220C/Alexander

PROJECT PARAMETERS

Product:

• A theoretical intervention in the theoretical humanities (i.e. where music meets other fields) in the form of:
  • 1) a short musical composition
  • 2) a 3 to 5-page paper discussing the work’s theoretical implications

Learning objectives:

• To build/solidify proficiency in ChuCK and Live/Max
• To think about music production as a form of practice for a scholar-practitioner
• To be able to approach sound and music from a number of interdisciplinary angles by reading widely in sound studies, music theory, computer music history, sound poetics, etc

UPDATES

Week 3

Readings (planned)

• Christoph Cox, Sonic Flux: Sound, Art, and Metaphysics (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 2018), https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/S/bo27886631.html.
• Brian Kane, Sound Unseen: Acousmatic Sound in Theory and Practice, Reprint edition (Oxford University Press, 2016)
• Douglas Kahn, Earth Sound Earth Signal: Energies and Earth Magnitude in the Arts (University of California Press, 2013)

This week, I experiment with the idea of chroma, of color as a metaphor for sound.

Week 2

Readings

• V. J. Manzo and Will Kuhn, Interactive Composition: Strategies Using Ableton Live and Max for Live, 1st edition (New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2015).
• Jan Schnupp, Israel Nelken, and Andrew J. King, Auditory Neuroscience: Making Sense of Sound (The MIT Press, 2012)
• Veit Erlmann, Reason and Resonance: A History of Modern Aurality, First paperback edition (New York: Zone Books, 2014).
• Kim-Cohen, Seth. In the Blink of an Ear: Toward a Non-Cochlear Sonic Art. Illustrated edition. New York: Continuum, 2009.

I participated in a studio orientation with Matthew on Wednesday and spent Saturday afternoon and evening working through how to get a DAW up and running up to the point where I can make basic ambient music through Ableton Live.

Week 1

Readings

• Ajay Kapur et al., Programming for Musicians and Digital Artists: Creating Music with ChucK, 1st edition (Shelter Island: Manning, 2015).
• Andrew J. Nelson, The Sound of Innovation: Stanford and the Computer Music Revolution, Illustrated edition (Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2015).
• Ge Wang, Artful Design: Technology in Search of the Sublime, A MusiComic Manifesto (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2018).

I have been giving myself a bootcamp education in ChuCK – I worked through a textbook and am now able to complete work up to MUSIC 220A and half of MUSIC 220B. I am also exploring other software ecologies (Max/MSP, PureData etc). I have also been reading up on the relationship between the sonic avant-gardes of mid-twentieth century America and contemporary discourse on poetics, sound studies, and art history to see what theoretical interventions made in music look like.