CLASS
Course procedures and a sense of how the whole term will unfold.
Discussion of your SOUND EXPERIENCES.
More details on the FIRST PROJECT.
WORKS LISTENED TO IN CLASS
Alvin Lucier – I Am Sitting in a Room (1969)
Carl Stalling – Zoom and Bored (1957)
Félicia Atkinson – You Have to Have Eyes (from The Flower and the Vessel) (2019)
Maryanne Amacher – Dense Boogie 1 (1990s)
Allora & Calzadilla – Returning a Sound (2004)
Michael Snow – Si Nopo Da (By What Signs Will I Come To Understand) (from the Last LP, 1987)
John Cage – 4’33″ (1953)
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FOR NEXT WEEK
1. RESEARCH the sound-related link: come prepared to talk about its context, implications, modes of operation etc.
2. I AM SITTING IN A(NOTHER) ROOM: Organize an experiment in a room of your choice whose acoustics and frequencies you want to investigate. Follow Lucier’s method.
a) Use a phone (A) to record, and another phone (B) connected to a boombox or more sophisticated stereo system which will project the sound more powerfully into the room. Send the recorded files from Phone A to Phone B via email.
b) Use Lucier’s text as material.
c) Repeat this step until your words become unintelligible and turn into a melody.
d) Upload the final file.
See additional description in the Google Drive folder (Week 1): iamsittinginaroom.mp3
FULL TEXT: “I am sitting in a room different from the one you are in now. I am recording the sound of my speaking voice and I am going to play it back into the room again and again until the resonant frequencies of the room reinforce themselves so that any semblance of my speech, with perhaps the exception of rhythm, is destroyed. What you will hear, then, are the natural resonant frequencies of the room articulated by speech. I regard this activity not so much as a demonstration of a physical fact, but more as a way to smooth out any irregularities my speech might have.”
3. MEDITATE on the FIRST PROJECT.