Course detail

Sound Art and Experimental Music

FaVU-1ZT-ZAcad. year: 2024/2025

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

Czech

Number of ECTS credits

Mode of study

Not applicable.

Guarantor

MgA. Jiří Suchánek, Ph.D.

Department

Department of Audiovisual Technology (KAT)

Entry knowledge

None.

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

Not applicable.

Prerequisites and corequisites

Not applicable.

Basic literature

Alex McLean, Roger T. Dean, The Oxford Handbook of Algorithmmic Music, Oxford University Press, 2018 (EN)
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)

Type of course unit

Lecture

13 hod., compulsory

Teacher / Lecturer

MgA. Jiří Suchánek, Ph.D.

Syllabus

1. Liberation of sound - acquaintance with concepts, manifestos, works and representatives of futurism and the influence of "Art of Noises" on the music of the 20th century. Musique concréte - work with recordings, collage of specific sounds as a compositional method, Pierre Schaeffere, Piere Henry. Listening and discussion. 2. Electronic music - Karlheinz Stockhausen, Iannis Xenakis, Edgar Varese, Piere Boulez, Francois Bayle, EMS, Curtis Roads, Horracio Vaggione, Bjarni Gunnarson, Elian Radigue, Bernard Parmegiani... - from the pioneers of electronic music in the 1950s to contemporary composers and creators of radical aesthetics. Listening, analysis, discussion. 3. Cybernetics, quantum physics, relativity, information theory - the influence of scientific discoveries on the aesthetics of new music: stochastic music, aleatory music, microtonal, atonal and spectral music 4. Utopia? - new musical instruments and technologies (L. Theremin, E.Sholpo, E.Murzin, EMS, Don Buchla ...), hi-tech vs. DIY scene of the present 5. Minimalism - return to simplicity, conception, listening to key works (Terry Rilley, Steve Reich, La Monte Young, Phil Nibblock, R.Ikeda ...), influence on pop culture and techno 6. Ambient and drone - concepts, background, attention, gestalt psychology, listening (Brian Eno, Erik Satie, Orb, Biosphere, Aphex Twin, Tim Hecker, Sunn o))) ... 7. Soundscapes - acquaintance with the concept of sound landscapes and the issue of sound ecology. The work of R. M. Schafer. Field-recording and listening exercises. 8. Sound and space - use of space as a means of expression: Poem Electronique, acoustic music, multichannel concert presentations, acoustic, sound installations, VR 9. Music or object? - sound installations and emergence of sound art in galleries of fine arts (Ch.Cox), contemporary festivals, institutions, galleries, labels dedicated to sound art 10. Algorithmic composition and generative music, algorithmic sound installations, autonomous systems and objects 11. Error - fluxus, glitch, click’n’cuts, noise 12. Experimental club electronic music from the 90's to the present 13. Artificial intelligence, online shared compositions, creative databases, VR

Creative seminar

13 hod., compulsory

Teacher / Lecturer

MgA. Jiří Suchánek, Ph.D.