Courses in
Acoustic Communication
CMNS
386-4:
SPECIAL TOPICS: AUDIO MEDIA ANALYSIS
to be regularized as: CMNS 357-4 AUDIO MEDIA ANALYSIS
Instructor:
Website:
http://www.sfu.ca/media-lab/archive/2011/386
&
www.sfu.ca/sonic-studio/handbook
This
course provides an intensive analysis of the design and function of
audio in
all forms of electroacoustic media, including both historical analog
and
contemporary digital forms of communication. Specific attention will be
given
to sound design in advertising and other types of soundtracks, the
structure of
broadcast media considered as a surrogate listening environment, the
sound
recording as document, patterns and functions of electroacoustic media
usage in
daily life, and alternative uses of audio media.
The format
of the course will be seminar/lab in order to cover both the
theoretical and
applied aspects of media analysis.
Student work will consist of (1) a media use audit of aspects of
the
student’s media consumption patterns; (2) an essay based on course
texts and
other literature; (3) an applied analysis project with a choice of
written,
audio or video documentary formats. Students wishing to use audio/video
format
for project 3 need to already have the required studio skills as basic
technical instruction will not be available.
Text: B.
Truax, Acoustic Communication, 2nd ed., Ablex 2001. (QC
225.15 T78)
References: (on Library Reserve)
R.
Altman,
ed.
Sound
Theory, Sound Practice, Routledge,
1992. (PN 1995.7 S69 1992)
J.
Attali,
Noise (The Political
Economy of Music),
The
University
of
Minnesota
Press, 1985. (ML 3795 A913)
M.
Ayers, ed. Cybersounds: Essays on Virtual Music Culture, Peter Lang,
2006. (ML
3918 P67 C93 2006)
B. Blesser,
Spaces Speak, Are You Listening?
Experiencing Aural Architecture, MIT Press, 2007. (QP 443 B585
2007)
M.
Bull,
Sounding Out The City:
Personal Stereos and the Management of Everyday Life,
Oxford,
2000
(T
14.5
B85
2000)
M.
Chanan, Repeated Takes: A short history of recording and its
effects on
music,
Verso, 1995.
D. De
Kerckhove, The skin of culture:
Investigating the new electronic reality, Somerville
House, 1995. (P 96 T42 D454
1995)
S. Douglas, Listening In: Radio and the American Imagination, Times Books, 1999. (HE 8698 D68 1999)
P. Doyle, Echo and Reverb: Fabricating Space in Popular Music Recording, 1900-1960, Wesleyan University Press, 2005. (ML 3470 D69 2005)
P.
du
Gay
et
al.,
Doing Cultural Studies: The Story of the Sony Walkman,
Sage
Publications,
1997
(TK
7881.6
D65 1997)
E.
Eisenberg, The recording
angel :
music, records and culture from Aristotle to Zappa, Yale University Press, 2005. (ML
1055
E35
2005)
P.
Fornatale & J. Mills, Radio in the Television Age, Overlook
Press, 1980. (PN
1991.3 U6 F6)
D. Kahn &
G.
Whitehead, Wireless imagination: Sound, radio, and the avant-garde, MIT Press,
1992. (NX
650 S68 W57 1992)
M.
Katz, Capturing Sound : How Technology Has Changed Music, University
of
California Press, 2004. (ML 3790 K277 2004) & CD
E.
Pease & E. Dennis, eds. Radio: The Forgotten Medium, Transaction
Publishers, 1995. (PN 1991.6 R24 1995)
T.
Schwartz, The Responsive Chord, Anchor
Press, 1973. (HM 258 S32)
J.
Sterne, The Audible Past: Cultural Origins of Sound Reproduction, Duke
University Press,
2003. (TK 7881.4 S733 2003)
C.
Symes, Setting the Record Straight, Wesleyan
University Press, 2004. (ML 3790 S97
2004)
T.
Taylor, Strange Sounds: Music, Technology, and Culture, Routledge,
2001. (ML
1380 T38 2001)
P.
Théberge,
Any Sound You Can Imagine,
Wesleyan
University
Press,
1997.
(ML
1092 T38 1997)
E.
Thompson, The Soundscape of Modernity, MIT Press,
2002. (NA
2800 T48 2002)
A.
Williams, Portable Music and Its Functions, Peter Lang,
2007. (ML 3830 W545 2007)
S.
Wurtzler, Electric Sounds: Technological Change and the Rise of
Corporate
Mass Media,
Columbia University Press, 2007. (P 96 T422 U639 2007)
Projects:
Student work will consist of a media use audit, an
essay and an applied project on any topic in the field of audio media
analysis.
