Accessibility statement

Sound Art - MUS00193I

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  • Department: Music
  • Credit value: 20 credits
  • Credit level: I
  • Academic year of delivery: 2023-24
    • See module specification for other years: 2022-23

Module summary

This module introduces the discipline of sound art through the study of key works, artists and theories, and by developing a critically informed sound art practice.

Module will run

Occurrence Teaching period
A Semester 2 2023-24

Module aims

This module explores contemporary critical theories and practices engaging with sound as an artistic medium. Sound art as a discipline developed through a shared genealogy between the traditions of experimental music and visual art. Sound art today encompasses a large variety of practices including sound and intermedia installations, sound sculpture, sound walks and listening practices, live art, experimental performance, improvisation and digitally mediated art. Its conceptual landscape is similarly varied, incorporating different theories of visual art and music, sound and media studies, critical theory and philosophy.

Students will develop a critically informed creative practice through the study of key works, artists and texts and by actively engaging in discussions about contemporary issues, concepts and theories related to sound art. At the same time, they will gain technical and technological skills through workshops. At the end of the module, students will have the opportunity to present their work publicly in an exhibition, event or performance.

Module learning outcomes

By the end of the taught part of the project all students should be able to:

  • have developed an understanding of sound art as demonstrated in the study of key works, artists and texts;

  • develop their own personal sound art practice that is informed by recent critical debates in sound art theory and aesthetics;

  • demonstrate the technical and technological skills necessary to produce work across different sound art practices and media

  • understand the institutions, roles, spaces, materials, modes of listening, workflows, and forms of presentation and dissemination of sound art, as well as how they are shaped by historical and cultural contexts.

On completion of the module, in their independent work:

Indicative assessment

Task % of module mark
Essay/coursework 30
Essay/coursework 70

Special assessment rules

None

Additional assessment information

Portfolio of creative work (70%) consisting of a piece of sound art (installation, intermedia piece, event, sculpture, performance or other).
Written documentation (30%) 1500-2000 words describing how the creative work relates to contemporary sound art practices and theories and the subjects studied in the module.

Indicative reassessment

Task % of module mark
Essay/coursework 30
Essay/coursework 70

Module feedback

Mark and report within University designated turnaround time.

Indicative reading

Benjamin, Walter (1992) Illuminations. London: Fontana.

Bishop, Claire (2012) Artificial Hells: Participatory Art and the Politics of Spectatorship. Verso.

Bogue, Ronald (2003) Deleuze on Music, Painting and the Arts. Routledge.

Bourriaud, Nicolas (2002) Relational Aesthetics. Les Presses du reel.

Brandon, LaBelle (2006) Background Noise: Perspectives in Sound Art. Continuum.

Buchanan, Ian and Swiboda, Marcel (2004) Deleuze and Music. Edinburgh University Press.

Cox, Christoph and Warner, Daniel (eds.) (2004) Audio Culture: Readings in Modern Music. London: Continuum.

Cox, Christoph (2018) Sonic Flux: Sound, Art, and Metaphysics. University of Chicago Press.

Deleuze, Gilles (2005) Cinema 1: The Movement-Image. Continuum.

Deleuze, Gilles (2014) Difference and Repetition. Bloomsbury.

Deleuze, Gilles and Guattari, Félix (1996) What is Philosophy? Columbia University Press.

Deleuze, Gilles and Guattari, Félix (2004) A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia. Continuum.

Grant, Jane, Mattias, John and Prior, David (eds.) (2021) The Oxford Handbook of Sound Art. Oxford University Press.

Kahn, Douglas (1999) Noise, Water, Meat: A History of Sound in the Arts. MIT Press.

Kelly, Caleb (2011) Sound (Documents of Contemporary Art). MIT Press.

Kim-Choen, Seth (2009) In the Blink of an Ear: Toward a Non-cochlear Sonic Art. Bloomsbury.

Kwon, Miwon (2004) One Place After Another: Site-Specific Art and Local Identity. MIT Press.

Lane, Cathy (2021) Sound arts now. Uniformbooks.

Licht, Alan (2019) Sound Art Revisited. Bloomsbury.

Rancière, Jacques (2011) The Emancipated Spectator. Verso.

Pfaller, Robert (2014) On the Pleasure Principle in Culture: Illusions Without Owners. Verso Books.

Sterne, Jonathan (2003) The Audible Past: Cultural Origins of Sound Reproduction. Duke University Press.

Voegelin, Salome (2010) Listening to Noise and Silence: Towards a Philosophy of Sound Art. Continuum.

Weibel, Peter (2015) Sound Art: Sound as Medium of Art. MIT Press.

Žižek, Slavoj (1999) The Žižek Reader. Blackwell.


The information on this page is indicative of the module that is currently on offer. The University constantly explores ways to enhance and improve its degree programmes and therefore reserves the right to make variations to the content and method of delivery of modules, and to discontinue modules, if such action is reasonably considered to be necessary. In some instances it may be appropriate for the University to notify and consult with affected students about module changes in accordance with the University's policy on the Approval of Modifications to Existing Taught Programmes of Study.