Acouscapes: A software for ecoacoustic education and soundscape composition in primary and secondary education (original) (raw)

Soundscape Compositions for Art Classrooms

This thesis explores ways in which the process of listening, recording, and editing everyday soundscapes can be incorporated in the art classroom. For this study, I designed and carried out two series of educational workshops; firstly, with a group of students at an all-girls high school in Montreal; and secondly, with a group of art and music teachers from QAIS (Quebec Association of Independent Schools). The data generated from these workshops has been used to develop adaptable educational interventions for teaching this process for Art Education. The data also indicates that this creative practice has a number of salient features for learning and art education. For one, listening deeply to familiar spaces such as a school or classroom can shift and expand our conscious awareness of these surroundings. Furthermore, using technological devices to listen, record, and edit sound can allow students to experience quotidian environments in a different way. This can deepen students’ engagement with common environments by asking them to notice and creatively explore the sounds that define their daily experiences.

Composing with environmental sounds : A project in secondary education.

Revue d’esthétique musicale : L’enseignement des musiques électroacoustiques.

In recent years, is establishing a cooperation between secondary schools and universities for the development of methodologies that encourage pupils to comprehend their acoustic environment and incorporate it in creative projects 1. These methodologies are often based mainly or partly on two pillars: the theory of Pierre Schaeffer on the sound objects and the seven criteria for describing them, and the practical approach of Murray Schafer regarding the observations on the acoustic ecology and the soundscapes. These two pillars provide a set of basic criteria with which the pupils can comprehend and describe their surrounding sonic environment, using them, at the same time, in group improvisation and music composition. The seven criteria elucidated by soundscape paradigms can be a helpful tool in our effort to develop the pupils' power of observation through empiricism.

A Sound-based Education for Listening, Appreciating and Co-creating the Soundscapes We Live In.

2019

The aim of this book is to share methodology and teaching approaches as well as to provide indicative resources that will enable students of all stages of life to develop a better understanding of their home soundscapes as well as of the soundscapes from three other European countries. The soundscapes presented in this book cover a spectrum, which extends from rather nature-dominated habitats to primarily machine-dominated habitats. Certain traditional songs and unique place-specific language idioms, or instrumental timbres and practices -given their close connections with local soundscapes as sources of inspiration- will also be presented in this book (see Dionyssiou, Chapters 3 and 6, and Etmektsoglou, Chapter 7). More specifically, the themes addressed are organized in two main parts. Both parts are explicitly or more implicitly related to listening practices connected with soundscape awareness. However, the first part focuses more on theoretical and methodological issues of an education focused on soundscape awareness and the second part presents projects and activities focusing on soundscape awareness, placing an emphasis on those carried out from 2017-2019 at the Ionian University. The second part is followed by four Appendices, which include a large variety of supplementary material for the seven chapters of the book. A short outline of the chapters follows.

Transient Soundscape Production: Creative and Pedagogical Significance for Educators and Practitioners

Sound Effects, 2021

Over the past decade, there has been a steady increase of scholarly output examining the multidisciplinary, creative, and theoretical aspects of sound and music production in the recording studio and beyond (Zagorski-Thomas & Bourbon, 2020; Bennett & Bates, 2019; Hepworth- Sawyer, Hodgson, & Marrington, 2019; Thompson, 2019; Zagorski-Thomas, 2014; Frith & Zagorski-Thomas, 2012). Accordingly, a broad range of literature examines sound as a widespread cultural phenomenon (Papenburg & Schulze, 2016) and an essential source for pedagogical and ethnographic modeling in music technology education (Bell, 2018). Advances in technology make the “studio,” long viewed as a site of artistic and commercial production, available to a broader group of composers, musicians, and artists. Similarly, portable digital recorders afford sound artists and fi eld recordists an expansive range of choices to conduct soundscape research and creative practice. What emerges is a hybrid “composer- producer” identity and a studio’s function in the artistic process. This growth is the rise of an independent and transient practice in soundscape production among multidisciplinary composers and musicians. This article advocates for an updated notion of soundscape composition that integrates fi eld recordings, studio production, and collaboration from musicians representing a broad range of stylistic infl uences. Positioning the studio as a site of cultural production and creativity has implications for how soundscape production is taught to young composers. The author argues for a more inclusive, process-oriented view on both creativity and the places where musicians, composers, and producers work. The article includes a case study from the author’s recent album project, narrative analysis, concluding with a discussion on the pedagogical implications of independent soundscape production in education

Kalogiannakis, M., Rekoumi Ch., & Chatzipapas, C. (2012). Playing on the journey of sound. A teaching proposal for children in early childhood, In R. Pintó, V. López, & Cr., Simarro, (Eds) Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Computer Based Learning in Science CBLIS’2012, Learning Science in the Society of Computers, Barcelona, Centre for Research in Science and Mathematics Education (CRECIM), 26-29 June 2012, 279-285.

In this study, we develop an educational scenario for teaching sound to young children by using ICT (Information and Communication Technologies). Sound is a very important thematic area of natural sciences for kindergarten. The proposed curricular intervention propels communication and interaction among children, and therefore the configuration of interpersonal relations allows emotional expression connected to music, as well as the exchange of thoughts. The main goal is to teach children to appreciate the value of hearing and to understand the fundamental methods of creating sound. Sound, as teaching material, can extend the cultivation of incentives that activate the participation of young children. Furthermore, it can reclaim children’ previous knowledge and experiences and guide them to the configuration, design and organization of chances to enrich various learning fields. With the proposed scenario children produce original work using ICT as means of expression, like conceptual mapping software, websites, videos and other ICT tools.

Composing With Soundscapes

SMC 07 International Conference

This presentation focuses on the use of outdoors soundscape recordings as basic material for the composition of electroacoustic music. More specifically, it demonstrates some of the compositional choices, methods and processes followed to utilize the characteristics of the above material in order to create sound-behaviors and environments, which can be found in an acousmatic musical context as its fundamental constituents.

Listening to the inner soundscape: A pedagogical tool for opening minds to sound-based music.

This paper describes the context and methodology for research into developing heightened listening as a pedagogical and compositional tool. It builds on my previous research into whether heightened listening (which is defined as a close concentration on sound that allows for external associations with the source) can be effective as an access tool for electroacoustic music. The paper describes the results of my previous project and outlines how my current research aims to build on this to help facilitate a greater interest in sound-based music, for school children, through creative practice. In the current research writing exercises are being used to help participants listen to their ‘inner soundscapes’ (Tzedaki, 2011). They are then required to create their own narratives and, when composing their pieces, use sounds that will support that narrative. In working this way, participants can begin to make the step to listen as composers by internalizing their initial listening, rather than just as listeners, an approach advocated by the composer Michelle Nagai (Nagai, 2011). It is hoped that through this process a deeper interest in sound-based music will be cultivated.

Software for Interactive and Collaborative Creation in the Classroom and Beyond: An Overview of the Soundcool Software

Computer Music Journal

This article presents a free framework for collaborative creation of interactive and experimental computer music called Soundcool. It is designed to fill a gap between rigid ready-to-use applications and flexible programming languages. The system offers easy-to-use elements for generating and processing sound, much like ready-made applications, but it enables flexible configuration and control, more like programming languages. The system runs on personal computers with an option for control via smartphones, tablets, and other devices using the Open Sound Control (OSC) protocol. Originally developed to support a new music curriculum, Soundcool is being used at different educational institutions in Spain, Portugal, Italy, and Romania through EU-funded Erasmus+ projects. In this article, we present our system and showcase three different scenarios as examples of how our system meets its objectives as an easy-to-use, versatile, and creative tool.