School: Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts

This unit information may be updated and amended immediately prior to semester. To ensure you have the correct outline, please check it again at the beginning of semester.

  • Unit Title

    Sonic Culture and Sound Art
  • Unit Code

    MUS1620
  • Year

    2025
  • Enrolment Period

    1
  • Version

    3
  • Credit Points

    15
  • Full Year Unit

    N
  • Mode of Delivery

    On Campus
  • Unit Coordinator

    Dr Stuart JAMES

Description

In this unit, students examine the fundamental concepts and cultural practices relating to sound and its phenomenology for music composition and performance. Students are challenged to consider different modes of listening, the theory of acoustics, auditory perception, and a range of composition and performance practices that engage with sonic culture and sound art. Students will be introduced to the practice of field recording for the purposes of creating their own original electroacoustic work. Students also learn about sound transformation, spatial mixing practices, and various file formats to produce assessment tasks.

Prerequisite Rule

Must have passed MUS1604 (Home and Studio Recording).

Learning Outcomes

On completion of this unit students should be able to:

  1. Create original electroacoustic work and live performance.
  2. Create high-quality field recordings that effectively negotiate the obstacles of recording outdoors.
  3. Problem-solve technical and conceptual issues that arise in creating electroacoustic composition and sound art.
  4. Coordinate and engage with the live performance of work exploring the phenomenology of sound.
  5. Communicate the context, aesthetics and application of electroacoustic and sound art practices in their work clearly and coherently through online documentation.

Unit Content

  1. The methods, techniques and practices of electroacoustic music composition and the performance of new music.
  2. The modes of listening, theories of acoustics, auditory perception and psychoacoustics, and other conceptual discourse relating to electroacoustic music and sound art practices.
  3. Field recording and acoustic ecology.
  4. Sound design, spatial mixing practices, and working with various file formats.
  5. The history of electroacoustic music and sound art, and exemplar works.

Learning Experience

Students will attend on campus classes as well as engage in learning activities through ECU's LMS

JoondalupMount LawleySouth West (Bunbury)
Semester 2Not Offered11 x 1 hour practical classNot Offered
Semester 2Not Offered11 x 2 hour seminarNot Offered

For more information see the Semester Timetable

Additional Learning Experience Information

Students attend a series of classes. Students will apply knowledge of the cultural practices on the phenomenology of sound and sound art to create a new electroacoustic composition and live performance. They will also evaluate their work through a process of reflection.

Assessment

GS1 GRADING SCHEMA 1 Used for standard coursework units

Students please note: The marks and grades received by students on assessments may be subject to further moderation. All marks and grades are to be considered provisional until endorsed by the relevant School Progression Panel.

ON CAMPUS
TypeDescriptionValue
ProjectListener Ensemble performance and reflection.50%
Creative WorkSpatialised electroacoustic composition and documentation50%

Disability Standards for Education (Commonwealth 2005)

For the purposes of considering a request for Reasonable Adjustments under the Disability Standards for Education (Commonwealth 2005), inherent requirements for this subject are articulated in the Unit Description, Learning Outcomes and Assessment Requirements of this entry. The University is dedicated to provide support to those with special requirements. Further details on the support for students with disabilities or medical conditions can be found at the Access and Inclusion website.

Assessment

Students please note: The marks and grades received by students on assessments may be subject to further moderation. Informal vivas may be conducted as part of an assessment task, where staff require further information to confirm the learning outcomes have been met. All marks and grades are to be considered provisional until endorsed by the relevant School Progression Panel.

Academic Integrity

Integrity is a core value at Edith Cowan University, and it is expected that ECU students complete their assessment tasks honestly and with acknowledgement of other people's work as well as any generative artificial intelligence tools that may have been used. This means that assessment tasks must be completed individually (unless it is an authorised group assessment task) and any sources used must be referenced.

Breaches of academic integrity can include:

Plagiarism

Copying the words, ideas or creative works of other people or generative artificial intelligence tools, without referencing in accordance with stated University requirements. Students need to seek approval from the Unit Coordinator within the first week of study if they intend to use some of their previous work in an assessment task (self-plagiarism).

Unauthorised collaboration (collusion)

Working with other students and submitting the same or substantially similar work or portions of work when an individual submission was required. This includes students knowingly providing others with copies of their own work to use in the same or similar assessment task(s).

Contract cheating

Organising a friend, a family member, another student or an external person or organisation (e.g. through an online website) to complete or substantially edit or refine part or all of an assessment task(s) on their behalf.

Cheating in an exam

Using or having access to unauthorised materials in an exam or test.

Serious outcomes may be imposed if a student is found to have committed one of these breaches, up to and including expulsion from the University for repeated or serious acts.

ECU's policies and more information about academic integrity can be found on the student academic integrity website.

All commencing ECU students are required to complete the Academic Integrity Module.

Assessment Extension

In some circumstances, Students may apply to their Unit Coordinator to extend the due date of their Assessment Task(s) in accordance with ECU's Assessment, Examination and Moderation Procedures - for more information visit https://askus2.ecu.edu.au/s/article/000001386.

Special Consideration

Students may apply for Special Consideration in respect of a final unit grade, where their achievement was affected by Exceptional Circumstances as set out in the Assessment, Examination and Moderation Procedures - for more information visit https://askus2.ecu.edu.au/s/article/000003318.

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