Syllabus
The syllabus is a schedule by week and day for assignments, readings, and activities. While we will stick very close to this outline, especially on major due dates, I can vary it as much as seems appropriate. I will be editing and updating the syllabus on this web page as the semester progresses.
Text Abbreviations:
- Sound Studies Reader [SSR]
- Book of Audacity [BoA]
Week 1
Week 2 - Sound Studies
M Aug 27 - Introductions and Expectations
In Class:
- Syllabus Overview
- 99% Invisible, Episode 1: Noise
- Audacity Hack: Respond verbally to 99% Invisible Episode 1 in under 30 seconds via Audacity--record, edit, save, export.
W Aug 29 - Intro to Sound Studies
Required Reading:
- Sterne, "Sonic Imaginations" [SSR]
In Class:
- This American Life, "Mapping"
- Download Audacity to your laptop or preferred computer (or see here). Just download and follow instructions.
- If you are feeling adventurous, also download and install the LAME plugin for Audacity so you can export MP3s (scroll down the FAQ page for info--sometimes this works right the first time, sometimes it takes a few tries and a little work, the ZIP options worked for me on a MAC back when).
Week 3
M Sept 3 - LABOR DAY
W Sept 5 - Listening I
Required Reading:
- Barthes, "Listening" [PDF]
- Steve Goodman, "The Ontology of Vibrational Force" [SSR]
Suggested Reading-Listening-Viewing:
- RE : SOUND "The Hearing Show"
- How Can Hidden Sounds Be Captured By Everyday Objects
- The Torture Playlist
- Russia suspected in Cuba 'sonic attacks' against US diplomats (9-11-18)
- Microwave weapons may have caused the mysterious brain injuries suffered by US diplomats in Cuba and China (9-5-18)
- What's happening to US diplomats in Cuba and China? Here are 4 theories (6-8-18)
- Sonic attacks in China and Cuba: how sound can be a weapon (5-31-18)
In Class:
- Elephants tread a fine line between hearing and feeling - They listen with their feet
- MIT Researchers Can Listen via Video
- He Puts His iPhone 4 Inside The Guitar
Week 4
M Sept 10 - Listening II
Required Reading:
- Chion, "The Three Listening Modes" [SSR]
- Idhe, "The Auditory Dimension" [SSR]
Suggested Reading-Listening-Watching:
In Class:
W Sept 12 - No Class - Weather
Week 5 - (Re)Shaping Sound
M Sept 17 - Soundscapes and Sound Art
Required Reading:
- Schaffer, "The Soundscape" [SSR]
- LaBelle, "Auditory Relations" [SSR]
Suggested Reading-Listening-Viewing:
- Leppert, "Reading the Sonoric Landscape" [SSR]
- John Cage, 4'33''
- What Silence Taught John Cage: The Story of 4'33''
- 4'33'' App for iPhone
- Abel Grimmer, Spring
- Puce Mary, Courses (Danish Industrial Noise)
- Musician Uses Sound to Manipulate Tesla Coil, Fire, and Matter (Nigel Stanford)
- Now You Can Listen to the Internet's Secret Algorithms
- Body Noise Amp
In Class:
- Sound Experts Make Art of the Noise all Around Us
- Thompson, The Roaring Twenties
- Daniel Rozenhall, "The Suffering of Saws" (Swedish Noise Installation)
- Lina Selander, "27 Kilometer Drawing" (Swedish Sound Art)
- Daniel Skoglund, "Sketches and Routines" (Swedish Sound Art)
W Sept 19 - Podcasting
Required Reading:
- Sterne et al, "The Politics of Podcasting"
- Berland, "Contradicting Media" [SSR]
- You Asked: What are Podcasts?
Suggested Reading:
- Hosokawa, "The Walkman Effect" [SSR]
- Bull, "The Audio-Visual iPod" [SSR]
- Ch.7 "Creating Podcasts" [BoA]
In Class:
- On the Media, Pulling Back the Curtain
- 99% Invisible, "The Sound of Sports"
- Intro to Podcasts: Find a good podcast to follow that is related to an interest and/or what you think your Podcast series will be about.
