Course detail
Audio Workshop
FaVU-1ZT-LAcad. year: 2024/2025
The Audio Workshop course focuses on practical audio exercises and experimental sound production. This is done through the creation of their own simple lo-fi instruments (hardware/software) and subsequent group improvisations with them. Following the practical exercises, the history and contexts of the technologies used are also presented. The course introduces the basics of electronics (soldering simple circuits) and programming in max/msp. The core of the course is collaborative experimentation and studio improvisation with the created instruments, collaboration, recording, presentation. Each student will create his/her own free-form audio project (concert, sound object, instrument, composition, sound installation, performance, concept, reportage, audiobook, etc.) and present it in a credit-bearing collaborative public presentation (TRIAL) in the organization of which each student actively participates.
Language of instruction
Number of ECTS credits
Mode of study
Guarantor
Entry knowledge
The prerequisite is an active approach to own audio creation, a willingness to improvise, experiment, listen, collaborate and at the end of the semester publicly present own or collaborative audio project.
Rules for evaluation and completion of the course
For the credit is required:
- active attendance (min. 70%)
- public presentation of own audio project
- cooperation in the preparation of a joint public performance
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 develop practical skills in experimental sound production and to support students in their search for their own independent, authentic sound aesthetic. Through collaborative improvisation as well as group presentation, the course aims to develop a sense of collaboration and communication during artistic improvisation. Through an introduction to the practical technological creation of simple instruments, the course aims to develop the ability to create one's own medium and develop thinking in the medium, rather than using ready-made, commercial, pre-made solutions.
The student will gain knowledge of the basics of max/msp programming and DIY creation of lo-fi sound instruments. They will also learn the basics of electronics and selected sound generation concepts. Develops improvisation and group collaboration skills.
Study aids
Prerequisites and corequisites
Basic literature
Trevor Wishart, On Sonic Art, Routledge, 1997 (EN)
Recommended reading
Alex McLean, Roger T. Dean, The Oxford Handbook of Algorithmic Music, Oxford University Press, 2018 (EN)
Andrey Smirnov: Sound in Z – Experiments in Sound and Electronic Music in Early 20th Century Russia, FUNDACION PROA, 2013 (EN)
John Cage, Composition In Retrospect, Exact Change, 2008 (EN)
Nicolas Collins, Handmade electronic music, The Art of Hardware Hacking, Routledge, 2009 (EN)
Scott Willson, Davud Cottle, Nick Collins – The SuperCollider Book, The MIT Press, 2011 (EN)
Thomas Bey William Bailey, Micro-bionic: Radical Electronic Music and Sound Art in the 21st Century , Scb Distributors, 2009 (EN)
V.J.Manzo, Max/Msp/Jitter for Music – A practical guide to developing Interactive Music Systems for education and more, Oxford University Press, 2011 (EN)
Classification of course in study plans
- Programme VUM_B Bachelor's 2 year of study, summer semester, elective
3 year of study, summer semester, elective
4 year of study, summer semester, elective - Programme DES_B Bachelor's 2 year of study, summer semester, compulsory-optional
3 year of study, summer semester, compulsory-optional - Programme DES_M Master's 1 year of study, summer semester, elective
- Programme DES_B Bachelor's 2 year of study, summer semester, compulsory-optional
3 year of study, summer semester, compulsory-optional
2 year of study, summer semester, compulsory-optional
3 year of study, summer semester, compulsory-optional
2 year of study, summer semester, compulsory-optional
3 year of study, summer semester, compulsory-optional - Programme DES_M Master's 1 year of study, summer semester, elective
1 year of study, summer semester, elective
1 year of study, summer semester, elective - Programme VUM_B Bachelor's 2 year of study, summer semester, elective
3 year of study, summer semester, elective
4 year of study, summer semester, elective
2 year of study, summer semester, elective
3 year of study, summer semester, elective
4 year of study, summer semester, elective
2 year of study, summer semester, elective
3 year of study, summer semester, elective
4 year of study, summer semester, elective
2 year of study, summer semester, elective
3 year of study, summer semester, elective
4 year of study, summer semester, elective
2 year of study, summer semester, elective
3 year of study, summer semester, elective
4 year of study, summer semester, elective
2 year of study, summer semester, elective
3 year of study, summer semester, elective
4 year of study, summer semester, elective
2 year of study, summer semester, elective
3 year of study, summer semester, elective
4 year of study, summer semester, elective
2 year of study, summer semester, elective
3 year of study, summer semester, elective
4 year of study, summer semester, elective
2 year of study, summer semester, elective
3 year of study, summer semester, elective
4 year of study, summer semester, elective
2 year of study, summer semester, elective
3 year of study, summer semester, elective
4 year of study, summer semester, elective
2 year of study, summer semester, elective
3 year of study, summer semester, elective
4 year of study, summer semester, elective
2 year of study, summer semester, elective
3 year of study, summer semester, elective
4 year of study, summer semester, elective
Type of course unit
Practical class
Teacher / Lecturer
Syllabus
- Sound as a medium – including variety of tools outside the commercial software and hardware
- Idea Lo-fi, DIY, Low-cost, open-source
- Piezo and transducer, contact microphone + speaker and their possibilities
- Basics of working with electronics - soldering, simple circuits
- Acoustic resonators
- Optical oscillators
- Feedback
- Circuit bending, hacking, error, glitch
- Algorithmic composition - basics max / msp
- Jam sessions - strategies of playing together, respect, listening to the whole, dramaturgy
- Experimentation in a sound studio
- Field recording
- Preparation and implementation of the TRIAL evening, where everyone will present their audio project (performance, object, instrument, composition, installation ...)