​​00 assignments: SoundSCAPE
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​ASSIGNMENT #1 [for Sept 3rd]

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​What is a city? What is sound, image, space? How do we drift? What do we learn?
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​​• General assignment: Browse the links page, listen to the soundscapes on Spotify, SoundCloud, bandcamp, start gathering inspiration. Take notes.  
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​​• Watch three films: Blowup, Conversation, Blowout.
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​​• Read the Preface in Tomlinson’s A Million Years of Music .
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​​• Record one brief soundscape from your week, write a description; 
​​you may use a phone, videocamera or just a microphone. 2-3 minutes.
​​Save this work to a blog, google docs, etc.
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​​• Look at / listen to Anne Guthrie’s work
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​• Look at / listen to these projects: 
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​• Also these beautiful field/map/scape albums:
​​• Read about Walking, sounding, mapping: 
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​ASSIGNMENT #2  [for SEPT 10th]

​​THEME: FEEDBACK LOOPS
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​PERSONAL SOUND PRACTICE ASSIGNMENT: 
​​• Start at least one day with a 20 minute sound meditation. Listen to a piece
​​which is deeply quiet, layered and relaxing. Continue your day from that 
​​point. 
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​​• Record another short soundscape/field/walk soundscape.
​​• create a blog page and keep your work in progress in a google drive or dropbox folder
  • ​​to share with your fellow students.
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​​FILMS TO SEE: Mirror, After Life,  Sans Soleil
​​Mirror [Tarkovsky] 
​​After Life [Kore Eda] 
​​Sans Soleil [Marker]
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​​Transcription of Sans Soleil: https://www.markertext.com/sans_soleil.htm 
  • ​​also recommended: 
  • ​​Vertigo [Hitchcock] 
  • ​​London [Keiller] 
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​LISTEN
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​​READ 
​​Pauline Oliveros
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​​Walter Murch
  • ​​Interview with Walter Murch
  • ​​browse fulltext of Blink of an Eye
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​​Larry Sider
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​continue reading
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​BROWSE TEXTS 
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​ASSIGNMENT #3 [for Sept 17th]

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​ELLINGSEN WORKSHOP - URBAN SONIC MAPS
​​Eric Ellingsen, with guest David Rothenberg 
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​​READINGS for ELLINGSEN: 
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​​Walkscapes, Careri; browse thru this book [link]
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​​​+Street mapping exercise Sept 17​  FULL DETAILS of EXERCISE and audio/vido/map files
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​ASSIGNMENT #4 [for Sept 24th]

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​FIFTH SEMINAR
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​STRUCTURES of FEELING
​​‘Raymond Williams coined this phrase in Preface to Film (1954) to discuss the relationship between dramatic conventions and written texts. What concerned Williams was the social acceptability of particular conventions—think of the theme of mistaken identity which is rife in Shakespeare's plays which without the benefit of special effects relies on convention for its plausibility. In later works, particularly The Long Revolution (1961), Williams would develop this concept further, using it to problematize (though not refute) Antonio Gramsci's concept of hegemony. Hegemony, which can be thought of as either ‘common sense’ or the dominant way of thinking in a particular time and place, can never be total, Williams argued, there must always be an inner dynamic by means of which new formations of thought emerge. Structure of feeling refers to the different ways of thinking vying to emerge at any one time in history. It appears in the gap between the official discourse of policy and regulations, the popular response to official discourse and its appropriation in literary and other cultural texts. Williams uses the term feeling rather than thought to signal that what is at stake may not yet be articulated in a fully worked-out form, but has rather to be inferred by reading between the lines. If the term is vague it is because it is used to name something that can really only be regarded as a trajectory. It is this later formulation that is most widely known.’  
​​from Oxford Reference
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​ASSIGNMENT: 
​​• upload your drawings, video, and audio from the Sept 17th exercise to these folders: 
​​        prefix them with your name and date
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​​• Begin developing your individual concept for a MANIFESTO of SONIC/SPATIAL practice. 
​​Concepts, design ideas, sites for intervention, collaborators, precedent models. 
​​This will be due as an individual paper and proposal at midterm.
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​​• See the films/readings/sounds below- 
  • ​​NB- Make sure you have seen Tarkovsky’s Mirror- we will continue our seminar from 2 weeks ago by starting with Mirror.  
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​FILMS [see both]
​​[catch up on Mirror [Tarkovsky] https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0BxeiMVMQITUAcVc2N1ZldlRRU1k?usp=sharing subtitle file is in the folder. Open in VLC.]
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​READINGS
​​Sara Adhitya, Composing the City in SONIC URBANISM
  • ​​[also skim intro/foreward]
​​Excerpt, Williams, Structures of Feeling https://drive.google.com/open?id=1bPxjoFqAyjfOd5NDmNfayW92zSCBVFv2
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​SOUND
​​• Read and listen: Art of Field Recording
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​OCT 15th SIXTH SEMINAR

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​PROJECT CONCEPT ASSIGNMENT: Due October 15th. 
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​​Write first draft of your project concept/manifesto. 2-3pages.  Address some of these questions: What sound is necessary? What can sound do? What is the Sound - Space - Image - Movement relationship you want to create?   You can use text, and sound and image as well for this assignment.
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​​To build the framework for your manifesto, REVISIT the SYLLABUS: search for your ‘manifesto agendas’. REVISIT the first four assignments. Listen to sound/music again, investigate material you missed first time through; read and re-read the assignment texts/websites; re-screen the films. REVISIT the LINKS/AUDIO/READINGS/FILMS.
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​SEMINAR on Oct 15th: CITY DRIFT 
​​We will discuss Radical Ambience, Theatrics :: radical cognition, empathy
​​the temporality of soundscape. 
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​In advance of class, see/listen/read this material:
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​FILMS to see: 
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​SOUNDS: 
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​TEXTS to READ: 
​​Notation, Score; Tschumi, Halprins. et al
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​​browse: 
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​​READ on the HALPRINS and scoring:
  • ​​and skim: (grab concepts from THE RSVP CYCLES)
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​​TSCHUMI: 
​​Manhattan Transcripts: read the ‘Illustrated Index’ to start; then browse the book. 
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​ANALYSIS and SCORING - DUE OCT 22nd

