consolidation. This course requires the use of the existing Macintosh lab with audio editing and interactive programming software.
Weeks 1 – 4: Audio and Editing Fundamentals
Review of acoustic, psychoacoustic and soundscape concepts
Introduction to compositional ideas using sound
Introduction to audio editing techniques
Project presentation: Short composition in sound using digital editing software environment.
Readings and listening from the history of experimental music.
Weeks 5 – 8: Sound Interaction with Visible Images
Introduction to theory and practice of film sound
Close listening to, and anlaysis , cinematic sound design
Surround sound design, analysis and technique
Project presentation: Sound design for still or moving visible image
Readings from the literature on cinematic sound theory and practice.
Weeks 9 – 13: Sound in Interactive Art Systems
Programming audio fundamentals
Controlling basic parameters of sound, synthesis, modulation, sampling
Audio capture – machine hearing/listening
Spatialization techniques in software
Project presentation: Interactive audio art and design project
Readings in audio programming, program design, synthesis and interactivity.
An introduction to the acoustic and psychoacoustic properties of our sense of space as provided by sound and their digital mediation. Recording, editing and interactive audio design are introduced and used for the composition of audible spatial environments. Students learn the theory and practice of sound as it interacts with visible images and explore fundamental audio techniques for interactive audio-visual presentation.
Coursepack Readings:
Introduction: Histories of Sound Once Removed – Douglas Kahn in, Wireless Imagination: Sound, Radio, and the Avant-Garde, MIT Press, 1994
Composition As a Process – John Cage in, Silence: Lectures and Writings by John Cage, Wesleyan University Press, 1979
The Ear That Would Hear Sounds in Themselves: John Cage 1935-1965 – Frances Dyson in, Wireless Imagination: Sound, Radio, and the Avant-Garde, MIT Press, 1994
Systems of Acoustic Communication: Speech, Music, and Soundscape – Barry Truax in, Acoustic Communication, Ablex Publishing, 1984
Pygmalion: Silence, Sound and Space – Sean Cubitt in, Digital Aesthetics, Sage Publications, 1998
Lines and Points: Horizontal and Vertical Perspectives on Audiovisual Relations – Michel Chion in, Audio-vision: Sound on Screen, Columbia University Press, 1984
The Audiovisual Scene – Michel Chion in, Audio-vision: Sound on Screen, Columbia University Press, 1984
Graphic Programming with Max – Todd Winkler in, Composing Interactive Music: Techniques and Ideas Using Max, MIT Press, 1998
Program Structure and Design – Todd Winkler in, Composing Interactive Music: Techniques and Ideas Using Max, MIT Press, 1998
Synthesis Fundamentals – Charles Dodge & Thomas A. Jerse in, Computer Music: Synthesis, Composition, and Performance, Schirmer Books, 1997
Hearing in Time and Space – John Pierce in, Music, Cognition, and Computerized Sound, MIT Press, 1999
Students will be required to provide written documentation of their projects with detailed accounts of the design process involved. Conceptual and historical references drawn from the course reading list will also be included.