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 studio provides a foundation for creative work across contemporary media practices. Students explore how systems, tools, and materials co-exist in an expansive ecosystem of technical possibility, to be mixed and used to create works that engage with technology as tool, medium, and terrain for playful exploration.
Through hands-on workshop modules, individual projects and possibilities for collaboration, the course introduces approaches drawn from creative coding, electronics, 3D, games, and related media to create responsive, time-based, and interactive audiovisual works. Creative misuse, tinkering, hacking, probing and breaking are strongly encouraged. Students gain a broad interdisciplinary grounding in the skills, concepts, histories, and key areas of inquiry necessary for informed artistic engagement with technology.
Weekly sessions combine technical instruction with conceptual framing, encouraging students to develop their own ideas while introducing the broader AT/SP curriculum, pathways, and areas of practice. No prior experience required.

This team-taught introductory studio provides a foundation for creative work across contemporary media practices. Students explore how systems, tools, and materials co-exist in an expansive ecosystem of technical possibility, to be mixed and used to create works that engage with technology as tool, medium, and terrain for playful exploration.
Through hands-on workshop modules, individual projects and possibilities for collaboration, the course introduces approaches drawn from creative coding, electronics, 3D, games, and related media to create responsive, time-based, and interactive audiovisual works. Creative misuse, tinkering, hacking, probing and breaking are strongly encouraged. Students gain a broad interdisciplinary grounding in the skills, concepts, histories, and key areas of inquiry necessary for informed artistic engagement with technology.
Weekly sessions combine technical instruction with conceptual framing, encouraging students to develop their own ideas while introducing the broader AT/SP curriculum, pathways, and areas of practice. No prior experience required.

Neon is a medium of light, color, and atmosphere-at once iconic in commercial signage and radical in contemporary art. This course introduces students to the history and practice of neon, from early experiments to its use by contemporary makers. In the Light Lab, students will learn essential methods of tube bending, wiring, and installation, while also exploring neon's significance as both a craft tradition and a contemporary artistic medium.

We will look at how artists such as Bruce Nauman, Keith Sonnier, Joseph Kosuth, and Cerith Wyn Evans transformed neon into a language of sculpture, architecture, and experimental art. Readings on light, vision, and color theory will provide both scientific and conceptual grounding for studio practice. By the end of the semester, students will have created an original neon work that reflects their own creative vision.

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 class goes beyond the idea of ?surround sound? to consider the possibilities and challenges inherent in presenting sonic compositions to listeners through something other than the default left and right loudspeakers. From the spatial illusions of stereo and ambisonic arrays to tiny, tinny speaker fields, techniques for designing and experiencing multichannel, spatialized sound work will be explored. Emphasis will be given to emerging technologies and experimental techniques. DIY approaches and accessible tools, such as those available for VR sound, will be explored on the path to a practice that foregrounds the presentation of sound in space. A case for mono will be considered.

Some of the artists whose work we will explore include Janet Cardiff, Natasha Barrett, Iannis Xenakis, Florian Hecker, and Tristan Perich. Readings will include artist statements as well as technical manuals for relevant tools.

Weekly assignments are designed to emphasize specific technical or aesthetic concerns such as issues of electronic and acoustic power, multichannel playback formats, spatial audio in virtual reality, audience experience and the ?sweet spot?. One to two portfolio projects will be created and presented in class in two formal critiques.

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.

This studio-seminar will explore noise as a creative and critical force in experimental music, sound art, and digital media. Through a hybrid practice of making/thinking, we examine noise in relation to the environment, political space and protest, embodied practices, and technology.

Students work across performance, media, electronics, and everyday materials - investigating noise as signal, disruption, and expression. Readings introduce key ideas from scholars like Jacques Attali, Legacy Russell, and Steve Goodman. Listenings will closely analyze the practices of artists like Lou Reed, Moor Mother, Merzbow, The Art Ensemble of Chicago, Clipping, and Wolf Eyes.

Through hands-on projects, students create their own noise-based works exploring techniques such as: glitch and databending, audio and visual feedback, synthesis and processing, generative software systems, and more.

The course includes weekly discussions, technical demos, and 3-4 portfolio projects. It culminates in a live performance, installation, or sonic intervention that is developed in phases with peer feedback and faculty support over the course of the semester.

No prior experience required.

