Soundwalk of the University of Michigan's Central Campus

Grant:

Instructional Development Fund (IDF)

Academic Year:

2022 - 2023 (June 1, 2022 through May 31, 2023)

Funding Requested:

$500.00

Project Dates:

Mon, 01/30/2023 - Tue, 08/01/2023

Applicant(s):

olivad

Overview of the Project:

Musicology 346: â€œHistorical Soundsâ€ (Winter 2023) asks students: How do we reorient our modern selves toward an audible past? How do we hear history? An exciting aspect of this course is the exploration of the artistic and scholarly practice of (re)creating past soundscapes using the latest digital technologies. Funding will be used for a year-long subscription to the ECHOES platform, a sound mapping application that allows users to create geolocated audio tours. Over the course of the semester, students will collaborate on a class-curated soundwalk of the University of Michigan's central campus. This is a multi-faceted project with the main goal of providing non-music majors an opportunity to be creative with sound. Soundwalks are immersive, GPS-enabled works of public art. Sound materials for this soundwalk will draw on archival recordings from University of Michigan archives, studentsâ€™ own field recordings of the campus, their recordings of historical texts and sounds, and their soundscape compositions. In this project, students will explore the conceptual connections between sound, space, memory, and environment. As students learn to listen carefully and critically, they will also develop skills using audio GPS guided systems. Upon completion of the project, the soundwalk will feature audio content tailored to landmarks on campus and will be available for free to the general public.

Final Report Fields

Project Objectives:

Musicology 346: â€œHistorical Soundsâ€ (Winter 2023) asked students: How do we reorient our modern selves toward an audible past? How do we hear history? An exciting aspect of this course is the exploration of the artistic and scholarly practice of (re)creating past soundscapes using the latest digital technologies. Funding was used for a year-long subscription to the ECHOES platform, a sound mapping application that allows users to create geolocated audio tours. Soundwalks are immersive, GPS-enabled works of public art. Students worked together to curate a soundwalk of the Michigan campus that drew on archival recordings from University of Michigan archives, studentsâ€™ own field recordings of the campus, and their recordings of historical texts and sounds.

Project Achievements:

1) This project allowed non-music majors (many of whom have never studied voice or an instrument) to engage creatively with sound. This project introduced students to elements of sound design and the creative practice of soundscapes compositions.

2) Students used technology to create a soundwalk of the University of Michigan campus, which they titled "Echoes of Our Sonic Past." It is available for free public listening through the ECHOES app.

3)This project helped enhance students' understanding of creative production through theoretical, historical, and aesthetic lens for the critical study of sonic cultures and practices across time.

The subscription to the ECHOES app also allowed students in my second course, Music & Nature, to use the software free of charge. A student completed a final project, titled "The Experience of a Tornado" that is available for free public listening through the ECHOES app. The impacts of the projects are still ongoing. I have plans to reach out to the SMTD media team to promote the "Echoes of Our Sonic Past" soundwalk, in order to reach the wider UM and Ann Arbor community.

Continuation:

This project will continue to serve as an example of a soundwalk composition for future iterations of courses on sound and media. The soundwalk will continue to be available for public listening through the end of the year subscription (January 2024).

Dissemination:

The soundwalk is available for free listening through the ECHOES app. I will work with SMTD media team to have the project highlighted on our social media pages.

Advice to your Colleagues:

Learning and interfacing with this software was the most challenging part of this project. I created several small, scaffolding assignments that helped my students prepare their sound materials before inputting them into the software. I then built in-class workshop sessions for my students to learn the software. In the end, I divided students into several different roles (sound designers, date processing, caption writers, in the field testers, etc), which streamlined the process and helped us complete this project efficiently.

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