The Academy of Media Arts Cologne (KHM), inaugurated in 1990, offers an educational concept that cross-links and integrates the fields of Film, Art and Theory in one single degree course titled “Audiovisual Media”. This is unique in Germany and contrasts with the traditional academic class or master student principle of art academies and other art schools where study courses are divided into classes or subjects. The curriculum promotes an interdisciplinary and multifaceted involvement with media arts. Stage One provides elementary theoretical and artistic knowledge during three semesters. Stage Two as well as Postgraduate Studies give each student the opportunity to specialise in disciplines ranging from, for example, photography, feature film, documentary and experimental film, camera, animation, video and light art, design, sound, scenography, experimental informatics, sculpture, art in public space and architecture to theory, aesthetics and the history of machines, the arts and the media. Student work is project orientated and takes place in workshops, studios and labs, accompanied by lectures and seminars that convey the historical and theoretical basics of media arts.

The KHM has on average 330 students a year, who are intensively tutored by an international team of professors and colleagues, as well as by a network of fellows and guest lecturers. The ongoing collaboration with national and international academies, cultural institutions, festivals, exhibition organisers, as well as the media and film industry promotes and enhances the teaching.

Image: from the frozen-sound-art-exhibition

Topics to be discussed include sound sculpture, sound installation, electronic music, environmental sound, sound poetry, John Cage, the early work of Nam June Paik, experimental music, the early minimalists, detournement in sampling, and alternative vocal techniques.

The course is designed for second year undergraduate students in all majors. Students do not need prior knowledge of music or sound to take this course. As part of the course, students will develop skills to critically experience sound in a variety of contexts, including the acquisition of a basic vocabulary in acoustics and psychoacoustics.

The course can be taken from any location in the world via internet. Headphones are required as there will be numerous listening examples.

Students may sign up for the course online.

For more information contact: Judy.Dunaway [at] massart.edu

Sound studies explore and form the acoustic dimensions of culture by using interdisciplinary methods. While applying a broader scale of theories and practices originating in art, cultural and social sciences, or design, sound studies aim at equally comprehensive and profound investigations of sonic phenomena, which then can be realized in diverse forms: as texts, as interventions, as works of art or as commercial projects. To cover all aspects, Sound Studies / Acoustic Communication at the Berlin University of the Arts are structured in four different fields: anthropology and ecology of sounds, experimental sound art and sound design, digital audio design, and acoustic conceptualization / brand communication.

Sound Studies – Acoustic Communication is a graduate program. It is designed to enable advanced students and professionals of other fields to work with sounds and sound environments in diverse contexts. In a compact study program of four semesters, Sound Studies / Acoustic Communication offers a comprehensive qualification for sound-related professions including sound designer/sound consultant in the fields of digital media, design, art, music, journalism or architecture. In this framework students receive individual coaching by experts of their fields: the visiting professors and lecturers of Sound Studies / Acoustic Communication.

The study program was developed with the support of the German Federal Ministry for Education and Research program from 2002 to 2005. The Master’s Program Sound Studies/Acoustic Communication was officially accredited by the European agency ACQUIN until September 2011.

Contents of the Master’s Program:

Anthropology and Ecology of Sounds

The theoretical fundamentals of sound studies are provided in this field, applying the methodology of cultural and social sciences. The topics include the cultural sensitization of listening, verbalization of listening and hearing experiences, phenomenology of sounds, cultural theory and history of listening, introduction to psycho-acoustics as well as to the phenomenological analysis of sound environments.

Experimental Sound Art and Sound Design

In this field students are introduced to historical and contemporary strategies, methods and forms in audio production beyond cultural conventions and mainstream media practices. Works of early media art, radio art, electro-acoustic music as well as sound works in digital networks and in multi-medial data spaces (e.g. internet, CAVE, GPS) are described and analyzed. Students are expected to realize and present their own experimental projects.

Digital Audio Design

Exploring and understanding underlying concepts, possibilities and limits of tools for sound manipulation and production. Interaction between the tools and the artistic results. Methods of sculpturing sound in music, film, games, interactive environments and performances. Insight in structures and workflows in contemporary sound production. Practical approaches to sound design for functional-,narrative-, and emotional sounds.

Acoustic Conceptualization / Brand Communication

The courses give a comprehensive introduction to a professional development of a sound environment. The main subject is the process of planning, communication and realization, while projects may include all media. The major applications include public and corporate communication, architecture, urbanistics, and landscape planning.

