Archived Course – Taught in Fall 2014

Writing with Sound – RHE 330C

Casey Boyle

In our largely screen-based media culture, we often overlook the pervasive presence of sound. Talk radio, ambient music, mobile device alerts, animal sounds, human voices, and random noise all combine to form an ever present sonic backdrop with and through which we engage our media ecologies. Alone and together, these sounds help write our experience of an entertainment event, a political campaign, an educational venture. Towards understanding the rhetorical effects of sound compositions, this course will examine recording, editing, and distribution of sound as a form of writing. We will be especially keen to explore and examine those writings that are produced and circulated in digital environments. In addition to reading and discussing important works in the multidisciplinary field of sound studies, the course will offer an extended introduction to and continued practice in using readily available and open source digital audio editing tools for writing with sound.

Course Outcomes

At the end of the course, students will be able to:

Identify various sound genres and their rhetorical effects
Understand the technical and practical affordances for producing sound
Compose effective digital podcasts and audio essays

Note: This course will be organized as a project-based workshop (especially in the second half of the semester). In addition to readings and discussions, several of our class meetings will be opportunities for hands-on practice with digital audio tools that will involve your classmates and the instructor. Please be advised that such work demands regular attendance and requires active participation.

Texts and Materials

Sound Reporting: The NPR Guide to Audio Journalism & Production, Jonathan Kern

The Book of Audacity: Record, Edit, Mix, and Master with the Free Audio Editor, Carla Schroder

Sound Unbound: Sampling Digital Music and Culture, edited by Paul D. Miller

Sound Studies Reader, edited by Jonathan Sterne

Additional essays and articles will be provided on the course site

Audacity – Open Source Audio Editing Software

Assignments

[Full Assignment Sheets will be given for each assignment]

Reading Responses (20%) Due: Throughout Semester

8 written responses to required readings posted to our course site (300-500 words posted in Canvas). Responses will be opportunities to critically and creatively engage course readings and case studies as well as provide the starting point for much our class discussion. In the first week, I will provide a more detailed assignment sheet for how to organize the responses.

Podcast Analysis (15%) Due: Oct 1

After identifying/subscribing to a podcast, students will script and compose a 4-5 minute analysis of the podcast series that examines the themes, genres, online distribution, and technical dimensions to the serial program.

Sonic Remediation (25%) Due: Oct 27

This assignment asks students to select a print-based writing–a short essay or article from/related to our course readings–to remediate into a sound essay.

Podcast Series (40%) Due: Dec 3

This final assignment will include a short proposal, three podcast episodes, and a brief prospectus that outlines a digital distribution plan. Of your three podcasts, one will include a site recording, one an interview, and one studio recording.

COURSE SCHEDULE

Text Abbreviations: Sound Studies Reader [SSR]; Sound Unbound [SU]; Sound Reporting [SR]; Book of Audacity [BoA]; PDFs [Canvas]

Note: All readings should be read BEFORE the date listed

section one: sound studies

Week One: Course Overview

Wed Aug 27: Introductions and Expectations

In-Class: 99% Invisible “Episode One: Noise”

Week Two: Introduction to Sound Studies

Mon Sep 1: Labor Day | No Class

Wed Sep 3: Sterne, “Sonic Imaginations” [SSR]; Sterne et al, “The Politics of Podcasting”; In-Class: This American Life, “Mapping”

Recommended: Mitchell, “There Are No Visual Media” [Canvas]

Week Three: Learning to Listen

Mon Sep 8: Idhe, “The Auditory Dimension” [SSR]; Barthes, “Listening” [Canvas]

Listen: RE : SOUND “The Hearing Show”; In-Class: MIT Researchers Can Listen Via Video

Wed Sep 10 : Chion, “The Three Listening Modes” [SSR]; Berland, “Contradicting Media” [SSR]; In-Class: The Distortion of Sound

Week Four: Soundscapes

Mon Sep 15: Schaffer, “The Soundscape” [SSR]; Leppert “Reading the Sonoric Landscape” [SSR]

In-Class: Thompson, “The Roaring Twenties”; Stedman, “How Music Speaks“; Rice “Inquiry as Telos”

Wed Sep 17: LaBelle, “Auditory Relations” [SSR]; Cox, From Music to Sound: Being as Time in the Sonic Arts [Canvas]

In-Class: Cities and Memory Podcast; Sounds of Street View; How to Sound Map a City: Part One & How to Sound Map a City: Part Two

section two: (re)shaping sound

Week Five: Learning Audacity

Mon Sep 22: CH1 “Audacity from Start to Finish” [BoA]

In-Class: “Pulling Back the Curtain”

Wed Sep 24 : CH2 “Building a Good Digital Sound Studio on Cheap” [BoA]

In-Class: Roman Mars, “You are Listening to & Radio Net”

Week Six: Recording Techniques

Mon Sep 29 Kern, CH4 [SR]; Updike, “Better Writing through Radio, Part I”; CH11 “Audacity Plug-ins for Special Effects” [BoA]; Kern, CH16: “Commentaries” [SR]

Wed Oct 1 – CH12 “Fix-Its ad Cleanups”; CHA Audio Hardware [BoA]

In-Class: Stereo Public; “The World’s Quietest Room”

DUE: Podcast Analysis