Bonnie Han Jones

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 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.

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.

How can touch become sound? How is hearing a form of thinking? This course explores artistic practice through the full sensorium¿sound, touch, smell, taste, and sight. Students develop embodied, multisensory approaches to artmaking by honing their sensitivity to perception and material experience. Open to students from all creative disciplines; no prior sound experience required.

Sound is our point of departure. Students receive hands-on instruction in listening practices, field recording, microphones, transducers, spatial and binaural audio, sensors, interactive sound, and audio editing and composition. Technical tools are introduced progressively and framed as ways to support interdisciplinary and conceptual work. Previous works produced in this class include video installations, site-based sonic mapping, material resonance studies, field-recording compositions, and live performance works.

The course engages artists and thinkers such as Pauline Oliveros, Donna Haraway, Christine Sun Kim, Kevin Beasley, Christina Kubitsch, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, and Lawrence Abu Hamdan, alongside guest lectures on special topics like psychoacoustics, artist talks, and field trips to unique sonic spaces in Chicago (anechoic chambers, symphony halls).

Coursework includes engaged discussion and critique, a sensory journal, readings and listenings, short portfolio assignments, and a midterm and final project based on the student¿s interests.

This seminar introduces topics, theories, strategies, and histories fundamental to the two complementary areas of Art + Technology / Sound Practices (AT/SP). Designed as an immersion into the department's intertwined legacies and curriculum, it is intended for first-year AT/SP graduate students, but open to all in the Graduate Program. The seminar is taught by two faculty who represent the AT and SP areas, each providing a focused approach in small-group settings.
Art + Technology: Hito Steyrel, Kelly Pendergrast, Jenny Odell, Wendy Chun, Antonio Negri, Raqs Media Collective, Olia Lialina,Trevor Paglan, Olia Lialina, Rafael Lozanno Hemmer, Micha Cardenas, Harun Farocki, Liam Gillick, Ian Cheng, Casey Reas, Auria Harvey, Stephanie Dinkins.
Sound: Samson Young, Mendi + Keith Obadike, Alvin Lucier, Eliane Radigue, Laetitia Sonami, Imai Norio, Christina Kubisch, Pamela Z, Cauleen Smith, Christoph Cox, George E. Lewis, Seth Kim-Cohen, Julia Eckhardt, Pierre Schaeffer, Jean-Luc Nancy, Joseph Grigely, Dylan Robinson.
Weekly readings and discussions are required, as well as informed responses to artists¿ works presented. students will present work for critique and fully particpate in critique sessions.

This seminar focuses on the presentation of technological and sound works in exhibition and live performance contexts. It is a required seminar for second-semester AT/SP graduate students. Students will develop skills for presenting their work in a professional manner to maximize the public's encounter with media installations, live performances with media and/or sound components, video/sound screenings or installations, conceptual art works, and alternative curatorial scenarios.
We will survey a number of artists' works specifically as they were presented in exhibitions or events, and include visiting professionals who are experts in exhibition installation, media arts presentation, and live performance production. We will specifically draw on SAIC staff for these expertise.
Students will present their work and that of others in small- and large-group exhibitions and presentations both on and off campus.

Taken every semester, the Graduate Projects courses allow students to focus in private sessions on the development of their work. Students register for 6 hours of Graduate Project credit in each semester of study.

Taken every semester, the Graduate Projects courses allow students to focus in private sessions on the development of their work. Students register for 6 hours of Graduate Project credit in each semester of study.