Structure of the Master’s Program: The study program is structured in four semesters. In the first semester students take introductory courses in all four fields, in the second they can deepen and apply their knowledge in project workshops. The second year is dedicated to specialization and professionalization, while each student focuses on one of the four fields (Anthropology and Ecology of Sounds, Experimental Sound Art and Sound Design, Digital Audio Design or Acoustic Conceptualization / Brand Communication). In the third semester every student realizes an individual or collaborative project, mostly in cooperation with a corporate partner or an institution. At the end of the fourth semester students are expected to finish their master thesis.

Up to 25 students are enrolled at the Master’s Program Sound Studies/ Acoustic Communication every year. The period of time within which students must complete their studies is 4 semesters starting in April each year. The language in which the courses are conducted is German. In successfully completing the program of Sound Studies – Acoustic Communication the students earn the academic degree Master of Arts.

Course Requirements: Applicants should hold a first (university) degree in one of the following fields: communication, arts, sociology, music, sound technology, architecture, literature, cultural anthropology or any other related subject.

Relevant practical experience in working with sounds and sound environments is a further requirement. Applicants whose native language is not German have to prove their proficiency in German. Tuition fee for four semesters: 9.600 EUR.

You can find the Academic Staff here: http://www.udk-berlin.de/sites/soundstudies/content/index_eng.html
For further information, contact:
Berlin University of the Arts
Master’s Program Sound Studies – Acoustic Communication
phone: (+49 30) 3185-2511
e-mail: soundstudies@udk-berlin.de

Getting & Dealing with Reviews will help musicians in their quest to getting their music reviewed once they’ve released it. We will explore what Music writers look for, how they go about reviewing music, and how they find or pick the music they want to write about. We’ll also discuss ways to deal with the dreaded bad review, and what to do differently for the next time.

This panel consists of: Ben Johnson, Music Writer for the Staten Island Advance; Brendan Gilmartin, the Senior Account Executive for Shore Fire Media, a Public Relations and Online marketing firm who works with mega superstars and young breakthrough artists; and a special guest panelist!

The moderator for the panel will be Jay Miller, Talk Show Host for the recently ended “Mid Evenings with Jay Miller, Musician for rock band “Monty Love” and all around entertainer.

This is a COAHSI & Wagner College Art Administration Collaboration

*A COAHSI & Wagner College Art Administration Collaboration*

This is the third year this AES regional student summit has been hosted by the New England Institute of Art. Audio students, educators and enthusiasts have been invited for a full day of workshops, tutorials, studio and software demos. Some popular studio demonstrations will be limited in size. To ensure your inclusion, arrive as early as possible. Really cool T-shirts will be given to the first 200 attendees.

Featured presenters this year include: Radiohead producer Sean Slade gives a studio workshop on how to get great guitar sounds Audio Guru Dave Moulton (Golden Ears) answers the question, “Does it really have to be this loud?” Alex Case demystifies some classic audio effects that you’ve heard on your favorite recordings John Storyk and Dave Malekpour, will let you take you take a peek inside some of the recording studios that they have built for artists like Jimi Hendrix, Jay Z, Bruce Springsteen, Goo Goo Dolls, Timbaland, Alicia Keyes Middle Tennessee State University Professor and Studio Wiz Bill Crabtree will give a workshop on time aligning your drums in Pro Tools Brian Doser, Dave Lefkowitz and Sean McGlaughlinwill show you tricks and tips you can use with the new Pro Tools 8 SSL’s Fadi Hayek will show you why SSL sounds so much better than… Multi-Grammy Winner and AES President Jim Anderson will unlock some of the mixing and recording secrets that make him the top Jazz and Acoustic engineer in NYC Paul Stewart of Genelec shows you how your speaker placement will dramatically affect how you hear your mixes Mercenary Audio’s Adam Brass invites you to his legendary Mic & Mic Pre Shootout Amazing Software Demos from Izotope, Sonivox, Cakewalk, Sounds Like Drums, Digidesign & Apple The Apple Logic Pro Users Group shows you what’s new and exciting in Logic 9

And More! Much more!

For further information contact John Krivit at 617-582-4472 or JohnKrivit [at] mac.com

UC Santa Cruz is pleased to announce an MFA for artists working with computer games, software toys, interactive fictions, rhetorical simulations, and related playable forms. The university’s Digital Arts and New Media (DANM) MFA program has added Playable Media as a research focus for its collaborative faculty-student projects. Applications to the DANM MFA program for Fall 2009 are being accepted through February 15, and are encouraged from the broad diversity of artists who create work that invites and structures play.