A verbal report on one of these topics is expected during the final
seminar.
The essay and project are expected to be written up as a substantial
report
(approx. 15 pages or 4000 words).
The essay will discuss the course readings, supplemented by
library or
other research on a particular topic, and the project will be an
applied
analysis. Each topic should allow you to apply a communicational model,
based
on the course texts, to a specific media issue or media context. More
details
on these projects are found below. Grading will be by letter grade
average of
the three projects weighted as follows:
Media
Use Audit (20%) due
Week 3; Essay (40%) due
Week 8; Project (40%) due
Week 14
A 2 page outline of the essay and project must also be submitted as follows:
Essay
outline
(topic, section headings & summary, references) Week 6
Project
outline
(goal, methodology, analysis method) Week 10
The School expects that the
grades
awarded in this course will bear some reasonable relation to
established
university-wide practices to both levels and distribution of grades. In
addition, the School will also follow Policy T10.02 with respect to
"Intellectual Honesty," and "Academic Discipline" (see the
current Calendar, General Regulations Section).
Detailed
Project
Descriptions:
Media Use
Audit:
Following the
approach
outlined by Table 1 in Acoustic Communication (p.172),
monitor your
exposure to audio media (i.e. reproduced sound) on one weekday and one
weekend day
(or any other two days where your routine differs). Estimate the number
of
minutes you hear reproduced sound via each method of audio delivery
(e.g.
radio, television, film, video, internet, telephone/cell phone, iPod,
background music etc). Classify each exposure as “self” (i.e. sound you
choose
to listen to) or “other” (i.e. sound that is overheard). In your
report,
discuss topics such as the style or content of each category of sound,
the
functions it serves for you personally, how it (re)structures spatial,
temporal
and social relationships, as well as any other aspect of your
consumption and
exposure you find interesting. Compare your results to those in AC, keeping in
mind that
the quoted student data was largely from a pre-digital era. Length of
the
report is variable, but not to exceed 10 pages (i.e. 2500 words)
excluding your
raw data which you should include as an Appendix.
The essay is
a
literature based research paper that explores a specific topic, issue
or medium
of electroacoustic sound communication. The theme will most likely
follow one
of the weekly seminar topics and will be based on its readings, plus
others
listed in the course outline and made available in print or electronic
form.
Web resources may be used to supplement, but not replace the course
readings.
Other print resources will likely be found in the references in the
readings.
All resource material needs to be properly cited at the end of the
essay, and
all quotations should be properly attributed. Although the choice of
specific
topic and the way you approach it is open-ended, your paper should
include a
discussion of (1) communication or other theory; (2) historical
background of
the technology and its social-cultural role; (3) references to all of
the
relevant course readings; (4) a critical evaluation of the
electroacoustic
medium in question, and speculations on its future development where
appropriate. The essay outline submitted first will be considered as
worth 20%
of the final grade for the essay.
Applied
Project:
You will
design an
applied analysis of any electroacoustic medium or its usage. This may
consist
of your own analysis of audio examples, or media usage by groups of
subjects
(for which permission forms must be collected). Other topics must be
approved
by the instructor. Where you already have studio production experience,
you may
substitute a video or audio report for the written one, or else some
combination thereof. The project outline submitted first will be
considered as
worth 20% of the final grade for the project.
Seminar
Topics
and
Readings:
Note: All Readings are
to be done for
the date listed. AC refers to Acoustic Communication, 2nd edition.
Assigned and Recommended readings are available at: http://www.sfu.ca/media-lab/archive/2011/386
Date
Topic
Week 1 Introduction & Organization
Week
2
Electroacoustic
Models
AC: chapter 8
P. du Gay et al., Doing
Cultural
Studies:
The
Story
of
the Sony Walkman,
Sage
Publications,
1997.
Ch. 1 “Making Sense of the Walkman”
H.
Westerkamp, "Listening and Soundmaking: A Study of
Music-as-Environment," in D. Lander & M. Lexier, eds. Sound by
Artists, Art Metropole
&
Walter Phillips Gallery, 1990.
E.
Thompson, The Soundscape of Modernity, MIT Press, 2002. Ch. 6
“Electroacoustics and Modern Sound,
1900-1933”
P.
Théberge, "Counterpoint: Glenn Gould & Marshall McLuhan," Canadian
Journal
of
Social
&
Political Theory,
10(1-2), 1986.
R.
L. Cardinell, "Music in Industry," in Schullian & Schoen, eds., Music
and
Medicine, 1948.
J.
Sterne, “Sounds Like the Mall of America: Programmed Music and the
Architectonics
of Commercial Space,” Ethnomusicology, 41(1), 1997, 22-50.
