Section outline

    • Description

      In composer Edgàrd Varese's words "music is organized sound". But what else can be organized from sound than music? Pleasant and annoying noises certainly, and perhaps time itself? And what æsthetic, phenomenological and political role do technical media such as software code and algorithms, Spotify, MIDI, and the MP3 play in this work of organization?

      On this praxis seminar we will use synthesizers, recorders and specialized programming languages for sound (p5.sound, Pure Data) together with transmedial techniques like sound visualization, data sonification and frequency shifting to examine, explore and reproduce familiar sonic phenomena ranging from noise pollution to ASMR, from Zoom glitches to smartphone notifications sounds, from "the halfalogue" to vaporwave. No prior technical knowledge of music or software is required for this course, only open ears, laptop and headphones.

      Broadly speaking the journey of this seminar is the following: we start from how micro-scale mechanics of sound operate in machinic and human bodies using FM synthesis, then stretch out in time toward meso- and macro-levels of meaning with drones and field recordings, and then returns back to microlevel with granular (re)synthesis.

      Further use as Open Educational Resource (OER) is encouraged: This work and its contents are – unless otherwise stated – licensed under the Creative Commons (CC) BY-NC 4.0. Please cite according to the TULLU rules as “Software and the sonic subconscious of the digital” by Mace Ojala, licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0. Other licensed content, works and works are excluded from the license (see https://moodle.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/course/view.php?id=53702).

    • Outcome

      Each participant will make a 10 minute audio paper (Groth & Samson, 2016). The audio paper on this seminar is a relatively freeform, creative, academic, non-musical audio composition with a about 3 minutes of text, and mostly a soundscape about a chosen topic which relates to the digital world. The audio paper is research project, conceived and conducted from the get-go in a way which is better documented in sound than writing.

    • How to adapt/adopt

      Here are a few suggestion for teachers and educators who would like to adapt/adopt the OER in full or in part.

      • This is a praxis seminar – doing > talking. Don't fall for the unfortunate theory vs. praxis dichotomy however. Mace's Philosophical position is that the antonym of "practical" is "unpractical" rather than "theory". Praxis is theory is praxis.
      • Sound unfolds over time. Spend the necessary time listening together. In a classroom this can feel unfamiliar, it is suggested you sit with this discomfort. A decent sound system and a acoustically neutral room are advantages, but make the best use of what you have.
      • Make fieldtrips if plausible; only so much can be said about sound in a classroom. Fieldtrips could be individual, pair, or group trips. The original seminar visited research facilities of Institute for Communication Acoustics, and campus radio CT at Ruhr-University Bochum. Public places are great destinations.
      • Live-program if possible. During the first first half and later on a few simple, custom synthesizers are explored. Program them live in p5.js and Pd if plausible, and explain the thinking as you go along.
      • If participants have experience in music, make use of it. This is however not a music seminar so make sure to challenge, contextualize and deconstruct the authority of musical knowledge.

    • Background of this OER

      Software and the sonic subconscious of the digital draws from and brings together software studies, sound studies, anthropology and creative programming. It was originally a full-semester seminar for a six students at the Institut für Medienwissenschaft at Ruhr-University Bochum during Summer 2023, designed and taught by Mace Ojala as part of Freiraum 2022 project media practice knowledge. Each student produced a 10 minute audio paper of their selected topic.

      With support from the Institut für Medienwissenschaft, we produced a C-cassette release of the 2023 student audio papers. The release run was 50 copies, with manufacture by T.A.P.E. Muzik. Physical copies are not publicly available, but the audio papers are available digitally below (with all copyrights reserved for the authors).



    • Student audio papers from 2023

      Ares Avgerinos. It's us against the machine

      Zehra Cebeci. Soundscapes of wellness vs sonic stressors

      Joshua Mährmann. Joshua

      Iweta Metche. Hearing memories. A city soundscape

      Ole Renfordt. Future nostalgia

      Filip Neag. The unheard

      Mastering by Ares Avgerinos. Copyrights by the authors.

