http://www.explodingart.com/tutorials/teaching.php KMB105 2006 Semster 1 en a.brown@qut.edu.au Copyright 2008 Pivot Pivot - 1.30 RC2: 'Rippersnapper' Fri, 4 Jul 2008 21:53:37 +1000 60 http://www.explodingart.com/tutorials/pivot/entry.php?id=61&w=teaching_schedule http://www.explodingart.com/tutorials/pivot/entry.php?id=61&w=teaching_schedule#comm Lecture Content
The Computer as a musical Instrument
Example laptop performances by staff

Readings
“Freeze Frame: A Snapshot of Music Making on the Internet”
By Ken Jordan, Published: October 1, 2002
with Paul D. Miller a.k.a. DJ Spooky that Subliminal Kid http://www.newmusicbox.org/page.nmbx?id=42tp00

Tasks
Briefly describe what an IP address is.
Create a Screenshot of Jam2jam.
Why does Paul Miller, in the article "Freeze Frame" believe John Cage was so significant for electronic music performance?

Lab Session Content
Introduce the lab
Launching applications
Saving and Loading files
How to use jam2jam

Assessment Due
None ]]> 61@http://www.explodingart.com/tutorials/pivot/ Weekly_Schedule Thu, 02 Mar 2006 16:29:00 +1000 http://www.explodingart.com/tutorials/pivot/entry.php?id=62&w=teaching_schedule http://www.explodingart.com/tutorials/pivot/entry.php?id=62&w=teaching_schedule#comm Lecture Content
Mechanisation and automation

Readings
Relating to the Computer as Musical Equipment

“We need new instruments very badly” Chapter 8 of Measure for Measure: A musical history of science. Thomas Levison, 1994: 274-314. New York: Touchstone

Tasks
How do you save a file onto your personal file share?
What are the keyboard sound choices in the jam2jam software?
What happens to files saved on the desktop of the lab computers?

Lab Session Content
No lab in week 1

Assessment Due
None ]]> 62@http://www.explodingart.com/tutorials/pivot/ Weekly_Schedule Thu, 02 Mar 2006 16:29:00 +1000 http://www.explodingart.com/tutorials/pivot/entry.php?id=57&w=teaching_schedule http://www.explodingart.com/tutorials/pivot/entry.php?id=57&w=teaching_schedule#comm Lecture Content
Ass 2 overview (Sibelius, Garageband)

Intro to analysis.

Readings
Analysis skills to start arrangement task

Murphie, Andrew and Potts, John (2003) “Ch 6. Technology, Thought and Consciousness” In Culture and Technology, New York: Palgrave MacMillan, pp. 142-168

This is a good cd for arrangements of Cole Porter songs. You can use the streaming samples in class as well.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000008JUM/102-6591055-1421722?v=glance&n=5174#moreAboutThisProduct

Tasks
How do you add and delete bars in Sibelius?
What relationships do the authors of the article “Technology, thought and consciousness” suggest exist between the human mind (thought) and the computer (technology)?
In GarageBand, how many categories of drum loops are there?

Lab Session Content
Introduction to GarageBand and Sibelius

Assessment Due
None ]]> 57@http://www.explodingart.com/tutorials/pivot/ Weekly_Schedule Thu, 02 Mar 2006 16:28:00 +1000 http://www.explodingart.com/tutorials/pivot/entry.php?id=58&w=teaching_schedule http://www.explodingart.com/tutorials/pivot/entry.php?id=58&w=teaching_schedule#comm Lecture Content
The computer as a musical tool

Readings
“Anxiety, Consumption, and Agency” Ch.9 of Taylor, T. D. (2001). Strange Sounds: Music, Technology and Culture. New York: Routledge, pp.201-206

Tasks
When using Garageband, how can the sound input/output device be changed from the built-in device to the M-Box?
In what ways does Taylor, in the article "Anxiety, Consumption and Agency" suggest that technology has a social influence?
What is the difference between MIDI and Audio data?

Lab Session Content
Assignment 1 performance presentations

Assessment Due
Assignment 1 performance presentations ]]> 58@http://www.explodingart.com/tutorials/pivot/ Weekly_Schedule Thu, 02 Mar 2006 16:28:00 +1000 http://www.explodingart.com/tutorials/pivot/entry.php?id=59&w=teaching_schedule http://www.explodingart.com/tutorials/pivot/entry.php?id=59&w=teaching_schedule#comm Lecture Content
Creativity amplifier

Readings
“Music, Source of Technology” Chapter 1 of Meaning In Technology, by Arnold Pacey, 1999, MIT Press. Pp.17-38

“Music/Technology/Practice: Musical Knowledge in Action” ch. 7 - Théberge, P. (1997). Any Sound You Can Imagine: Making Music / Consuming Technology. Hanover, NH: Wesleyan University Press, pp. 157-185

Tasks
Describe an element from another groups performance that you found innovative or very interesting.
Name three musical abilities that the computer can amplify.
Describe the correct way to reference a quote from a web site.

