TEACHING PHILOSOPHY

When I started teaching Sound in Digital Media at the University of the Arts Bremen, I introduced the concept of Sound Studies to the program's curricula. It is a concept to analyze the interrelated ideas of sound, noise, silence, and music, allowing us to ask how we might best (re)define them. We listen to these elements critically, and students think about how to use them in their own work, weaving them together with elements from their versatile backgrounds.

My approach to teaching Sound Culture, for example, is to cultivate a critical ear for listening and creating. I hope to engage students’ curiosity by introducing works by artists who have blurred traditional boundaries of music, science, design, fine arts, and philosophy. I want students to participate in communicating their listening experiences. Here we are entering the realm of sound narrative: spelling out how a particular sound environment, composition or situation affects individual and personal sensibilities and perception. Doing this requires creating a classroom environment suited for the exchange of ideas, a place for reflection and reverie.

I emphasize the importance of developing strong initial concepts that both challenge and lead to satisfying results. To assist in this process I design assignments for students to obtain technical skills whilst engaging in play. The assigned projects are considered primarily as tools to create learning, and not merely as tests of that learning. It is certainly necessary to teach the use of digital media tools and techniques, but most importantly students need to grasp a thorough understanding of how to expand on this knowledge. This is acquired through their own experience, starting out with work on defined projects, e.g. producing a one minute sound piece with one sample only. This will give students a framework to start experimenting with samples, sound design and compositional intentions. I invite students to share their knowledge through peer-teaching and exchange of ideas and materials: Collaborative efforts in creating projects have always been exceptionally successful—one more way of creating a “play” atmosphere. To encourage discussion and collaborative learning beyond scheduled time, I set up a website that allows students to review and otherwise add and edit content themselves.

I consider it an important aspect in my role as educator and artist to direct students toward relevant discourse in Sound and New Media Art, and provide information to understand and engage these discourses in relation to their own interests. I value reading critical writings in cultural studies, sound, and media theory as an essential tool for understanding historical and contemporary contexts, and for providing alternate ways to see and imagine the world. This allows students a taste of different discourses that they may choose to pursue further outside of my class.

To further an understanding of how sound is used by artists and scientists from various disciplines, I take undergraduate and graduate students on excursions to see exhibits, concerts and conferences—one of which is the annual Ars Electronica in Linz, Austria: a festival of art, technology, and society. My aim is to acculturate students to the broad field of New Media Art and acquaint them with current debates and issues in the field. Whether I teach within a classroom or in a one-to-one independent studies context, I support the students' creativity by listening and advising them on their specific needs. I encourage experimentation with sound— thinking and learning through making—through open-ended processes of trial and error, of moving from intuition to action, which cannot thoroughly be planned or controlled. These processes lead to discovery, invention, and growth.