Simon Fraser University
Engaging the World

Course Outlines

Fall 2025 - CA 315 D100

Sound Art: History and Concepts (4)

Class Number: 6254

Delivery Method: In Person

Overview

  • Course Times + Location:

    Sep 3 – Dec 2, 2025: Wed, 9:30 a.m.–12:20 p.m.
    Vancouver

  • Prerequisites:

    45 units.

Description

CALENDAR DESCRIPTION:

Investigates sound art as an interdisciplinary practice that draws its history and concepts from contemporary visual art, installation art, performance art, experimental music, and their various confluences. We will study historical precedents of experimental sound work as well as think critically and creatively about the themes and concerns that inform contemporary practices.

COURSE DETAILS:

Since the turn of the twenty-first century, a host of historical and critical works have established “sound art” as its own aesthetic genre and practice. However, much of the discourse regarding sound art concerns its interdisciplinary origins and ambiguous nature, which, for that very reason, makes the practice and our understanding of it exceptionally uneven and unstable. But this is not a bad thing. In fact, sound art’s inveterate obscurity is perhaps what makes it so appealing to contemporary artists who have (ostensibly) learned the (ironic) lessons of postmodernism and its discontents. For this lecture, then, we’ll treat sound art as something essentially inconsistent and protean and attempt to understand its development as expressive of a broader experimental ethos that by its nature resists disciplinary capture and technical mastery. Furthermore, due to the unruliness of sound art, we will also regard it as a highly political activity that articulates with contemporary issues concerning the relationship between humans, technology, and global capitalism. To pursue this, we will read about, listen to, watch, and discuss how sound communicates, defines spaces, shapes memories and affects the kinds of connections we forge with people, places and objects. 


This is a lecture course; however, a significant portion of its content will be generated by participation and dialogue between students and the professor. To be successful in this course, students must complete all of the readings and take the risk of speaking, even when they are not entirely comfortable doing so.

Readings and methods of Evaluation TBA.



Materials

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

At SFU, you are expected to act honestly and responsibly in all your academic work. Cheating, plagiarism, or any other form of academic dishonesty harms your own learning, undermines the efforts of your classmates who pursue their studies honestly, and goes against the core values of the university.

To learn more about the academic disciplinary process and relevant academic supports, visit: 


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.