Course detail
Sound Art and Experimental Music
FaVU-1ZT-ZAcad. year: 2023/2024
The course will present selected chapters from the history of sound art and experimental music through lectures and active listening (combined with analysis and discussion). Sound art as a border area between object, composition, installation, interactive system, performance represents an interdisciplinary living sphere connecting visual art, music composition, technology, space... and thus brings a range of questions that will be reflected in the lectures. The lectures focus on major works and figures in sound art as well as theories and aesthetic concepts that have changed and are changing the face of music in the 20th-21st centuries. Topics to be discussed include: noise, concrete music, electroacoustic music, sound and space, sound ecology, soundscapes, field-recording, algorithmic and generative music, sonification, sound installations, glitch, artificial intelligence, VR. Attention will also be paid to the contemporary audio scene in the Czech Republic and worldwide (performers, festivals, exhibitions, concerts).
Language of instruction
Number of ECTS credits
Mode of study
Guarantor
Entry knowledge
Rules for evaluation and completion of the course
Credit is awarded on the basis of attendance and active participation in class, as well as on the basis of a test verifying the topics covered and knowledge acquired.
Teaching takes place in the audio studio of the KAT FaVU BUT in the hours determined by the timetable. Attendance is compulsory, the maximum number of absences is 30%. Higher amount of absences can be compensated by submitting an alternative assignment after agreement with the lecturers.
Aims
The aim of the course is to introduce to students key moments in the history of sound art and experimental music from the early 20th century to the present. During the lectures, students will encounter a possible breadth of approaches, forms and concepts in the field of sound creation, which they can then incorporate or reflect upon in their future work as active artists. This is achieved through the presentation of historically important works of sound art and experimental music through listening and subsequent collaborative discussion/analysis of what is heard and seen.
Students will develop an overview of the history and aspects of sound art, electroacoustic music, sound ecology, field-recording and experimental sound design. The knowledge acquired will enable them to better decode and analyze aesthetic models of contemporary music, sound-art, and the sonic components of audiovisual works. Through exposure to a wide variety of aesthetic models, their compositional concepts and artistic strategies, the student will be facilitated to view and understand even more listenable and complex works.
Study aids
Prerequisites and corequisites
Basic literature
Brandon LaBelle , Background Noise: Perspectives on Sound Art, Bloomsbury Academic, 2006 (EN)
Jozef Cseres, Michal Murin, Od analogového k digitálnímu... Nové pohlady na nové umenia v audiovizuálnom veku, Fakulta výtvarných umení, Akadémia umení, 2010 (CS)
Lenka Dohnalová, Estetické modely evropské elektroakustické hudby a elektroakustická hudba v ČR, Univerzita Karlova, 2001 (CS)
Martin Flašar, Elektroakustická hudba, Masarykova univerzita, 2015 https://is.muni.cz/do/rect/el/estud/ff/ps15/eah/web/media/Elektroakusticka_hudba.pdf (CS)
Michal Rataj, Elektroakustická hudba a vybrané koncepty radioartu, KANT Akademie múzických umění, 2007 (CS)
Peter Weibel, Sound Art – sound as medium of art, The MIT Press, 2019 Adrian Moore, Sonic Art – An introduction to Electroacoustic Music Composition, Routledge, 2016 (EN)
Pierre Schaeffer, Konkrétní hudba, Supraphon, 1977 (CS)
Salome Voegelin, Listening to Noise and Silence: Towards a Philosophy of Sound Art, Continuum, 2010 (EN)
Trevor Wishart, On Sonic Art, Routledge, 1997 (EN)
Recommended reading
Christpher Cox, Beyond Representation and Signification: Toward a Sonic Materialism, Journal of Visual Culture, 2011, https://doi.org/10.1177/1470412911402880 (EN)
John Cage, Composition In Retrospect, Exact Change, 2008 (EN)
