art and the soundscape

ARTV 424 / MUSC 424

part of the curriculum in Art, Technology and Critical Studies at the University of San Diego

offered every other year

Instructor: Christopher Adler

 

+ resources
+ student works

 

art and the soundscape

The ubiquity of sound and its power to shape our experience of the world makes the study of the sonic environment in its natural, social and political contexts study an important part of humanistic inquiry. Inheriting the term from the founder of acoustic ecology R. Murray Schafer, ethnomusicologist Steven Feld defines the soundscape as a sonic environment invested with significance by human imagination. Artistic engagement with the soundscape, both through passive work such as recording and audio collage, and through active work including intentional contributions to the sound environment provide a means to gain fluency in the personal and social significance of sound. There is a wealth of artistic work from the 20th century relating to the experience of the soundscape, and such work continues to make up an important aspect of contemporary sound art and experimental music. Such work reaches across a variety of traditional and new media, including earthworks, sculpture and installation art, music, phonography (sonic documentation and representation), instrument construction, broadcast media and the internet.

 

 

resources and miscellaneous citations

extensive sound art-related links available at the 109 Introduction to Sound Art site

Course reserves list via Sally (current semester)
Electronic course reserves via Sally (password required)

Acoustic Ecology Institute
World Forum for Acoustic Ecology
World Soundscape Project

David Dunn, Santa Fe Institute Public Lecture, August 15, 2001 (pdf)
David Dunn website
William Osborne. Sounding the Abyss of Otherness: Pauline Oliveros' Deep Listening and The Sonic Meditations

The Land Foundation (Rirkit Tiravanija)
Robert Smithson, Spiral Jetty (excerpt)
Spiral Jetty location
Donald Judd, Specific Objects (pdf)
Dia: Beacon / Dia Art Foundation
Maya Lin, Wave Field
Agnes Denes, Wheatfield - A Confrontation
Cai Guo-Qiang

 

 

student works

Fall, 2008

Sheree Hyduke, The Beginning of Compositions: "Music"
Andrew Johnson, Ext. 6613
Andrew Johnson, Now They'll Sleep
Joseph Olivarez, Numerus Celebritas
Joseph Olivarez, Wind

 

Spring, 2007

Chris Cuthbert, Three Trains
Chris Cuthbert, Accidental Score
Tom Doane, Sound Box
Tom Doane, Humming Eyes
Brian Hall, Target Impact
Paul Infantino, Kulim
Tony Krzmarzick, Erebus
Tony Krzmarzick, Causal Sound
Ryan Lynch, Tolerated Doubt
Ryan Lynch, A Glimpse into Treatise
J Noland, With Bated Breath
Meg Peter, Implanted Simulation
Nicholas Starke, Impossible Soundscapes
Nicholas Starke, Sonic Funhouse
Cristina Valadez, The Daily Walk
Frank Zaccaria, Jr., As D Gang, I, Irot, F.S.O.R.
Frank Zaccaria, Jr., The Didactic of Aphex