Lab Session Content
Performance practices/etiquette/pitfalls/preparation with computers.
Getting ready for the gig.
Planning for technology to let you down.

Assessment Due
None ]]> 59@http://www.explodingart.com/tutorials/pivot/ Weekly_Schedule Thu, 02 Mar 2006 16:28:00 +1000 http://www.explodingart.com/tutorials/pivot/entry.php?id=60&w=teaching_schedule http://www.explodingart.com/tutorials/pivot/entry.php?id=60&w=teaching_schedule#comm Lecture Content
Ass 1 overview – people using computers in live performance

Readings
“A Brief History of Interactive Music” Ch. 1 in Duckworth, W. (2005). Virtual Music: How the Web got wired for sound. New York: Routledge, pp. 1-34.

Article – “Losing Touch?: The human performer and electronics” Chapter 8 of Simon Emmerson (ed) 2000: 194-216 “Music, Electronic Media and Culture” Hampshire: Ashgate

Tasks
Given that the computer is an instrument, describe it's sound?
What does the acronym MIDI stand for?
Explain what Simon Emmerson means in his article Loosing Touch when he talks about “'playing' the loudspeakers”?

Lab Session Content
Practice Real-time interaction using jam2jam.
Overview of Abelton Live (for advanced students)

Assessment Due
None ]]> 60@http://www.explodingart.com/tutorials/pivot/ Weekly_Schedule Thu, 02 Mar 2006 16:28:00 +1000 http://www.explodingart.com/tutorials/pivot/entry.php?id=53&w=teaching_schedule http://www.explodingart.com/tutorials/pivot/entry.php?id=53&w=teaching_schedule#comm Lecture Content
Ass 3 overview - Soundscapes

Sound Objects – source relation, representation, perception, meaning.

Music – John Cousins
Music - In the Deep - brown 1995


Readings
Schafer, R Murray. (1984). “Introduction.” In Schafer, R Murray, The Soundscape, Rochester, Vermont: Destiny Books, pp. 3-12.

“Sound landscape” ch. 7 in Wishart, T. (1985). On Sonic Art. New York: Imagineering Press, pp. 129-162

Tasks
Amadeus II can show a Sonogram of a sound, what is depicted on the vertical axis of the sonogram?
What is the difference between sample rate and sample resolution in digital audio?
What musical techniques does Wishart describe in his chapter “Sound Landscape”?

Lab Session Content
Operating Amadeus 2.
Using GarageBand Plugins.

Assessment Due
None ]]> 53@http://www.explodingart.com/tutorials/pivot/ Weekly_Schedule Thu, 02 Mar 2006 16:27:00 +1000 http://www.explodingart.com/tutorials/pivot/entry.php?id=54&w=teaching_schedule http://www.explodingart.com/tutorials/pivot/entry.php?id=54&w=teaching_schedule#comm Lecture Content
The computer as a musical medium - Digital media lecture (Amadeus, Garageband plugins)

Readings
Katz, Mark. (2004). Chapter 7: “Music in 1s and 0s - the art and politics of digital sampling” in Katz, Mark, Capturing sound: how technology has changed music, Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, pp.137-157.

Tasks
Using Amadeus II software how do you Normalise a sound, and what does that process do?
How many mediums does sound travel through when digitally recording and playing back a snare drum?
Why does the “Music in 1s and 0s” reading title use the numbers 1 and 0?

Lab Session Content
Burning CDs (revision).
Mixing and mastering tips.

Assessment Due
Assignment 2 - Musical Tool ]]> 54@http://www.explodingart.com/tutorials/pivot/ Weekly_Schedule Thu, 02 Mar 2006 16:27:00 +1000 http://www.explodingart.com/tutorials/pivot/entry.php?id=55&w=teaching_schedule http://www.explodingart.com/tutorials/pivot/entry.php?id=55&w=teaching_schedule#comm Lecture Content
Simulation (metaphor)

Readings
“The Sound Gallery: An interactive A-Life artwork” Sam Woolf and Adrian Thompson. 2002: 223-250. Chapter 8 of “Creative Evolutionary Systems” (eds) Peter Bently and David Corne. San Diego, CA: Academic Press.

Mimicking v’s empowering users – “Grander Goals” Ch. 11 in Shneiderman, B. (2003). Leonardo's Laptop: Human needs and the new computing technologies. Massachusetts: The MIT Press. Pp. 233-244

Tasks
List the steps required to burn an audio CD of a GarageBand or Sibelius song.
How to do you add a rallentando in both Sibelius and GarageBand?
What does Sheiderman, in his chapter “Grander Goals,” state are the requirements for “successful technology development”?

