Description

While contemporary culture is saturated with visual imagery, it is sound that provides texture to image, experience, and memory.  Sound can communicate information, establish atmosphere, evoke emotion, and mobilize identifications.  A recent explosion of creative work and scholarship with sound has demonstrated the fascinating, subtle and profound ways that our culture is shaped aurally as well as visually.  This course offers students a creative and socially engaged introduction to digital sound with an emphasis on cultural studies and film/video practice.  Areas of exploration include digital audio design in the desktop environment; digital recording, editing, and mixing; the history, theory, and practice of sound in cinema and the arts; and the creative, cultural, and legal ramifications of digital sound.  The course stresses technical competency, conceptual sophistication, and expressivity.  

Objectives

  1. Develop an appreciation and understanding of the history and practice of sound in cinema and the arts.
  2. Be able to engage critically and analytically with aural culture. 
  3. Demonstrate creative skills in sound composition and sound design for image.
  4. Become familiar with digital recording equipment, including microphones, racks, mixers, and field recorders.
  5. Gain practical skills in field and soundstage recording and mixing in an all-digital environment.
  6. Develop a working knowledge of Soundtrack Pro and ProTools audio editing and mixing suites.
  7. Learn to speak critically about your own work and the work of others.

 

 

 

Image: Still from Elephant, Gus Van Sant, 2002