​​analysis, diagramming, mapping, score development
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​​ASSIGNMENT: 
​​You will do a film/media analysis project for next week. You will also complete previous assignments if you have not finished yet: This includes 
  • ​​• week 2/3 soundscape recording/uploads; 
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​​FILM ANALYSIS for Oct 22: You will choose a film, theater piece or video game with a soundscape  [can be musical or field audio] to DIAGRAM and ANALYZE. Over the next weeks, your analysis will be worked into a ‘shooting script’ or ‘score’ which you’ll take out into the city. Use the manifesto development work to further inform your analysis and scoring work. Speak to your classmates to form teams. You may work alone or in a team on this project and future projects in the second half of semester. This two week exercise is a kind of ‘icebreaker’ to get you making links between our ‘theory’ work in the first six weeks, and your manifesto. 
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​FILMS/SONICS to ANALYZE: 
​​You may choose the film/theater/game, or you may refer to the list we have used this semester; the assigned films above; or these, if you need inspiration: ​+SON IMAGE - FILM LIST: FILMS​ If you have doubts, post your question to slack; I’ll reply there so everyone can 
​​chime in. 
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​ANALYTICAL CRITERIA & ELEMENTS
​​To begin this analysis, think about the way that Tschumi framed his work in 70s through Space/Event/Movement and the details he used to redefine S/E/M and what their interrelation is. Think about Anne Halprins’ process and scoring. Look at the notational examples in Tschumi, Halprin, and the other material we have covered.  For this first part of your projects, you will make drawings, sketches, 3D models, to track and map the 
​​following ELEMENTS: 
  • ​​characters, character movements, props, gestures, clothing, costumes, objects, architectural spaces, urban spaces, sounds, foods, narrative twists, etc. 
  • ​​In the mapmaking process, each team should also identify a range of vectors that the sites they are dealing with activate, are crossed by, or establish. There is one key constraint on mapping these vectors: they should NOT be only visual, but can include infrastructure, circulation, program, and even possible hidden vectors as esoteric as 'ley lines'.
​​VISUAL/SPATIAL/TEXTUAL OUTPUT: For next week you will present your work in progress in the form of drawings, diagrams, and maps of the ELEMENTS you choose to follow. This could be a static image or series of images; an animation; a map/maps; sonic mappings; etc. but you should have some form of visual or 2d/3d representation and notation to present in class. 
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​​For the week of October 22nd-29th, you will then take these diagrams/scores/maps, and go out into the city to REFILM/RERECORD using that set of documents as a ‘shooting script’ process document. 
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​​PROCESS: 
​​refer to the various processes we have looked at [film, field recording, etc] and think about
​​how you will both CREATE your ANALYSIS and SCORE; also how you will work in a team, if you do. For example, a team could function as a production team, and have a camera person, a map maker, a writer, a photographer, a diagram maker, and actors. Roles can be doubled up. [On subsequent days, you should switch roles.]
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​​SUPPORT MATERIAL [information on process, representation techniques]: 
  • ​​Halprin, The RSVP Cycles- Read pp. 190-195, ‘A Summary of the Characteristics of Scores’
  • ​​Tschumi, Manhattan Transcripts
  • ​​Walter Murch, Blink of an Eye; read book for editing process 
  • ​​Anne Guthrie, read her texts on wandering/drift/recording the city
  • ​​Revisit the film examples: Afterlife, Fallen Angels, for METHOD
  • ​​revisit Tarkovsky’s Mirror for method- read his writing on the film
  • ​​Tarkovsky, Sculpting in Time; skim
  • ​​Ellingsen, guest urban mapping exercise/lecture
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​​OTHER READING: : TBA
​​SONIC EXERCISE: TBA
​​VISUAL/SPATIAL/TEXTUAL OUTPUT: TBA
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​ASSIGNMENT for OCT 29

​​1. CREATE A FOLDER for your work in progress on the google drive, here: 
​​If you already posted work here, make a folder and move your work into the folder. 
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​​2. FINISH YOUR MANIFESTO DRAFT and post a copy in your folder on the google drive. 
​​        If you've emailed it to me already, no worries- just repost it on GDrive so that we can all 
​​        browse thru the ideas.  Come prepared to PRESENT your manifesto in 2-3 minutes. 
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​​3. Continue working on your diagramming/Mapping/Notation work and post to GDrive
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​​4. you can also post links to work in progress on dropbox paper, here
​​        ​+SoundSCAPE WORK IN PROGRESS​ 
​​        But for clarity's sake, let's keep all your work in the google drive folder
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​​5. I continue to post links etc on SLACK so please make sure you're following all the channels. 
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​​See you next week! We will continue reviewing work in class. 
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​FURTHER ASSIGNMENT NOTES

​​ways to capture sonifications of the world- 
​​phone/camera/mics- also contact mics, piezos
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​​take text eg larry sider.. and wherever he says director/film, etc- swap in different discipline eg archtect/building or musician/album
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