- Assignment: Podcast Analysis Proposal
Week 6
M Sept 24 - Genre Analysis
Required Reading:
- Devitt, Reiff, and Bawarshi, "Using Genres to Read Scenes of Writing"
- Devitt and Bawarshi, "Rhetorical Genre Studies Approaches to Teaching Writing"
In Class:
- DUE: Podcast Analysis Proposal
- Podcast Analysis Assignment
- Guidelines for Analyzing Genres
W Sept 26 - Intro to Audacity
Suggested Reading:
- Ch.1 "Audacity from Start to Finish" [BoA]
- Ch.11 "Audacity Plug-ins for Special Effects" [BoA]
- Ch.12 "Fix-Its and Cleanups" [BoA]
- Appendix B "Glossary" [BoA]
In Class:
Week 7
M Oct 1 - Radio (Shaping Sound)
Required Reading:
Suggested Reading - Scripts:
- Writing a Radio Script
- Writing for Radio
- 7 Podcasting Best Practices
- Tips for Writing Radio News Scripts
- CDC Audio Script Writing Guide
- How to Plan Your Podcast
- 5 Tips to Help You Write a Standout Script For Your Podcast Intro*
- How to Have an Effective Podcast Intro/Opening
- Scripts for a Great Podcast Outro
- A Sample Podcast Outline and Script Example
In Class:
- Radiolab Behind the Scenes
- Radiolab's Jad Abumrad On Storytelling With Sound
- Ira Glass from This American Life on Creative Success
- Start developing scripts (or see pdf); begin by making a list of what you think you'll need--specific scenes, people, main ideas, clips, sounds, music, etc--in order to establish your series and lay out your analysis of podcasts.
- Homework: skim, some of the suggested readings, and then begin to gather audio materials for your first podcast--have a podcast title, episode title, lead-in script, sound icon, and brief music clip. Bring them to class.
W Oct 3 - Recording Techniques
Suggested Reading-Listening-Viewing:
- DIY $23.00 Mini Sound Booth built in under an hour
- The World's Quietest Room
- Ch.2 "Building a Good Digital Sound Studio on the Cheap" [BoA]
- Appendix A "Audio Hardware" [BoA]
In Class:
- Editing Workshop
- Homework: Podcast Analysis Overview
Tech Links:
- How to Record Voice Memos and Audio on iPhone
- Record Voice Memos on your iPhone and iPod touch
- How to Record a Voice Memo on an iPhone
- DIY Resource: How To Record High-Quality Sound With Your Phone
- 3 Simple Tricks to Record Great Audio with Your Phone
- I spent two hours with a mobile video genius and learned 26 useful things
- Pop Shields: Why You Need Them
- Free Sound.org
- Creative Commons
- CC Mixter
- Tabletop Audio
- Zoom H4N Handy Portable Digital Recorder
- Mics for Recording with iPhone/iPad
- Voice Recorder HD (app)
- Audiobus (apps)
- iTalk (app)
- Voice Record Pro (app, also see here)
- Reaper - Digital Audio Workstation
Week 8 - Writing with Sound
M Oct 8 - Editing Workshop
In Class:
- Editing Workshop
- Make sure you download the LAME plugin for Audacity so you can export MP3s (scroll down the FAQ page).
- Start a Soundcloud account if you haven't already so you can Upload your Podcast.
- DUE: Podcast Analysis (with paper script)
W Oct 10 - Audience
Required Reading:
- Fanon, "This is the Voice of Algeria" [SSR]
- Smith, "Laughing Machines" [SSR]
Suggested Reading:
- Hilmes, "Radio and the Imagined Community" [SSR]
- Serial, Podcasts, and Humanizing the News
- With S-Town, Podcasts Come of Age
- How S-Town is Upending the Art of Podcasting
In Class:
Week 9
M Oct 15 - Interviewing
Required Reading:
In Class:
- Interviewing Exercise
- Radio Guide Notes
- Hawk and Smith, "Digimortal"
- Rice, Inquiry as Telos
- DUE: Podcast Series Proposal
W Oct 17 - Editing Workshop
Suggested Reading:
- Ch.7 "Creating Podcasts" [BoA]
In Class:
- Criminal - Episode 100
- Editing Workshop - Interviews/Scripts (see suggested week 7)
Week 10
M Oct 22 - Editing Workshop
In Class:
- Editing Workshop
- DUE: Podcast 1 - Interview
W Oct 24 - Remix I
Required Reading:
- Mowitt, "The Sound of Music in the Era of Its Electronic Reproducability" [SSR]
- Lastra, "Fidelity v. Intelligibility" [SSR]
- Is It Live, or Is It Memorex
Suggested Reading-Listening:
- Robin Thicke, Pharrell Lose Multi-Million Dollar 'Blurred Lines' Lawsuit
- Robin Thicke - Blurred Lines VS Marvin Gaye - Got to Give it Up
