Digital music and sound arts ba(hons)

Year 1

In the first year you will study creative studio techniques together with the physical properties of sound which will inform other work on the course. You will be working on creative projects, aimed at opening up new possibilities through an engagement with new audio technologies to develop creative strategies as used in contemporary music and sound art practices. In addition to industry standard production software like Logic Pro, Protools and Ableton Live, we emphasise creative work with musical programming environments such as Pure Data and Max/MSP in order to enable the design of musical interfaces, installations, or systems based on individual creative projects.

The first year covers a wide field: from sound synthesis and acoustics, perception of sound and music analysis, to musical composition and instrument design. Various project assignments will encourage you to reflect upon your own practice and develop creative projects that you will present to your fellow students. You will also write an essay on a topic of your choice related to the course profile areas. Embedded in the course curriculum are tasks and methods that provide you with transferable skills, such as project development, management and presentation skills, and academic writing.

• Practice 1: Introduction to Sound

  Through establishing a solid basis in the understanding of sound from a phenomenological and psychoacoustic perspective, this module will encourage you to increase the level of experimentation in your composition exercises. By exploring diverse soundscapes, listening to and analysing important musical works of the past 70 years, you will widen the scope of their own compositional approaches. New technical skills will be contextualised within diverse aesthetic and historic musical approaches. The aim is to conduct an extensive ear training and increase the your compositional portfolio.

• Practice 2: Sound as Material – Perception and Experimentation

  This module will introduce you to creative applications and techniques relating to work in sound studios, loop based music and sound installations. You will also be introduced to the nature of sound, synthesis, psychoacoustics, audio programming and compositional techniques. You will be encouraged to present work in the context of public performances and collaborations with external music organisations.

• Practice 3: Sound Organisation

  This module will introduce you to a variety of creative approaches to the concept of sound organisation as it is applied in contemporary sound art practices. You will engage with techniques for gathering of materials, customization of technical skills, conceptualization, listening and composition, and methods for organizing sound in both virtual and physical spaces.

• Practice 4: Creative Audio Systems

  In this module you will examine music and sound synthesis in the context of contemporary arts and performance by focusing on three key topics: iterative or generative music; new interfaces for musical expression (NIME) and interactive sound installations; and Network Music and Human-Computer Interaction. You will work in groups to research, develop and critique your projects.

• HCS 1: Programme Profile Introduction

  This module will introduce you to the profile of the Digital Music and Sound Arts programme. Taught as interrelated lectures and seminars, you will develop your knowledge of the wide and complex field of artistic sound practice and gain an understanding of its practical, conceptual, cultural and aesthetic implications. You will explore the experimental music and sound works in the cultural context in which they emerged in the 20th / 21st Century. You will practice presentation skills through presenting you own work.

• HCS 2: Experimental Sound and Music in Contemporary Culture

  This module will continue exploring the experimental music and sound works of the 20th and the 21st centuries, the aesthetic concepts that underpinned them, and the cultural context in which they emerged. This is introduced through individual key topics. You will also be introduced to research methodologies and academic writing. You will select a topic of your own choice and will be guided through the research methodologies and writing practices required for producing an academic text.

Listen to samples of electronic music by year 1 students on Soundcloud.