Week
3
The
Listener as Consumer
H. Mendelsohn,
"Listening to Radio," in
Dexter & White, eds. People, Society and Mass Communication, 1964.
M.
Bull, Sounding Out the City: Personal
Stereos and
the Management of Everyday Life.
Oxford,
2000. Ch. 3 “Reconfiguring the Site and Horizon of Experience”
M.
Bull, “Investigating the Culture of Mobile Listening: From Walkman to
iPod,” in
K. O’Hara & B. Brown, eds. Consuming Music Together, Spring 2006
References:
M.
Bull, Sounding Out the City: Personal
Stereos and
the Management of Everyday Life.
Oxford,
2000. Ch. 11 “Technology and the Management of Everyday Life”
M.
Bull, “The World According to Sound: Investigating the World of Walkman
Users,”
New Media and Society,
vol.
3(2),
179-197,
2001.
I.
Chambers, “A Miniature History of the Walkman,” New Formations, no. 11, 1990, 1-4
A.
Williams, Portable Music and Its Functions, Peter Lang, 2007.
Week
4
Media
Structure and Uses: Radio
AC: chapter 11
J. Berland, "Radio
Space and Industrial
Time," in Canadian Music: Issues of Hegemony and Identity, B. Diamond and R. Witmer, eds.,
Canadian Scholars
Press, 1993.
H.
Westerkamp, “The Soundscape on Radio,” in D. Augaitis & D. Lander,
eds. Radio
Rethink. Banff, Alberta:
Walter
Phillips Gallery, 1994.
R.
M. Schafer, “Radical Radio,” in D. Lander & M. Lexier, eds. Sound
by
Artists, Art Metropole
&
Walter Phillips Gallery, 1990.
References:
F. Dyson, “The Geneaology of
the Radio Voice,” in
D. Augaitis & D. Lander, eds. Radio Rethink. Banff, Alberta: Walter Phillips
Gallery, 1994.
S. Douglas, Listening
In:
Radio
and
the
American
Imagination, Times
Books, 1999
P.
Fornatale & J. Mills, Radio in the Television Age, Overlook Press, 1980.
D.
Kahn & G. Whitehead, Wireless imagination: Sound, radio, and
the
avant-garde. MIT Press,
1992.
E.
Pease & E. Dennis, eds. Radio: The Forgotten Medium, Transaction Publishers, 1995.
B.
Barber, "Radio: Audio Art's Frightful Parent," in D. Lander & M.
Lexier, eds. Sound by Artists,
Art Metropole & Walter Phillips Gallery, 1990.
Week
5
Media
Structure and Uses: Television and Video
D. De Kerckhove, The
Skin
of
Culture:
Investigating
the
New Electronic Reality.
Somerville House, 1995. Ch. 2 “Television”
M. Chion, Audio-Vision:
Sound
on
Screen,
Columbia University Press, 1994. Ch. 8
“Television, Video Art, Music Video”. PN 1995.7 C471
Week 6
Audio
Advertising I
T. Schwartz, The
Responsive Chord, Anchor
Press, 1973. (selections)
D.
Huron, "Music in Advertising: An Analytic Paradigm," The Musical
Quarterly, 73, 1989,
557-574.
J.
Mowitt, "The Sound of Music in the Era of its Electronic
Reproducibility," in R. Leppert & S. McClary, eds. Music and
Society, Cambridge
University
Press, 1987, pp. 173-179 (Memorex ad section).
N. Cook, “Music and
Meaning in the Commercials,” Popular
Music, 13(1), 1994,
27-40.
References:
M.
J. Shatzer, “Listening and the Mass Media,” in R. Bostrom, ed. Listening
Behavior, Guildford
Press, 1990.
(BF 323 L5 B57 1990)
Week
7
Audio
Advertising, Marketing & the Electroacoustic Community
AC: chapter 12
J. Attali, Noise (The Political Economy of Music), The Univ. of Minnesota Press, 1985.
Ch. 4
“Repeating”, p. 87-120 (“The Emplacement of Recording” and “Double
Repetition”)
P. du Gay et al.,
Doing Cultural Studies: The
Story of the Sony Walkman,
Sage
Publications,
1997.
Ch.
5
“Consuming the Walkman”
P. Théberge,
“Musicians as Market, Consumers of
Technology,” OneTwoThreeFour,
9, 1990, 53-90.
References:
J.
O'Connell, "The Fine Tuning of a Golden Ear: High-end Audio and the
Evolutionary Model of Technology," Technology and Culture, vol. 33, no. 1, 1992, pp. 1-37.
