Undergraduate Overview

This course will introduce students to basic techniques of working with sound as an artistic material. As a prerequisite for many of the department's upper level offerings, the class is designed to familiarize the student with both the technology and the historical and aesthetic background relevant to our facilities and courses, to the field of 'sound art' and experimental music in general, and to the application of sound in other disciplines (video, film, performance, installations, etc.) Equipment covered will include microphones, mixers, analog and digital audio recorders, signal processors and analog synthesizers. Hard-disk based recording and editing (ProTools) is introduced, but the focus is on more traditional analog studio technology. The physics of sound will be a recurring subject.

Examples of music and sound art, created using similar technology to that in our studios, will be played or performed and discussed in class. The listening list will vary according to the instructors' preferences. Readings are similarly set according to the instructors' syllabus: some sections employ more or less reading than others, contact specific instructors for details.

Students are expected to use studio time to complete weekly assignments, which are designed to hone technical skills and, in most cases, foster artistic innovation. Some of these projects can incorporate outside resources (such as the student's own computers and recordings), but the emphasis is on mastering the studio.

This course will introduce students to basic techniques of working with sound as an artistic material. As a prerequisite for many of the department's upper level offerings, the class is designed to familiarize the student with both the technology and the historical and aesthetic background relevant to our facilities and courses, to the field of 'sound art' and experimental music in general, and to the application of sound in other disciplines (video, film, performance, installations, etc.) Equipment covered will include microphones, mixers, analog and digital audio recorders, signal processors and analog synthesizers. Hard-disk based recording and editing (ProTools) is introduced, but the focus is on more traditional analog studio technology. The physics of sound will be a recurring subject.

Examples of music and sound art, created using similar technology to that in our studios, will be played or performed and discussed in class. The listening list will vary according to the instructors' preferences. Readings are similarly set according to the instructors' syllabus: some sections employ more or less reading than others, contact specific instructors for details.

Students are expected to use studio time to complete weekly assignments, which are designed to hone technical skills and, in most cases, foster artistic innovation. Some of these projects can incorporate outside resources (such as the student's own computers and recordings), but the emphasis is on mastering the studio.

This course will introduce students to basic techniques of working with sound as an artistic material. As a prerequisite for many of the department's upper level offerings, the class is designed to familiarize the student with both the technology and the historical and aesthetic background relevant to our facilities and courses, to the field of 'sound art' and experimental music in general, and to the application of sound in other disciplines (video, film, performance, installations, etc.) Equipment covered will include microphones, mixers, analog and digital audio recorders, signal processors and analog synthesizers. Hard-disk based recording and editing (ProTools) is introduced, but the focus is on more traditional analog studio technology. The physics of sound will be a recurring subject.

Examples of music and sound art, created using similar technology to that in our studios, will be played or performed and discussed in class. The listening list will vary according to the instructors' preferences. Readings are similarly set according to the instructors' syllabus: some sections employ more or less reading than others, contact specific instructors for details.

Students are expected to use studio time to complete weekly assignments, which are designed to hone technical skills and, in most cases, foster artistic innovation. Some of these projects can incorporate outside resources (such as the student's own computers and recordings), but the emphasis is on mastering the studio.

Consider how object based movement creates both meaning and tone, and how movement functions much like non-verbal communication. We'll attempt to approach the technical matters of controlling motion from the aesthetic perspective of an animator or a dancer. The course introduces basic techniques for creating moving parts appropriate for a broad range of creative and material practices. Technical matters covered through exercises include motors, speed control, fabrication of moving parts and simple circuits for motor control. Self-determined projects will demonstrate mastery of skills and concepts.

This team-taught, introductory course provides a foundation for most additional coursework in the Art and Technology Studies department. Students are given a broad interdisciplinary grounding in the skills, concepts, and hands-on experiences they will need to engage the potentials of new technologies in art making. Every other week, a lecture and discussion group exposes students to concepts of electronic media, perception, inter-media composition, emerging venues, and other issues important to artists working with technologically based media. Students will attend a morning & afternoon section each day to gain hands-on experience with a variety of forms and techniques central to technologically-based art making.

