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A “rigorous study of art” became the goal of Philosopher and Cultural Critic Walter Benjamin (1892-1940) when his growing distaste for the outlook and methods of his art history professor—the famous and foundational Heinrich Wölfflin—caused him to consider publishing an account of “the most disastrous activity I have ever encountered at a German university.”

Westworld (Season 2) HBO’s “science fiction western thriller” television series, drives a broadly-conceived visual culture/cultural studies course in which we identify and analyze various aesthetics and genres, histories and visions, typologies, theologies, and allegories on screen and off—both inside and outside the show’s narrative.

In this course, we will be uncovering, re-positioning, and affirming historical legacies and traditions that stand the risk of being lost forever, and explore how to use them to fight discrimination, racism and hate today.

In this introductory course, we will read, examine, discuss, and design in conversation with a selected literature of recorded audio, sound design practice, and history. This course will provide the foundational technical, historical, and contextual/cultural support to your knowledge of working in music and sound design in music, theater, film, installation, culture, and in the contemporary world.

A seminar based on student-initiated projects in immersive sound design, for students with previous experience in mixing, electronics, and production. A variety of platforms will be presented and made available, from soundscape composition, geotagging, 8-channel sound, 5.1/7.1, to environmental positioning of acoustic sources. 

In this course, we will draw/write/read ways to consider and make music and sound. This is a class for all artists (music, theater, visual arts, film & video, dance, animation, critical studies) who are interested in making and notating their own sounds, but might not have experience (or limited experience) with formal music studies or sound design.