Practice-Based Research: Listening and Sounding Identities

Practice-based research (PBR) is a school of thought that questions the ontological precedence between scholarship and the arts by asking: what comes first, an artistic contribution or a theoretical framework? Instead of adhering to a hierarchical division, PBR approach is circular and posits that knowledge can be produced both for and from the arts. In this course, students will be introduced to PBR and form creative reflections on the sonic articulations and implications of identity. Although they are personal, identities are always a part of a wide network of relations. As such, they are subject to various forms of audibility; some result from agency and self-determination, while others are imposed. Thinking alongside sound studies, media studies, queer studies, and critical race theory, we will destabilize the line between creative and scholarly work to gain an interdisciplinary understanding of identities and their appearance in the sociocultural sphere. The course will be DAW agnostic, allowing the students to utilize the technical and creative skills they already have in order to focus on the development of a critical and personal approach in their practices. Students will be required to propose two projects that engage with course themes and develop them in two periods: project 1 will be due by midterms, and project 2 will be due on finals week. Potential projects include: 2-3 track EPs, Multichannel Composition or installation, game design, and stand-alone compositions, among other possibilities.