The Digital Arts and New Media MFA Program at UC Santa Cruz brings together faculty and students from across the academic spectrum to pursue interdisciplinary artistic and scholarly research. At the core of the diverse DANM curriculum are collaborative research projects, in which small clusters of students work with professors on artistic, technical and theoretical research. Over the course of three quarters, these groups engage in the development of faculty-initiated research in one of four focused areas: Mechatronics, Participatory Culture, Performative Technologies, and Playable Media. These collaborations result in publications and exhibitions. In this intensive two-year program, students also take core and elective courses in the theory and practice of digital media arts, culminating in the development of individual thesis projects. These works are premiered in the program’s annual MFA exhibition. The Master of Fine Arts (MFA) is the terminal degree in the field of digital media arts, qualifying graduates for a variety of career paths including university-level teaching and research.

In the Playable Media collaborative research group, MFA students will work with UCSC’s strong faculty in this area to understand and create new ways for computer games and related forms to engage audiences, make arguments, tell stories, and shape social space. Ongoing Playable Media work combines game design and artificial intelligence research with writing, art, and media authoring.

The Playable Media-focused Digital Arts and New Media MFA joins UCSC’s two previous degree options in this area. UCSC currently hosts the first computer game undergraduate major in the University of California system: a B.S. in computer game design through the Computer Science department. Active PhD research is also taking place in Computer Science, where students are developing underlying technologies for new genres of computer game play. It is expected that some DANM Playable Media students will collaborate with students in the existing programs in order to create projects more ambitious than would otherwise be possible.

The first Playable Media collaborative research group will be launched in 2009 under the direction of Noah Wardrip-Fruin (co-creator of the virtual reality literary game Screen, co-editor of MIT Press books such as Second Person: Role-Playing and Story in Games and Playable Media). Other UCSC faculty in this area include Michael Mateas (co-creator of Independent Games Festival finalist Facade and the interactive film generator Terminal Time), Warren Sack (creator of the argumentation game Agonistics and the social technology Conversation Map), and Jim Whitehead (founder of the UC system’s first game degree, developer of novel techniques for game level generation).

For many years, artists had to bring their own equipment when they wanted to present multichannel sound works. Even a simple 4-channel (”quad”) installation required you to patch two stereo systems together, and you had to play your material from a computer to make sure the audio is in sync. With the advent of 5.1 Surround Sound, to be distributed on DVD, this changed profoundly. If your artistic project could work within the Surround Sound environment, you could just author a DVD with your surround audio or video piece, and ship it off to the gallery or presentation space to make it work. Of course, if your piece exceeds the 5 channel + subwoofer requirements you still have to look for other options, but the 5.1 standard allowed many artists easier production and presentation of multichannel works than before.

If you’re interested in Surround Sound for your artistic projects, we offer an three-night Surround Master Class with our engineer Paul Geluso, who is working on these issues for many, many years.

The class will give an overview of the techniques to record, create and mix multichannel sound works that fall within the 5.1 parameters. He will also explain how to handle projects that go beyond these limitations, e.g. if you like to work with 8-channel installations or more. The class will explore surround sound for artistic projects, but also if you use it within a film/video context, where you mix the dialogue in the center speaker, and the ambient sound into the surrounding speakers. Finally the class will focus on how to create a DVD with your work.

The class includes 4hrs of lab time in our surround sound studio, during open hours Mon - Fri 10am to 5pm.

NYS ARTS BOOTSTRAP YOUR MUSIC is a series of online seminars {webinars} offered in real time, comprised of three courses with three different instructors. The first course has three sessions during the month of June. You can sign up for each session individually at $10, or for all three at a discounted rate of $25. Register today. Space is limited.

Once you sign up we will give you the web address and log in information so you can participate fully. High speed internet access is required. A Blog is up throughout the series to help you share and get information, find resources and post questions.

Our first BOOTSTRAPS webinar course is “DEVELOPING YOUR MUSIC CAREER” by Paola Prestini. This 3 session course will address the important issues of “Building your Website”, “Grant Writing Tips”, and “Balancing Collaborative and Personal Trajectories”. Each webinar is accompanied by an informative Blog.