In Class:
- Isaac Hayes, Ike's Rap II
- Portishead, Glory Box
- Tricky, Hell is Around the Corner
- Portishead vs Tricky
- Alessia Cara Here
- iPhone Commerical (Snoh Aalegra)
- Cut-Up Writing (The Cut-Up Method)
- Enculturation, William S. Burroughs Teaches Writing
- Genesis Breyer P-Orridge Reflects On William S. Burroughs' Sound Experiments (youtube)
- William S. Burroughs on UbuWeb Sound
- Blaauw-Hara and Putman, "Remixing the Personal Narrative"
Week 11
M Oct 29 - Remix II
Required Reading:
- Attali, "The Politics of Noise" [SSR]
- Eshun, "Operating System for the Redesign of Sonic Reality" [SSR]
Suggested Reading-Listening:
- Lethem, "The Ecstasy of Influence"
- Rev. of The Execution of Sun Ra, by Thomas Stanley
- Sun Ra - Night Music 1989
- Sun Ra Interview (Helsinki, 1971)
- Sun Ra Arkestra, Face the Music / Space is the Place
- Thomas Stanley, Mind over Matter, Music over Mind
- Mind over Matter, Music over Mind - Conundrum
- All the Ladies in the House, Let Us Hear You
- Stedman, How Music Speaks
- RIP: A Remix Manifesto
- Kirby Ferguson: Embrace the Remix
- Listen to Kurt Cobain's Unearthed 'Montage of Heck' Mixtape
- Cut Chemist - LA
In Class:
W Oct 31 - Editing Workshop
Suggested Reading:
- Ch.9 "Multitrack Recording" [BoA]
- Ch.5 "Authoring a Compilation CD" [BoA]
- Ch.11 "Audacity Plug-ins for Special Effects" [BoA]
In Class: Editing Workshop
- Work on Soundcloud Edits--display names, titles, descriptions, images.
- Work on scripts with emphasis on "directions" related to sounds being used: here is what I provided on the syllabus as a template for the analysis script, where the topics stood in for the bulleted/numbered genre list topics--rework this template to mimic a movie script with descriptions of scenes and especially directions for sounds to add to dialog: 12 Monkeys.
- Gather sounds needed for episode or remix.
Week 12
M Nov 5 - Editing Workshop
In Class:
- Editing Workshop - bring in all materials and work on final mix/edits.
- DUE: Podcast 2 - Remix/Remediation
W Nov 7 - Sound and Space
Required Reading:
- Blesser-Salter, "Ancient Acoustic Spaces" [SSR]
- Bijsterveld, "Listening to Machines" [SSR]
- Pisaro, Ten Framing Considerations of the Field
Suggested Reading:
- Rath, "No Corner for the Devil to Hide" [SSR]
- The Photoshop of Sound
- The Sound of Life: What is a Soundscape?
In Class:
- Ceraso, A Tale of Two Soundscapes
- Pisaro and Stuart, Congaree Nomads (Continuum Unbound CDs)
- Lucier, Alvin Lucier - Sferics
- Soundstage
Week 13
M Nov 12 - Acoustic City
Required Reading:
- Moore and Smallwood, "The Soundscape of Burning Man" [PDF]
- Jones, "Sonic Ecology" [PDF]
- Ouzounian, "Acoustic Mapping" [PDF]
- Royaards, "The Space Between" [PDF]
Suggested Reading:
- Picker, "The Soundproof Study" [SSR]
- Flitner "Machines over the Garden"
- Kusiak, "Acoustic Gentrification"
- Gandy, "Acoustic Terrains: An Introduction"
- Albrechtslund, "Eavesdroppin"
In Class:
- How to Map a City: Part 1
- How to Map a City: Part 2
- Cities and Memory
- Sounds of Street View
- Acoustic City (CD cuts)
W Nov 14 - Editing Workshop
Suggested Reading:
- Ch.4 "Creating and Editing Live Tracks" [BoA]
In Class:
- Editing Workshop
Week 14
M Nov 19
In Class:
- Editing Workshop
Week 15
M Nov 26 - Sharing Sound
Required Reading:
- How Podcasts Became a Seductive--and Sometimes Slippery--Mode of Storytelling (also see pieces on Serial and S-Town in Week 8)
- Teaching Podcasting: A Curriculum Guide for Educators
- Pump Up The Volume: 17 Simple Tricks to Promote Your Podcast
- 7 Podcasting Best Practices
Suggested How To:
Suggested Reading:
- Photo Focused
- How We Work
- The New Disruptors
- Ch.8 "Becoming an Online Star" [BoA]
In Class:
- Final Report Assignment
- Sign Up for Presentations
W Nov 28 - Class Showcase
In Class:
- DUE: Podcast 3 - Field Recording
- Presentation Schedule
- Presentations
Week 16 - Finals Week
M Dec 3 - Class Showcase
In Class:
- Presentations
W Dec 5 - Class Showcase
In Class:
- Final Presentations
- Teacher Evaluations
- DUE: Final Report + Participation