Raymond Murray Schaffer, The tuning of the world, Random House Inc, 1977 (EN)
Classification of course in study plans
- Programme VUB Bachelor's
branch VU-IDT , 1 year of study, winter semester, elective
branch VU-IDT , 2 year of study, winter semester, elective
branch VU-IDT , 3 year of study, winter semester, elective
branch VU-IDT , 4 year of study, winter semester, elective
branch VU-VT , 1 year of study, winter semester, elective
branch VU-VT , 2 year of study, winter semester, elective
branch VU-VT , 3 year of study, winter semester, elective
branch VU-VT , 4 year of study, winter semester, elective
branch VU-VT , 1 year of study, winter semester, elective
branch VU-VT , 2 year of study, winter semester, elective
branch VU-VT , 3 year of study, winter semester, elective
branch VU-VT , 4 year of study, winter semester, elective
branch VU-VT , 1 year of study, winter semester, elective
branch VU-VT , 2 year of study, winter semester, elective
branch VU-VT , 3 year of study, winter semester, elective
branch VU-VT , 4 year of study, winter semester, elective
branch VU-VT , 1 year of study, winter semester, elective
branch VU-VT , 2 year of study, winter semester, elective
branch VU-VT , 3 year of study, winter semester, elective
branch VU-VT , 4 year of study, winter semester, elective
branch VU-IDT , 1 year of study, winter semester, elective
branch VU-IDT , 2 year of study, winter semester, elective
branch VU-IDT , 3 year of study, winter semester, elective
branch VU-IDT , 4 year of study, winter semester, elective
branch VU-IDT , 1 year of study, winter semester, elective
branch VU-IDT , 2 year of study, winter semester, elective
branch VU-IDT , 3 year of study, winter semester, elective
branch VU-IDT , 4 year of study, winter semester, elective
branch VU-IDT , 1 year of study, winter semester, elective
branch VU-IDT , 2 year of study, winter semester, elective
branch VU-IDT , 3 year of study, winter semester, elective
branch VU-IDT , 4 year of study, winter semester, elective
branch VU-IDT , 1 year of study, winter semester, elective
branch VU-IDT , 2 year of study, winter semester, elective
branch VU-IDT , 3 year of study, winter semester, elective
branch VU-IDT , 4 year of study, winter semester, elective
branch VU-VT , 1 year of study, winter semester, elective
branch VU-VT , 2 year of study, winter semester, elective
branch VU-VT , 3 year of study, winter semester, elective
branch VU-VT , 4 year of study, winter semester, elective
branch VU-D , 1 year of study, winter semester, elective
branch VU-D , 2 year of study, winter semester, elective
branch VU-D , 3 year of study, winter semester, elective
branch VU-D , 4 year of study, winter semester, elective
branch VU-VT , 1 year of study, winter semester, elective
branch VU-VT , 2 year of study, winter semester, elective
branch VU-VT , 3 year of study, winter semester, elective
branch VU-VT , 4 year of study, winter semester, elective
branch VU-IDT , 1 year of study, winter semester, elective
branch VU-IDT , 2 year of study, winter semester, elective
branch VU-IDT , 3 year of study, winter semester, elective
branch VU-IDT , 4 year of study, winter semester, elective
branch VU-D , 1 year of study, winter semester, elective
branch VU-D , 2 year of study, winter semester, elective
branch VU-D , 3 year of study, winter semester, elective
branch VU-D , 4 year of study, winter semester, elective
branch VU-IDT , 1 year of study, winter semester, elective
branch VU-IDT , 2 year of study, winter semester, elective
branch VU-IDT , 3 year of study, winter semester, elective
branch VU-IDT , 4 year of study, winter semester, elective
branch VU-D , 1 year of study, winter semester, elective
branch VU-D , 2 year of study, winter semester, elective
branch VU-D , 3 year of study, winter semester, elective
branch VU-D , 4 year of study, winter semester, elective - Programme VUM_B Bachelor's 3 year of study, winter semester, compulsory-optional
- Programme DES_M Master's 1 year of study, winter semester, elective
2 year of study, winter semester, elective - Programme VUM_B Bachelor's 4 year of study, winter semester, elective
Type of course unit
Lecture
Teacher / Lecturer
Syllabus