Typology of sound

The theoretical and practical study of sounds of all kinds requires common terms and classifications to facilitate orientation and understanding. Interdisciplinary art projects that work with sound, the creation of sound designs, acoustic branding, etc., are only successful if there is fundamental agreement on the vocabulary describing sound.
Research into the question “What is sound?” is also helpful. The students will pursue this question using texts, e.g. from schizophony. In this seminar, a model related to auditory perception will be developed for classifying and describing elementary sound phenomena using colloquial terms, with the help of which an understanding of sounds should be made possible.
The sound space to be researched is determined by the students and the current social situation as a result of the pandemic (coronavirus). This can be different rooms or areas within their own home, up to their own district, neighborhood, or even just their own balcony or street. On their short excursions, the participants are asked to make audio recordings of the sounds they find there. A dictaphone or the recording function of a cell phone is sufficient for this.

The joint evaluation of the recordings in the webinar offers space for discussions about acoustic perception in our living environment. We will review the classification model we have created and make any necessary adjustments. At the end of the seminar, we will present the sound spaces we have researched as a sound map with the help of the collected sound recordings.

Seminar at UdK website (German only).