Italian born composer PAOLA PRESTINI is the director and founder of the award-winning interdisciplinary performing collective, VisionIntoArt (VIA). VIA has performed in theaters, museums, and clubs all over the world and specializes in creating collaborations that stem from new music. Prestini’s work has been commissioned and performed by VIA at the Whitney Live Sereie, BAM Cafe, Symphony Space, Joe’s Pub, and performance Space 122 and recent large scale works have been performed worldwide. She has composed scores for numerous films that have garnered awards from the Sundance Film Festival and the Film Festival at Austin. She is a graduate of the Julliard School and has been the recipient of various awards; NYSCA, ASCAP, NY Philharmonic, Meet the Composer and many more. She had taught and created curricula at the American Composers Orchestra, the NY Philharmonic, the ASOL, and Meet the Composer

Session 1: Wed, JUNE 4 -12:00 - 1:30pm
“Building your Website: Goals & Mission”
This session will help you create a map to your career through the web, with an emphasis on personal mission statements and the use of imaginative marketing tools. Defining ones self as an artist is a difficult task. It takes the patience to constantly redefine and edit one’s achievements and goals, an understanding of your peers and crititcs, and a keen ability to explain yourself in direct and attractive terms.
Register & Pay for this Session

Session 2 Wed, JUNE 11 - 12:00 - 1:30pm
“Grant Writing Tips for the Artist from the Artist”
This resource will help you access more grants, show you how to keep a grant schedule, and address the recurring questions fournd in the grant-making art world. Grants are out there. It’s a matter of having the right database and understanding how to position your ideas into required grant fields. Register & Pay for this Session

Session 3 Wed, JUNE 25 - 12:00 - 1:30pm
“How to Balance Collaborative and Personal Trajectories”
Learn tools for developing long-standing collaborations, understanding interpersonal skills that will help you maintain them, and gain useful commissioning tips, and the standard protocol for collective and individual realization. A long-standing career is full when the individual and collaborative processes can weave themselves simultaneously throughout life.
Register & Pay for this Session

MaxScore currently exports to MusicXML so you can load your scores into Finale and Sibelius. MaxScore also exports to the GNU LilyPond automated engraving system. MaxScore was programmed in Java Music Specification Language by Nick Didkovsky (but requires no Java programming to operate). MaxScore was commissioned by “Bipolar - German-Hungarian Cultural Projects.” Bipolar is an initiative of the Federal Cultural Foundation of Germany.

Nick Didkovsky is a guitarist, composer, and software programmer. In 1983, he founded the avant-rock septet Doctor Nerve. He presently resides in New York City, where he composes, creates music software, and teaches computer music composition at New York University and Columbia University. He is the principle author of the computer music language Java Music Specification Language. He has composed music for Bang On A Can All-Stars, Meridian Arts Ensemble, Fred Frith Guitar Quartet, California EAR Unit, New Century Players, Ethel String Quartet, Electric Kompany, ARTE Quartett, and other ensembles. He is director of bioinformatics for the Gensat project at The Rockefeller University.

Georg Hajdu, born in Göttingen, Germany in 1960, is among the first composers of his generation dedicated to the combination of music, science and computer technology. After studies in Cologne and at the Center for New Music and Audio Technologies (CNMAT), he received his Ph.D. from UC Berkeley. In 1996, following residencies at IRCAM and the ZKM, Karlsruhe, he co-founded the ensemble WireWorks with his wife Jennifer Hymer a group specializing in the performance of electro-acoustic music. In 1999, he produced his full-length opera Der Sprung. In May 2002, his Internet performance environment Quintet.net was employed in a Munich Biennale opera performance. In addition to his compositions, which are characterized by a pluralistic attitude and have earned him several international prizes, the IBM-prize of the Ensemble Modern among them, Georg Hajdu published articles on several topics on the borderline of music and science. His areas of interest include multimedia, microtonality, algorithmic, interactive and networked composition. Currently, Georg Hajdu is professor of multimedia composition at the Hamburg School of Music and Theater.

The cost of the course is $1200, plus $75 for the annual Harvestworks membership that is required to take the course. The course is March 17-21, Monday through Friday 10am to 6pm. Working in our computer lab after 6pm can also be arranged. Lecture demonstrations will alternate with practice time, and some of our Max-savvy interns can be available to assist during practice time. Workstations with Max/MSP/Jitter will be available, but it is also recommended that you bring your own laptop. The course will provide lots of practice and sample patches. Students enrolled in Max/MSP/Jitter related classes at Harvestworks are eligible for Cycling 74’s educational discount when purchasing the software. The course is limited to 10 students.

We will not provide meals or snacks for the course, but can point to lots of cheap dining places in the neighborhood. We also cannot provide accommodations, but can help with posting requests or bringing you in contact with other artists who might be able to help.

New York State composers who would like to take this course can be eligible for travel subsidies from the New York State Music Fund. Please call in for details, the funds would be disbursed on a first come, first serve basis.

To sign up for the course, or if you have further questions, call Hans Tammen at 212-431-1130 ext 13, or go to the Harvestworks webstore at http://www.harvestworks.org/cms/index.php/Classes/Classes-new.html

Harvestworks is located at 596 Broadway #602, New York City, NY 10012