This team-taught, introductory course provides a foundation for most additional coursework in the Art and Technology Studies department. Students are given a broad interdisciplinary grounding in the skills, concepts, and hands-on experiences they will need to engage the potentials of new technologies in art making. Every other week, a lecture and discussion group exposes students to concepts of electronic media, perception, inter-media composition, emerging venues, and other issues important to artists working with technologically based media. Students will attend a morning & afternoon section each day to gain hands-on experience with a variety of forms and techniques central to technologically-based art making.

What are the concerns that drive one's creative practice? How does one set the terms for its future development? Sophomore Seminar offers strategies for students to explore, reflect upon, and connect common themes and interests in the development of an emerging creative practice that will serve as the basis of their ongoing studies at SAIC and beyond. Students will examine historical and contemporary influences and contextualize their work in relation to the diverse art-worlds of the 21st Century. Readings, screenings, and field trips will vary each semester. Presentations by visiting artists and guest speakers will provide the opportunity for students to hear unique perspectives on sustaining a creative practice. One-on-one meetings with faculty will provide students with individualized mentorship throughout the semester. During interdisciplinary critiques, students will explore a variety of formats and tools to analyze work and provide peer feedback. The class mid-term project asks students to imagine a plan for their creative life and devise a self-directed course of study for their time at school. The course concludes with an assignment asking students to develop and document a project or body of work demonstrating how the interplay of ideas, technical skills, and formal concerns evolve through iteration, experimentation and revision.

Prerequisite: Must be a sophomore to enroll.

This course is offered for those students interested in developing skills in the creation and application of digital audio. Using Apple's Logic software, students interested in exploring sound or music are introduced to audio manipulation techniques that allow them to create soundtracks, to record and produce songs or dance tracks, realize abstract sound pieces or manipulate sound for installations.
Techniques of sound manipulation are introduced, including audio recording and editing, looping, and sound destruction. MIDI, drum programming, the use of software synthesis and basic music and composition techniques are addressed according to the needs of individual students.
The class is structured to encourage the interaction of students with a wide range of technical ability in audio from beginners to advanced artists in the early stages of a professional practice.

Mirrors, alter egos, polarities, doppelgängers, gender binaries, impostors, twins, and shadows. Many auditory illusions also arise from doubles. For example, the two sides of the human head can produce psychoacoustic phenomena, such as binaural beats. The dual nature of audio-visual experiences can produce complex illusions, such as the McGurk effect. To knock at the door of these doubles, we will read a few words on doubles by doubles--Jung and Lacan, Sontag and Butler, Sartre and Fosse, Fanon and Said, Artaud and Bataille--and listen to sonic doubles in contemporary practice. Automatic writing will prepare us to create our own auditory illusions in recorded and performed stereophonic sound. Will these doubles sublate?

This course introduces students to the fundamental materials of music composition, the structures used to shape these materials, and techniques and strategies students can use to create fully formed pieces of music. Referencing traditional and experimental practices from many cultures and histories, we examine the basic musical elements of rhythm, meter, tonal organization, harmony, and timbre. These are applied in a digital studio environment via sampling, sound synthesis, looping, and live recording using Apple's Logic digital audio workstation.
Musical works by artists from diverse backgrounds and identities are analyzed to understand how these materials and concepts are used to sculpt emotional expressions, narrative forms, abstract constructions, or conceptual statements. Students work with these references, elements, and materials to make their own work in genres of their own choice. No style of music is off limits.
Course work will vary but typically includes participation in weekly experiments and the presentation of self-devised projects at midterm and the end of the semester. Students work with the materials, structures, and techniques introduced to make their own work in genres of their own choice.

