Sound Object
Students will create a sound object — a musical or sound art composition, a soundscape, a podcast, a mash-up, a supercut—by semester’s end. In-class sessions will provide guidance on digital audio workstations, mixing, studio use. An aspirational goal of the class will be to create an album we can post on Bandcamp.
For further detail, click on the links below.
Session 6 assignment (Paper 1): Students will write a short (1500 words) paper on any aspect of the readings up through that date that have inspired them and that may inflect the making of their class sound object.
Session 13 assignment (Paper 2): A final paper (1500 words or so) should accompany the sound object, pointing to readings that have been useful, to the object’s intent, and more.
Student Examples
Students created an album of sound objects, “AnthropologyOfSound2022,” which has been posted on Bandcamp.
One of the sound objects, “Paradigm Shifts,” also has an accompanying “Final Paper.” (PDF)
These examples attempt to think, across their four parts, about:
- the mundanity of sound
- the contrast between unadorned versus technologically souped-up sound
- the tactility of sound
- the vibratory realm that might unite hearing and deaf apprehension of sound
Note: Student examples appear courtesy of MIT students and are anonymous unless otherwise requested.
