A co-production of Duke University and University of the Arts (UdK) in Berlin

ART of the MOOC is a series of free online courses designed by artist and Duke University professor Pedro Lasch to also be a work of public art. Originally produced by Creative Time in 2015, the two inaugural courses are co-taught by artistic director Nato Thompson on the topics of ‘Public Art & Pedagogy’ and ‘Activism & Social Movements’ (English & Spanish). They also include twenty-nine international guest presenters.

Experiments with Sound

AoM: Experiments with Sound is the third course in the series, designed by Lasch with Berlin-based composer Mathias Hinke (UdK), and co-taught with scholar and musician Jace Clayton (DJ Rupture) and curator Candice Hopkins (Documenta 14). Students of this course may try their hand at their own sound interventions and musical compositions, or simply focus on learning more about diverse musical traditions, sonic experimentation, and acoustic phenomena in everyday life. The lectures link major artistic developments of recent decades to wider ideas about sound in specific social and spatial contexts. Also included are guest presentations from key thinkers and practitioners, like: Christopher DeLaurenti, Jen Delos Reyes, Tina Haver Currin, Quran Karriem, Christina Kubisch, Thomas Kusitzky, Scott Lindroth, Mark Anthony Neal, Bill Seaman, and John Supko. While no prior sound production or musical experience is required, projects also offer challenging options for advanced learners.

About This Course:

Students of this course may try their hand at their own sound interventions and musical compositions, or simply focus on learning more about diverse musical traditions, sonic experimentation, and acoustic phenomena in everyday life. Designed by artist and Duke professor, Pedro Lasch, and UdK composer Mathias Hinke, this course is also co-taught by scholar and musician Jace Clayton (DJ Rupture) and curator Candice Hopkins (Documenta 14). The lectures link major artistic developments of recent decades to wider ideas about sound in specific social and spatial contexts.

Also included are guest presentations from key thinkers and practitioners, like: Christopher DeLaurenti, Jen Delos Reyes, Tina Haver Currin, Quran Karriem, Christina Kubisch, Thomas Kusitzky, Scott Lindroth, Mark Anthony Neal, Bill Seaman, and John Supko. As the ‘ART of the MOOC’ title implies, learners and participants are encouraged to treat the MOOC itself as a public art medium. This happens mostly through the course’s optional practical components, local project productions, global exchanges, and critical feedback. While no prior sound production or musical experience is required, projects also offer challenging options for advanced learners.

Find us on Coursera

All courses in the ART of the MOOC series are available on Coursera, counting over 23,000 enrolled participants since their launch in 2015. For other course offerings or language versions in this series, just search ‘ART of the MOOC’ in the Coursera catalog.

On Coursera: coursera.org/learn/experiments-with-sound
Wiki: artofthemooc.org/wiki/

Syllabus – Coursera Module Descriptions

Overview

Students of this course may try their hand at their own sound interventions and musical compositions, or simply focus on learning more about diverse musical traditions, sonic experimentation, and acoustic phenomena in everyday life. Designed by artist and Duke professor, Pedro Lasch, and UdK composer Mathias Hinke, this course is also co-taught by scholar and musician Jace Clayton (DJ Rupture) and curator Candice Hopkins (Documenta 14). The lectures link major artistic developments of recent decades to wider ideas about sound in specific social and spatial contexts.

Also included are guest presentations from key thinkers and practitioners, like: Christopher DeLaurenti, Jen Delos Reyes, Tina Haver Currin, Quran Karriem, Christina Kubisch, Scott Lindroth, Mark Anthony Neal, Bill Seaman, and John Supko. As the ‘ART of the MOOC’ title implies, learners and participants are encouraged to treat the MOOC itself as a public art medium. This happens mostly through the course’s optional practical components, local project productions, global exchanges, and critical feedback. While no prior sound production or musical experience is required, projects also offer challenging options for advanced learners.

Week 1: Introduction & Analytical Concepts

This module introduces the four co-teachers of the course (Lasch, Clayton, Hinke, Hopkins), along with five analytical concepts that we will use throughout its sections and projects: Frequency, Perspective, Material Frame, Time Frame, and Concurrency. These concepts are designed to encompass a wide range of acoustic phenomena within spatial and social experience.

Weeks 2-3: Elements of Sound & Playing with Sound Rules

This lesson expands on specific terms or ‘sound elements’ that include tuning, resonance, silence, improvisation, rhythm, synchronization, duration, and timbre. It also addresses traditional tools in sound production, from musical instruments to sampling, auto-tunes, and other more recent technologies. The module concludes by exploring the role of sound in specific non-musical social settings and practices, such as clapping, fan culture, sports, traffic jams, mass demonstrations, and more. The practical component of this section is optional, asking learners to choose a space with specific ‘sound rules’ and change or alter these rules through actual experimentation.

Guest presenters: DeLaurenti, Delos Reyes, Haver Currin

Weeks 4-5: Notations, Sounds of Place and How Music Travels

This lesson begins by focusing on the relationship between experimental practices and scores or notation systems. It also examines how sound has been used and understood by artists in specific urban contexts, such as ports, train stations, and airports, as well as rural settings, including forests, gardens, and the wider landscape. We conclude with an examination of how sound and music travel, be it through the populations who produce it, or the objects and digital files that are used to record and share it. The practical component is optional,  inviting learners to ‘erase a sound in space’ through a range of possible strategies.

Guest presenters: Kenney, Kubisch, Lindroth, Kusitzky

Weeks 6-7: Schools of Listening, World Music 2.0, and Sound on the Internet

This lesson provides an overview of the methods and ideas from different schools of listening. It also presents a critical examination of the term ‘world music’ and how it has evolved in relation to economic and cultural globalization. With this global perspective in mind, the concluding portions of our lectures are dedicated to acoustic experience and musical experimentation on the net, the radio, cellular networks, and various social media, including all of the glitches, accidents, and failures we associate with these platforms. The practical component of this module is optional, asking learners to produce their own experiment with media and technical failure.

Guest presenters: Karriem, Neal, Seaman & Supko

Week 8: Open Project

This module is optional and only for those who wish to put what they learned from the course into one final project that is more open and ambitious in scale. Two options are given for this, one being your most ambitious project, and the other based on the creation and use of your own musical instruments.

Team & Support

Duke/Durham research & production team:
Pedro Lasch (director), Seth Anderson (technology consultant), Michael Blair (camera, editing, visualizations), Quran Karriem (research), Matt Kenney (visualizations), Tara Kramling (online course builder), Courtney Lockemer (communications), Sarah Sculco (social media), Katie King, Max Symuleski, and Alta Zhang (web-wiki design & management).

UdK/Berlin research & production team:
Mathias Hinke (director), Susanne Hamelberg (online education), Max Haberl, Irene Kletschke, Hendrik Rungelrath, Stellan Veloce, Frille Wrobel, Fabian Zeidler (sound & music research).