What can analog electronics teach us about making art in a world shaped by digital systems? This hands-on studio explores circuits as creative tools, focusing on sound, light, and motion as expressive media-without relying on code or software. Students can step outside the shadow of AI and mass computation to explore a more intimate relationship between materials, energy and creativity-while experimenting with performance, interactive objects, audiovisual instruments, and installations. Alongside studio practice, we will look at artists who have expanded the possibilities of analog media and study pioneering tools such as the Sandin Image Processor, a patch-programmable analog computer. Students will be invited to connect these histories and techniques to their own practices through the creation of a final project. No prior experience is required-only curiosity, imagination, and a willingness to learn.

Students will investigate scent as an expressive medium. They will have access to the ATS Perfume Organ and specialized lab equipment. Course content includes basic aromatic blending, hydro-distillation extraction techniques and how to impregnate scent into various media. At least TWO works of Olfactory Art are to be completed. The last one is considered the FINAL and should be an opus ready for gallery/performance/experiential application.Students should leave this class with the ability to thoughtfully engage Olfactory Work as practitioners, researchers and thinkers within personal, historical, theoretical and conceptual contexts.

This course focuses on the relationship of sound to moving image, and introduces post-production techniques and strategies that address this relationship as a compositional imperative. Thorough instruction is given on digital audio post-production techniques for moving image, including recording, sound file imports, soundtrack composition and assembly, sound design, and mixing in stereo and surround-sound. This is supplemented by presentations on acoustics and auditory perception. Assigned readings in theories and strategies of sound-image relationships inform studio instruction. Assigned projects focus on gaining post-production skills, and students produce independent projects of their own that integrate sound and moving image.

Artists include Chantal Dumas, Walter Verdin, Deborah Stratman, Lucrecia Martel, Martin Scorcese, Abigail Child, Frederic Moffet, Gyorgi Palvi, Francis Ford Coppola, Gary Hill, and others. Writings in theory include texts by Michel Chion, Rick Altman, and others.

The student?s independent image-and-sound work is foregrounded and supported; supplemental assigned projects include sound sequence composition and ADR recording and mixing.

The focus of this class will be on improvisation within and without traditions and in relationship and juxtaposition to genre and structure. There are many manifestations across cultures of freedom and transformation through improvisation. We will look at improvisational sound, music and performance and their potentials and outcomes -- from moments of imaginative exploration inside the form, to the search for freedom, discovery and re-contextualization. We will dig into the need for improvisation, its effect on the audience, and its power to provoke cultural change. Can improvisation be a practice as a whole, an approach to all forms?
Improvisation in performance and practice takes us to new places that are of the moment and a way forward, as exemplified in the work of the provocative Egyptian vocalist Umm Kalsoum who broke gender norms; Sun Ra¿s sonic storytelling and myth building based on Black American cultural signifiers; the genre-bending deconstructive electronic manipulations of Mixmaster Mike. The students¿ individual and collective explorations of improvisation in their own practice will be fueled by discussions, recordings, performance documentation and texts by artists, practitioners, and writers, including Rob Mazurek, Tomeka Reid & Nicole Mitchell, Wadada Leo Smith, Sun Ra, Umm Kalsoum, Kid Koala & Mixmaster Mike, and more.
Students engage in a variety of in-class approaches to individual and collective improvisation. These include exercises on exploring and expanding one's instrument of choice, close-listening and responsive-listening projects aimed at increased attention to collaborators in the moment, and projects in which cross-cultural and historical approaches to improvisation are analyzed and mobilized towards individual interpretation. These are amplified by meetings with visiting artists who share their experiences of improvisation in a wide range of contexts.

With a concentration on creative practice in online environments, students will focus on the work of women, from the early days of computing, to the late 20th century, to the 21st century. In addition to lectures, readings, and traversals, practicum segments will guide student creation of online works that explore and expand on the role of women in cyberspace. Beginning with the work of women software engineers, such as black mathematician Katherine Johnson, engineer and transgender activist Lynn Conway, and Margaret Hamilton -- and with a project-oriented focus -- the course will look at the cyberspace-based work of women artist innovators, including ECHONYC founder, Stacy Horn; Cave Automatic Virtual Environment developer Carolina Cruz-Neira; and Ping Fu and Colleen Bushell's role in graphical interface design for Mosaic. At its core, the course will focus on the works of women cyberartists, including Joan Jonas, Sherrie Rabinowitz, Nancy Paterson, Brenda Laurel, Pamela Z, Char Davies, JR Carpenter, Lynn Hershman Leeson, Shu Lea Cheang, Tamiko Thiel, Carla Gannis, and Micha Cardenas. Students will create women-centered virtual art works, including graphic narratives and electronic manuscripts, and/or archives, online essays, or criticism.

