| CODE | LAS2046 | |||||||||
| TITLE | Sound and Soundscapes in the Performing Arts | |||||||||
| UM LEVEL | H - Higher Level | |||||||||
| MQF LEVEL | 6 | |||||||||
| ECTS CREDITS | 4 | |||||||||
| DEPARTMENT | Centre for the Liberal Arts and Sciences | |||||||||
| DESCRIPTION | This theory-and practice-based Unit helps students to gain awareness of the phenomenon of sound. It is. Sound and soundscapes are present everywhere and are examined in disciplines that study music, theatre, dance, the visual arts, film, radio, and sound ecology. The Unit traces changing sonic experiences, examining both analogue and digital technology responsible for sonic changes. It examines sound and soundscapes vis-à-vis various disciplines. This Unit focuses on listeners’ individual experience and how the awareness of soundscapes in daily life, as an orchestration, is reflected in artists’ compositional work. Through workshops students will create soundscapes digitally. Soundscapes will be devised with simple tools - a mobile phone and free open source software. Therefore, the notion of sound and soundscape will be viewed from multiple angles in relation to performance-based practices and the daily environment. Topics that will be covered include sound and its relationship to silence and noise; soundscapes in daily life; the kinesthetic effect of sound; acousmatic sound and the effect it has on the imagination; binaural sound in performance; sonification - i.e. non-verbal sound; and various performances as case studies. 1. Knowledge & Understanding: By the end of the Unit the student will be able to: - Explain the relationship between performance and daily life in the context of soundscapes; - Describe soundscapes in performance and link them to daily life; - Descibe the changing experiences in performance and daily life; - Operate digital technology to create soundscapes. 2. Skills: By the end of the Unit the student will be able to: - Apply insights from reading and assimilate theoretical material; - Develop communication skills in discussion and presentation; - Operate digital technology; - Demonstrate creative, reflexive and independent thinking about concepts, ideas and issues discussed. Main Text/s and any supplementary readings: Main Texts: - Kendrick Lynne and David Roesner (ed.), (2011). Theatre Noise: The Sound of Performance (Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing). - Murray Schafer, R. (1993). The Soundscape: Our sonic environment and the tuning of the world. Rochester, Vermont: Destiny Books. - Thompson, E. (2011). ‘Sound, modernity and history’. In C. Kelly (Ed.) Sound: Documents of contemporary art (pp. 117-120). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. (Original work published 2002). Supplementary Readings: - Anderson, I. (2012). ‘Voice, Narrative, Place: Listening to Stories.’ Journal of Sonic Studies, 2(1). doi:http://journal.sonicstudies.org/vol02/nr01/a10. - Goldsmith, K. (Ed.) 2004. Selected Writings La Monte Young & Marian Zazeela. Retrieved from http://www.ubu.com/historical/young/young_selected.pdf (Original text Michael H. Tencer. (Ed.). (1969). Selected Writings La Monte Young & Marian Zazeela. Munchen: Heiner Freidrch.) - Kelly, C. (Ed.). (2011). Sound: Documents of contemporary art. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. - Murray Schafer, R. (1977). The tuning of the world. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. - Neuhaus, M. (1997). Sound as medium. Brussels: La Léttre Volée. Retrieved from http://www.max-neuhaus.info/soundworks/soundasamedium/ - New World Records. (2002). Alvin Lucier: Vespers and other early works. Recorded Anthology of American Music. Retrieved from http:// www.newworldrecords.org/liner_notes/80604.pdf - Curtain, Adrian. (2014). Avant-Garde Theatre Sound: Staging Sonic Modernity (New York: Palgrave Macmillan). - Brown, Ross 2016. ‘Fix Your Eyes on the Horizon and Swing Your Ears About’ in Jacob Smith and Neil Verma (ed), Anatomy of Sound: Norman Corwin and Media Authorship (California: University of California Press), pp. 171–92. - Soundscape: The Journal of Acoustic Ecology, Vol1, Number 1, Spring 2000. https://soundartarchive.net/articles/journal%20of%20acoustic%20ecology%201.pdf |
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| STUDY-UNIT TYPE | Lecture and Practicum | |||||||||
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| LECTURER/S | Elizabeth Borg Cardona Pierre Cassar Matthew Galea |
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The University makes every effort to ensure that the published Courses Plans, Programmes of Study and Study-Unit information are complete and up-to-date at the time of publication. The University reserves the right to make changes in case errors are detected after publication.
The availability of optional units may be subject to timetabling constraints. Units not attracting a sufficient number of registrations may be withdrawn without notice. It should be noted that all the information in the description above applies to study-units available during the academic year 2023/4. It may be subject to change in subsequent years. |
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