Simon Fraser University
Engaging the World

Course Outlines

Spring 2025 - CA 344 D100

Thinking and Writing About Sound (3)

Class Number: 6487

Delivery Method: In Person

Overview

  • Course Times + Location:

    Jan 6 – Apr 9, 2025: Tue, 9:30 a.m.–12:20 p.m.
    Vancouver

  • Prerequisites:

    CA 140 or permission of instructor.

Description

CALENDAR DESCRIPTION:

An in-depth investigation of selected social, political, philosophical, and theoretical issues associated with contemporary music and the sonic arts. Topics such as sound and technology, popular music and the mass media, or critical issues in non-western and Indigenous music might also be considered. This course can be repeated for credit.

COURSE DETAILS:

Is experimental music just boring formless nonsense? Boredom has become a hot topic these days, both in academia and beyond. In fact, boredom has become so hot that it seems primed to undermine its very nature as a mood that expresses feelings of tedium, monotony, and disinterest. In this case, it would be better to say that a course on boredom would really (ironically) be a course on “interest,” or a course on “curiosity in disguise.” Such a course, then, would really be about what it’s not about, so that what this course would really be about is nothing in particular. But being about nothing in particular means that the course would have no definitive shape to it and would be easily distracted from its aim. Yet in being formless, to say the course has an aim would be meaningless. And this would mean, then, that the course is complete nonsense. Which it is. But in fact, this course is about failure. So with that being the case, we will listen to (and probably look at failure) as a contemporary aesthetic practice that resists singular definition or tidy explanation, and address the aesthetics of failure in contemporary experimental composition and the broader sonic arts in ways that will almost certainly fail to fail.   

(*Subject to change)

Grading

NOTES:

(*Subject to change)

  • Participation: 20%                                                                                
  • Reading responses: 40%                                                            
  • Semester Project: 40%

Materials

MATERIALS + SUPPLIES:

Readings will be available on Canvas.

REQUIRED READING NOTES:

Your personalized Course Material list, including digital and physical textbooks, are available through the SFU Bookstore website by simply entering your Computing ID at: shop.sfu.ca/course-materials/my-personalized-course-materials.

Registrar Notes:

ACADEMIC INTEGRITY: YOUR WORK, YOUR SUCCESS

SFU’s Academic Integrity website http://www.sfu.ca/students/academicintegrity.html is filled with information on what is meant by academic dishonesty, where you can find resources to help with your studies and the consequences of cheating. Check out the site for more information and videos that help explain the issues in plain English.

Each student is responsible for his or her conduct as it affects the university community. Academic dishonesty, in whatever form, is ultimately destructive of the values of the university. Furthermore, it is unfair and discouraging to the majority of students who pursue their studies honestly. Scholarly integrity is required of all members of the university. http://www.sfu.ca/policies/gazette/student/s10-01.html

RELIGIOUS ACCOMMODATION

Students with a faith background who may need accommodations during the term are encouraged to assess their needs as soon as possible and review the Multifaith religious accommodations website. The page outlines ways they begin working toward an accommodation and ensure solutions can be reached in a timely fashion.