Wikipedia talk:Education program archive/College of William and Mary/Pink Noise: Women making electronic music (Spring 2014)/Course description

This interdisciplinary course explores the hands-on creation of electronic music through the lens of feminist critical frameworks, activism, and collective action. We will explore the work, struggles, triumphs, and techniques of pioneering composers including Pauline Oliveros, Eliane Radigue, Ruth Anderson, and Annea Lockwood as well as examine contemporary innovators such as Maria Chavez, Andrea Polli, and Kaffe Matthews. Techniques and topics include Composing with Texts; Activist Sound; Live Sampling and Delay; Turntablism; Soundscape Composition; the Occult Voice; and Meditative Synthesis. You will compose electronic music individually and collaboratively in small groups. No prior knowledge of music theory, composition, instrumental technique, or sound software is necessary.

Course Objectives: Understand basic principles of human hearing, acoustics, and digital audio.

  • Learn the underlying principles of fundamental waveforms and sound synthesis.
  • Hone your creative process by developing tactics to solve artistic, technical, and formal problems.
  • Perform core tasks of software-based multitrack mixing, sequencing, and composition.
  • Cultivate listening skills (specific bandwidths, unusual aural phenomena, stillness, and patience).
  • Survey major innovators of electronic music listed in the above description.

Wikipedia Assignment Objectives:

  • think critically about information sources and how they function
  • gain public writing skills for a specific audience
  • examine how resources like Wikipedia present (or fail to present) information by and for underrepresented communities