    • Literature

      Core literature
      Secondary literature
      • Blackwell, Alan F., und Nick Collins. „The Programming Language as a Musical Instrument“. In Proceedings of the 17th Annual Workshop of the Psychology of Programming Interest Group, PPIG 2005, Brighton, UK, June 29 - July 1, 2005, 11. Psychology of Programming Interest Group, 2005. https://ppig.org/papers/2005-ppig-17th-blackwell/.
      • Cascone, Kim. „The Aesthetics of Failure: ‚Post-Digital‘ Tendencies in Contemporary Computer Music“. Comput. Music. J. 24, Nr. 4 (2000): 12–18. https://doi.org/10.1162/014892600559489.
      • Church, Luke, Chris Nash, und Alan F. Blackwell. „Liveness in Notation Use: From Music to Programming“. In Proceedings of the 22nd Annual Workshop of the Psychology of Programming Interest Group, PPIG 2010, Madrid, Spain, September 19-21, 2010, 2. Psychology of Programming Interest Group, 2010. https://ppig.org/papers/2010-ppig-22nd-church/.
      • Döbereiner, Luc. „Models of Constructed Sound: Nonstandard Synthesis as an Aesthetic Perspective“. Comput. Music. J. 35, Nr. 3 (2011): 28–39. https://doi.org/10.1162/COMJ_a_00067.
      • Ernst, Wolfgang. „Experimenting with Media Temporality: Pythagoras, Hertz, Turing“. In Digital Memory and the Archive, 184–92. University of Minnesota Press, 2013. https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5749/j.ctt32bcwb.17.
      • ———. „Toward a Media Archaeology of Sonic Articulations“. In Digital Memory and the Archive, 172–83. University of Minnesota Press, 2013. https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5749/j.ctt32bcwb.16.
      • ———. „Towards a Media-Archaeology of Sirenic Articulations Listening with Media-Archaeological Ears“. The Nordic Journal of Aesthetics 24, Nr. 48 (2015). https://doi.org/10.7146/nja.v24i48.23066.
      • ———. „The Audio Paper. From Situated Practices to Affective Sound Encounters“. Seismograf, 28. Juni 2019. https://doi.org/10.48233/seismograf2106.
      • Haworth, Christopher, und Georgina Born. „Music and intermediality after the internet: aesthetics, materialities and social forms“. In Music and Digital Media. A Planetary Anthropology, herausgegeben von Georgina Born, 378–438. UCL Press, 2022. https://doi.org/10.14324/111.9781800082434.
      • Kittler, Friedrich. „Real Time Analysis, Time Axis Manipulation“. Übersetzt von Geoffrey Winthrop-Young. Cultural Politics 13, Nr. 1 (2017): 1–18.
      • Krämer, Sybille. „The Cultural Techniques of Time Axis Manipulation: On Friedrich Kittler’s Conception of Media“. Theory, Culture & Society 23, Nr. 7–8 (1. Dezember 2006): 93–109. https://doi.org/10.1177/0263276406069885.
      • Labelle, Brandon, Hrsg. The Listening Biennial Reader. Vol. 1: Waves of Listening | Pro qm. Errand Bodies Press, 2022.
      • Lison, Andrew. „New Media, 1989: Cubase and the New Temporal Order“. Computational Culture, Nr. 8 (15. Juli 2021). http://computationalculture.net/new-media-1989-cubase-and-the-new-temporal-order/.
      • Maguire, Ryan. „The Ghost in the MP3“. In Proceedings ICMC. Athens, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/2027/spo.bbp2372.2014.038.
      • Mansoux, Aymeric, Brendan Howell, Dušan Barok, und Ville-Matti Heikkilä. „Permacomputing Aesthetics: Potential and Limits of Constraints in Computational Art, Design and Culture“. In Ninth Computing within Limits 2023, 2023. https://doi.org/10.21428/bf6fb269.6690fc2e.
      • Miyazaki, Shintaro. „Algorhythmics: A Diffractive Approach for Understanding Computation“. In The Routledge Companion to Media Studies and Digital Humanities. Routledge, 2018.
      • ———. „Listening to Algorhythmics“. Gehalten auf der Humanising Algorithmic Listening, Workshop 1, Sussex, 27. Juli 2017.
      • ———. „Probing tapping listening“. Gehalten auf der Exploring Edges, Lausanne,
      • Roads, Curtis. Microsound. MIT Press, 2004. https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262681544/microsound/.
      • Schulze, Holger. Sonic Fiction. The Study of Sound. Bloomsbury Academic, 2020. https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/sonic-fiction-9781501334795/.
      • ———. „The Sonic Persona and the Servant Class“. On Sounds Absurd podcast, episode 2. 24:45 minutes. 2020
      • ———. „What Is an Audio Paper?“ Http://www.soundstudieslab.org. Sound Studies Lab Blog (blog), 6. September 2016. http://www.soundstudieslab.org/what-is-an-audio-paper/.
      • Snape, Joe, und Georgina Born. „Max, music software, and the mutual mediation of aesthetics and digital technologies“. In Music and Digital Media. A Planetary Anthropology, herausgegeben von Georgina Born, 220–66. 2022-09-12, 2022. https://doi.org/10.14324/111.9781800082434.
      • Tagg, Philip. „From Refrain to Rave: The Decline of Figure and the Rise of Ground“. Popular Music 13, Nr. 2 (1994): 209–22.
      • Tagg, Philip, und Karen E. Collins. „The Sonic Aesthetics of the Industrial: Re-Constructing Yesterday’s Soundscape for Today’s Alienation and Tomorrow’s Dystopia“. Darlington, 2001.

    • Audio papers

      Other sources

      • The Composing with process podcast serie by Mark Fell and Joe Gilmore on Radio Web MACBA.
      • Son[i]a podcast serie on Radio Web MACBA.
      • PROBES podcast serie by Chris Cutler podcast serie on Radio Web MACBA.
    • Ankündigungen Forum