Note that because Women Artists in Cyberspace is an asynchronous class, attendance on a specific day or time is not required.

This is a class is hardware hacking for audio applications (and a little video as well). No previous electronic experience is assumed. Basic soldering skills will be learned through building contact microphones and coils to sniff electromagnetic fields. We will then open up a range of battery-powered 'consumer' technology (radios, boom boxes, electronic toys), observe the effect of direct hand contact on the circuit boards, experiment with the substitution of components, and listen to unheard signals running through the circuit. Knowledge acquired through this process will be applied to building circuits from scratch (oscillators, amplifiers, fuzztones, sequencers etc.), both from documented designs and as invented by yourselves.

Video and audio playback and performance as relevant to the class projects. Readings from the required textbook, Handmade Electronic Music -- The Art of Hardware Hacking.

Numerous projects to be completed in and out of class; final project based on course material.

This course explores the foundations of modular analog synthesis, working hands-on with oscillators, amplifiers, and filters to create original sound works. Students will use both vintage and contemporary equipment to learn frequency and amplitude modulation, sequencing, frequency shifting, and other core processes that shaped the history of electronic music.

Historical case studies situate these techniques within the work of pioneering composers such as Stockhausen, Radigue, Koenig, Subotnik, Oliveros, and Spiegel, connecting classical studio methods to contemporary practice. Weekly compositional projects encourage students to apply specific technical strategies while developing their own aesthetic approach. By the end of the course, students will have produced a portfolio of analog compositions that reflect both technical fluency and creative exploration in modular synthesis.

This kinetics course will explore the activation of art projects with materials that flow, inflate, pump, pour and move in unique ways. Demonstrations will introduce: basic electronics, pneumatics, air-muscles, inflatables, pumps, motors, actuators and the necessary means to power these devices. This course will explore materials and their unique properties when activated by these processes. Students will learn various techniques to animate and control art projects, including the use of the Arduino micro-controller and sensors.
Throughout the course, screenings and readings will introduce students to artists who work with kinetics, robotics and related fields. Artists shown and discussed in class include: Theo Jansen, Rapheal Lozano-Hemmer, Chico Mac Murtrie, Rebecca Horn. Students will be introduced to organizations, galleries and networks that support this type of art work including ARS Electronica, Rhizome and Bitforms gallery.
A series of workshops and smaller assignments will expose students to the potentials of these devices and processes in art making. Next, students will develop projects that utilize one or more of the systems covered in class. Students will be guided in project proposal development where ideas will be explored in group discussions. Mechanical and electronic fabrication techniques will be further explored through project development. Completed projects will be evaluated in group critiques.

Computer vision allows machines to see and understand their environment. This course will equip students with the practical skills and critical theory needed to both employ and critically engage these techniques. Processing images and video with code, real-time body tracking and object detection with machine learning will be emphasized. Techniques and concepts are presented through the creative coding library p5.js, and through node-based tools like TouchDesigner. Students will explore and critique contemporary applications ranging from automated mass surveillance to interactive installations. A final project will build on in-class workshops, technical exercises, critical readings and discussions.

Light is a material that can be shaped to express ideas, create experiences and increase the communicative potential of objects and spaces. Through a combination of lectures, demos, fields trips and most of all, hands-on lab work, students develop a degree of self sufficiency in the design, construction and prototyping of illuminated objects, physical graphics and environmental lighting. Students learn basic electronic and electrical circuit design, lamp specification and experiment with illumination technologies including incandescent, LED and cold cathode (neon).