Week
8
The
Recorded Document I: Music
M.
Katz, Capturing Sound : How Technology Has Changed Music, University of California Press, 2004.
Ch. 1
“Causes”
G. Gould, "The
Prospects of Recording," Hi
Fidelity, 16(46), 1966.
P.
Théberge, "The 'Sound' of Music: Technological Rationalization and the
Production of Popular Music," New Formations, vol. 8, 1989, pp. 99-111.
P.
Doyle, Echo and Reverb: Fabricating
Space in
Popular Music Recording, 1900-1960, Wesleyan
University Press, 2005. Ch. 2 “Harnessing the Echo”
References:
M. Chanan, Repeated
Takes:
A
short
history
of
recording and its effects on music,
Verso, 1995.
E.
Eisenberg, The recording
angel :
music, records and culture from Aristotle to Zappa, Yale University Press, 2005.
C. Symes, Setting
the
Record
Straight,
Wesleyan University Press, 2004.
Week
9
The
Recorded Document II: Sound
AC: chapter 13
J.
Sterne, “A Machine to Hear for Them: On the very Possibility of Sound’s
Reproduction,” Cultural Studies,
15(2), 2001, 259-294.
References:
M.
McLuhan, Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man, MIT Press, 1964.
Ch. 28 “The
Phonograph”.
J.
Sterne, The Audible Past: Cultural Origins of Sound Reproduction, Duke University Press, 2003.
T.
Taylor, Strange Sounds: Music, Technology, and Culture, Routledge, 2001.
Leonardo
Music Journal, vol. 13,
2003.
“Groove, Pit, and Wave: Recording, Transmission and Music” (ML 1 L2)
Week
10
Media
Structure and Uses: Film
R.
Altman, ed. Sound Theory, Sound Practice, Routledge, 1992. i) R. Altman,
“Sound/History,” ii) M. Chion,
“Wasted Words,” iii) A. Williams, “Historical and Theoretical Issues in
the
Coming of Recorded Sound to the Cinema.”
M.
Chion, “Audio-Vision and Sound”, in P. Kruth & H. Stobart, eds. Sound,
Cambridge Univ. Press,
2000 (QC 225.6 S68 2000)
M.
A. Doane, “The Voice in Cinema: The Articulation of Body and Space,” in
E. Weis
& J. Belton, eds. Film Sound,
Columbia University Press, 1985.
References:
K.
Silverman, "Dis-Embodying the Female Voice," in Re-Vision: Essays
on Feminist Film Criticism,
The
American
Film
Institute
Monograph
Series, vol. 3, 1984.
D.
Sonnenschein, Sound Design: The Expressive Power of Music, Voice,
and Sound
Effects in Cinema, M.
Wiese
Productions, 2001. (TR 897 S66 2001)
E.
Thompson, “Wiring the World: Engineers and the Empire of Sound in the
Motion
Picture Industry, 1927-1930,” in V. Erlmann, ed. Hearing Cultures:
Essays on
Sound, Listening, and Modernity,
Berg, 2004, Ch. 10, pp 191-229 (extensive references).
Week
11
Media
Structure and Uses: Games, Digital Audio & the Internet
J.
Sterne, “The mp3 as Cultural Artifact,” New Media and Society, 8(5), 2006, 825-842.
T.
Taylor, Strange Sounds: Music, Technology, and Culture, Routledge, 2001. Ch. 1 “Music,
Technology,
Agency, and Practice”
M.
Katz, Capturing Sound : How Technology Has Changed Music, University of California Press, 2004.
Ch. 8
“Listening in Cyberspace”
References:
M.
Bull, “Soundscapes of the Car,” in M. Bull and L. Back, eds. The
Auditory
Culture Reader, Berg,
2003,
357-374.
M.
Ayers, ed. Cybersounds: Essays on Virtual Music Culture, Peter Lang, 2006.
J.
Sterne, “The Death and Life of Digital Audio,” Interdisciplinary
Science
Reviews, 31(4), 2006,
338-348.
Week
12
Alternative
Media Uses
AC: chapter 14
P.
Théberge, Any Sound You Can Imagine, Wesleyan University Press, 1997. Ch. 10,
“Toward a New Model of
Musical Production and Consumption”
S.
Wurtzler, Electric Sounds: Technological Change and the Rise of
Corporate
Mass Media, Columbia
University
Press, 2007. Ch. 6 “Conclusions/Reverberations"
References:
B.
Blesser, Spaces Speak, Are You Listening? Experiencing Aural
Architecture, MIT Press,
2007. Ch. 5, “Inventing Virtual Spaces
for Music”