Lab Session Content
GarageBand notation and piano roll detailed views.
Recording audio into Garageband, recording MIDI into Sibelius

Assessment Due
None ]]> 55@http://www.explodingart.com/tutorials/pivot/ Weekly_Schedule Thu, 02 Mar 2006 16:27:00 +1000 http://www.explodingart.com/tutorials/pivot/entry.php?id=56&w=teaching_schedule http://www.explodingart.com/tutorials/pivot/entry.php?id=56&w=teaching_schedule#comm Lecture Content
Music Representation

Readings
Musical Structure and Knowledge Representation” Ch. 1 in Howell, P., West, R. and Cross, I. (1991). Representing Musical Structure. London: Academic Press, pp. 1-32

Tasks
How do you extract a single instrument part from a multi instrument score in Sibelius?
What do West, Howell and Cross mean by a “Generative Description” of music in their article Musical Structure and Knowledge Representation?
Describe four ways in which GarageBand represents music visually.

Lab Session Content
Model the process of analysis and arrangement in GarageBand and Sibelius

Assessment Due
None ]]> 56@http://www.explodingart.com/tutorials/pivot/ Weekly_Schedule Thu, 02 Mar 2006 16:27:00 +1000 http://www.explodingart.com/tutorials/pivot/entry.php?id=51&w=teaching_schedule http://www.explodingart.com/tutorials/pivot/entry.php?id=51&w=teaching_schedule#comm Lecture Content
Organised Sound

- Acousmatics. Modes of listening - Pure, effects, variations.
- Arranging sounds on a time line.

Music
Lansky - Things She Carried CD
Hearing Place CD
Bill Laswell - Lost in the translation CD
Pierre Schaeffer - L'oeuvre Musicale CD
Dennis Smalley - Tides CD

Readings
Schaeffer, P. (2005). “Acousmatics.” In C. Cox and D. Warner (eds.) Audio Culture: Readings in modern music. New York: The Continuum International Publishing Group, pp. 76-81.

Everitt, D. (2002). “The Artist as Digital Explorer.” In L. Candy and E. Edmonds (eds.) Explorations in Art and Technology. London: Springer, pp. 173-178.

Tasks
How do you automate the track volume in GarageBand?
Describe what Pierre Schaeffer means by an “Objet Sonore.”
List three ways in which you can explore musical space using a computer?

Lab Session Content
Detailed review of Amadeus effect options.

Assessment Due
None ]]> 51@http://www.explodingart.com/tutorials/pivot/ Weekly_Schedule Thu, 02 Mar 2006 16:26:00 +1000 http://www.explodingart.com/tutorials/pivot/entry.php?id=52&w=teaching_schedule http://www.explodingart.com/tutorials/pivot/entry.php?id=52&w=teaching_schedule#comm Lecture Content
Sonic Data

Plugin effects and processes

Music – Paul Lansky

Readings
“Bit by Bit by Bit” ch. 9 in Petzold, C. (1999). Code: The hidden language of computer hardware and software. Redmond: Microsoft Press, pp. 69-85
“A Digital Aesthetic” ch 16 in Holtzman, S. R. (1994). Digital Mantras. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, pp. 235-252

Tasks
If a computer uses a binary number system then how does it represent fractional numbers?
What does Holtzman suggest, in “A Digital Aesthetic”, are the particularly interesting things to express with a computer?
What is the difference between a low pass filter and a high pass filter?

Lab Session Content
Manipulating and arranging tracks of sounds in GarageBand.

Assessment Due
None ]]> 52@http://www.explodingart.com/tutorials/pivot/ Weekly_Schedule Thu, 02 Mar 2006 16:26:00 +1000 http://www.explodingart.com/tutorials/pivot/entry.php?id=50&w=teaching_schedule http://www.explodingart.com/tutorials/pivot/entry.php?id=50&w=teaching_schedule#comm Lecture Content
Attributes of creative engagement

Engaged composers choose a sufficiently complex task (the aspect of challenge) that will maintain their interest (the aspect of motivation) through all the composition and production stages. Their skills in using the available tools and medium (the aspect of familiarity), provides them with the ability to realise any musical idea that emerges. By paying attention to the material they notice a great range of opportunities (the aspect of involvement), and are able to make effective choices between those possibilities (the aspect of sensitivity).

Video – “Opimizing Intelligence: Thinking, Emotion and Creativity” KG 153 320
Sections 7-14 mins (Howard Gardner’s Multiple Intelligence theory), 35-45 mins (Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s theory of Flow, or Optimal Experience).

What does it mean to be a virtuoso computer musician? How do you achieve that? What steps do you need to take next to start on that journey? What are goalposts along the way that will help you know you are on track to be a virtuoso musician?

Circuit bending blog: http://www.getlofi.com/

Readings
“The Creative Personality” Chapter 3 of “Creativity: Flow and the psychology of discovery and invention” Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi 1996: 51-76. New York: HarperPerennial.

Hofstadter, A. (1981). On the Dialectical Phenomenology of Creativity. In D. Dutton and M. Krausz (eds.) The Concept of Creativity in Science and Art. The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, pp. 201-208.

Tasks

Lab Session Content
Detailed overview of Garageband plugins for mastering recordings (Compression, EQ, reverb).

Assessment Due
Ass 3 - Musical medium ]]> 50@http://www.explodingart.com/tutorials/pivot/ Weekly_Schedule Thu, 02 Mar 2006 16:25:00 +1000