Sound Art Summer Academy

und Art Summer Academy, a two-week intensive course in which students have the opportunity to explore key aspects of sonic art. The courses of the Sound Art Summer Academy are open to EVERYONE above the age of 17, not only to students in higher education. However, applicants should be aware that the courses are designed for university level arts students. Applicants should assess their own ability to participate in courses at this level and derive benefit from them. The language of all the courses in the Sound Art Summer Academy is English. Applicants must have a sufficient command of English to benefit from the courses. Students can take any of the courses in any combination, from a minimum of one course up to a maximum of all four courses. Each completed course qualifies for 2 ECTS study points (maximum 8 study points for the whole academy). It may be possible for the student to redeem and use these points in their home institution, if appropriate (see below). Students should check with their own schools if in doubt. The courses are free and open to any applicants from any country. However, applicants will be required to sign a declaration of their intention to come and will be charged the full cost of 400 euros PER COURSE for no-show. It is the applicants' own responsibility to indemnify themselves against loss in cases of sickness or force majeure. The courses do NOT include travel, meals or accommodation. Students should book their own accommodation in Helsinki. Students must take responsibility themselves for acquiring any visas and travel documents they require. How to apply

The links below will open for applications on Thursday 17 April 2014. You can apply by clicking on any of the links. A maximum of 10 places is available on each course. Applications will be dealt with in the order they arrive. Applications will close when all the course places are filled. You can check how many places are currently available on the Sound Art Summer Academy page on a daily basis via our page (page address)

If you have any inquiries before committing yourself to an application, please write an email to Andrew Bentley, organizer of the Academy, at [email protected]

Week 1 Monday 18 August to Saturday 23 August (6 days)

Course 1 Eriksson (mornings)
Programming for Arts Students using Max (2 ECTS credit points) with teacher Mikael Eriksson

Course 2 Naphtali (afternoons)
Aesthetics of Live Sound Processing (2 ECTS credit points) with teacher Dafna Naphtali

Week 2 Monday 25 August to Saturday 30 August (6 days)

Course 3 Olarte (mornings)
Digital Embedded Synthesizers (2 ECTS credit points) with teacher Luis Alejandro Olarte

Course 4 Sonntag (afternoons)
Sonic Spaces (2 ECTS credit points) with teacher Jan-Peter E.R. Sonntag

The Courses

Programming for Arts Students using Max

This course, which comprises lectures and practical work, is an introduction to programming using the Max graphical programming environment. It will deal with the basics of Max, how to get live sound and video in and out of the computer, some simple sound and image processing, as well as how to control all of this through programmability and in real time. The idea is to work very clearly and systematically through the basics of programming, and then learn concepts that allow students to quickly achieve results that can be seen and heard. No previous experience of programming is required, but basic computer skills are necessary. Aesthetics of Live Sound Processing

This course, which comprises lectures and practical work, starts from the premise that the complex role of the live sound processor has become better understood in recent years, and has become ubiquitous and an accepted role for composer or performer on stage. It will concern itself with live sound processing of acoustic sounds as an independent musical instrument, explore and discuss various live sound processing techniques and strategies through performance, lecture and presentation and give students a foundation to develop their own work. Students are encouraged to bring acoustic instruments and their own portable equipment. Digital Embedded Synthesizers

On this course students will work with the microcomputers Raspberry PI, Beaglebone, Arduino and the open source software Supercollider to design all the aspects of a digital instrument and build a standalone digital synthesizer. The instrument will include compatible controllers, or sensors, including potentiometers, buttons, pressure and light sensors. The course will end with a short demo/presentation. The student should bring her or his own laptop. Sonic Spaces—The Space of a Sound and Acoustic Architectures

Since the Renaissance and the geometricalization of the world, the visual sense and Euclidian space have dominated our orientation in Western civilisation. However, in the mid-20th century space once again became an important parameter of music. Sonntag has based his work on the philosophy and models of space and on acoustic phenomena in composition, creating non-Euclidian spaces out of interference fields and working on the physicality of the sound itself. His idea has been to create an amorphic sonic architecture in which the audience can walk or immerse themselves. In this course he will start from the theory of spaces in philosophy, architecture and music and go on to the technical aspects of realizing electro-acoustic systems. The Teachers

Mikael Eriksson studied at the Theatre Academy of Finland and SARC Belfast and is a sound designer specialising in theatre, dance and installations. He has taught at the Theatre Academy of Finland Department of Lighting & Sound Design and the Aalto University Helsinki. Dafna Naphtali is a teacher of interactive computer music and installation art at New York University. She also teaches music theory and music technology at Brooklyn College. She previously taught for the Transart MFA program in New York and Berlin and regularly gives workshops in universities in the USA and Europe. Her artistic work includes solo performances for voice and live electronics, Robotica for Eric Singer's LEMUR music robots and Panda Half-Life for the Magic Names vocal sextet. http://www.dafna.info
www.tinyurl.com/DafnaLEMUR

Luis Alejandro Olarte is a composer and electroacoustic music researcher and specialist in electronic improvisation. He has studied in Bogota, Fresnes, Paris Conservatoire and the Sibelius Academy. where he is now a teacher and doctoral candidate. He has made a specialism of building boxes for sound synthesis and processing using digital technologies and embedded computers. http://alejandro.olarte.free.fr/LiveElectronicsAtelier/index.html

Jan-Peter E.R. Sonntag is an artist, composer and researcher. He studied fine arts, art history, music theory, composition, philosophy and cognitive science. In 2002 he founded N-solab in Berlin. In 2014 he continues his long-term research "Apparatus operandi" and will be a visiting professor at Bauhaus University in Weimar. He has received several grants and prizes including the German Sound Art Prize and the the Villa-Aurora-Grant, Los Angeles, and has exhibited in numerous high-profile international contexts. http://www.sonarc-ion.de/portfolio
http://www.medientheater.org/
http://www.evdh.net/rund-funk-empfangs-saal/
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan-Peter_E.R._Sonntag

Advice for potential applicants to UniArts Helsinki
An optional extra session will be organized each week to introduce the work of the University of Arts Helsinki to summer academy students. UniArts Helsinki consists of the Finnish Academy of Fine Arts, the Theatre Academy of Finland and the Sibelius Academy, Finland's national university for music. What is an ECTS credit point? It is a measure of how much you have studied. ECTS stands for the European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System, a standard for comparing the study achievement and performance of students in higher education across the European Union and collaborating countries. One full year of study is equivalent to 60 ECTS study points, or 1500-1800 hours of study. Study points gain in a higher education institution can be traded in for study points in your own institution. Since this happens at your institution's discretion, it is wise to check that it will recognize these points. Organizers
UniArts Helsinki is Finland's national university for the arts—the country's highest institution for fine art, theatre and music. The Sound Art Summer Academy is organized jointly by departments from the Finnish Academy of Fine Arts, the Theatre Academy of Finland and the Sibelius Academy as part of their larger programme to develop sound art studies at university level. Please address inquiries to Dr Andrew Bentley, Organizer Sound Art Summer Academy, [email protected], or contact us via our page.