Neon Light & Ceramics introduces students to hybrid practices that combine neon glasswork and ceramic structures in sculptural and installation contexts. Students will learn foundational neon techniques¿glass bending, gas/voltage properties, wiring, and installation styles¿alongside ceramic methods for creating supports, housings, and interactive elements. Weekly rotations between the Neon Lab and Ceramics studios provide students with equal immersion in both materials. The course emphasizes hands-on skill building, conceptual development, and experimental applications, culminating in a final exhibition-ready neon and ceramic artwork. Through this course, students will expand their technical versatility and explore light and form as interdependent sculptural media.
We will look at mid-century neon artists such as Cryssa, Lucio Fontana, Nam June Paik, and Martyelle Rayse, as well as contemporary work by Elaine Cameron Weir, Anselm Reyle, Ceryth Wyn Evans, Andrea Bowers, Shezad Dawood, Ivan Navarro, Blair Thurman, Jason Rhodes, Mary Weatherford, Glenn Ligon, Jochen Holz, Lionel Dinis Salazar and Jonathan Omar (Döppel Studio), and Demian DinéYazhi¿. Readings and selected text to include: Gyorgy Kepes¿ Light and Design, ¿Light as a Creative Medium¿ (1967); Wassily Kandinsky, ¿Psychological Workings of Color¿ (1911), and selections from Denise Scott Brown and Robert Venturi¿s Learning from Las Vegas (1972).
At the end of the course, students will have conceptualized, designed, and executed an exhibition-ready neon artwork, gained a working knowledge of industry standards and installation techniques, and assessed how the medium of light functions in their artistic anthology

Neon Light & Ceramics introduces students to hybrid practices that combine neon glasswork and ceramic structures in sculptural and installation contexts. Students will learn foundational neon techniques¿glass bending, gas/voltage properties, wiring, and installation styles¿alongside ceramic methods for creating supports, housings, and interactive elements. Weekly rotations between the Neon Lab and Ceramics studios provide students with equal immersion in both materials. The course emphasizes hands-on skill building, conceptual development, and experimental applications, culminating in a final exhibition-ready neon and ceramic artwork. Through this course, students will expand their technical versatility and explore light and form as interdependent sculptural media.
We will look at mid-century neon artists such as Cryssa, Lucio Fontana, Nam June Paik, and Martyelle Rayse, as well as contemporary work by Elaine Cameron Weir, Anselm Reyle, Ceryth Wyn Evans, Andrea Bowers, Shezad Dawood, Ivan Navarro, Blair Thurman, Jason Rhodes, Mary Weatherford, Glenn Ligon, Jochen Holz, Lionel Dinis Salazar and Jonathan Omar (Döppel Studio), and Demian DinéYazhi¿. Readings and selected text to include: Gyorgy Kepes¿ Light and Design, ¿Light as a Creative Medium¿ (1967); Wassily Kandinsky, ¿Psychological Workings of Color¿ (1911), and selections from Denise Scott Brown and Robert Venturi¿s Learning from Las Vegas (1972).
At the end of the course, students will have conceptualized, designed, and executed an exhibition-ready neon artwork, gained a working knowledge of industry standards and installation techniques, and assessed how the medium of light functions in their artistic anthology

Public Sound and Space explores situating sound-based art practices, including performance and installation, into public space. Projects are conceptualized and developed in response to specific locations found in and around Chicago, determined by students in coordination with the instructor. The course examines public space and architecture through historical and contemporary sound practices, as well as the non-art uses of sound and its employment in public space. Technical workshops emphasize sound projection, acoustics, and mixing for complicated sonic environments and playback systems. In collaboration with the Public Light and Space course, students will work in pairs to mount a large-scale sound and video work to be projected onto the Merchandise Mart, a significant building in the Loop. Bi-monthly in-class meetings between Public Sound and Space and Public Light and Space will catalyze collaboration, hold technical and conceptual critiques, and accommodate workshops to address sound and image workflow. Facilitated by Art on the Mart, an art initiative presenting international artists, the work will be on view daily for 6 weeks capturing an audience of roughly 300,000 people.
We will study the works of artists including Susan Philipsz, Park McArthur, Ryoji Ikeda, Cevdet Erek, and Cameron Rowland. Readings include Miwon Kwon, Niall Atkinson, and others.
In addition to the collaborative Art on the Mart project, students will research, propose, and develop a public sound work in response to a site of their choosing for the final.

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.

Experimental Mixed Reality explores how virtual and sensory media transform physical space through mobile devices, head-mounted displays, and other spatial computing technologies. Students experiment with artistic strategies for augmenting bodies, objects, and environments, revealing hidden dimensions and choreographing hybrid encounters.

The course emphasizes experimental and DIY approaches to mixed reality, introducing accessible creative coding, web-based tools, and 3D scanning alongside selective use of commercial platforms. Projects may include site-responsive augmented reality, virtual environments, or performances and installations that move between physical and virtual space.

Mixed reality practices are situated within contemporary art through artists such as Mark Skwarek, Nancy Baker Cahill, Tamiko Thiel, Tender Claws, and Claudia Hart. No prior experience with mixed reality or coding is required.