Digital Music and Sound Arts MA

International equivalencies

We can help you meet our English language or academic entry requirements.

Why study with us?

• You’ll be exposed to sound across a wide spectrum of aesthetic forms and in diverse technological media, especially the relation of sound to other art forms.
• Our staff are experts in the field and work as artists, producers, curators, composers and authors as well as in teaching.
• The course combines practical experimentation in both music and sound art with theoretical reflection and contextual research.
• You are encouraged to articulate, explore and develop your ideas within group and independent projects.

Areas of study

Through creative practice-based research students will engage with musical composition and sound design productions. Studies will place particular emphasis on the relationship of sound to other art forms and related media key areas including:

• sound for screen and moving image – addressing screen-based musical composition and sound design for film, video, games, new media, television, multi-channel audio-visual installations and audio-visual projections in space
• sound arts – addressing sound in relation to other art forms, such as sculpture, installation art, photography, architecture, soundscape composition, environmental art as well as sound ecology, sound in space and spatialisation of sound, audio-visual installations and radiophonics
• sound and new media – covering sound and music in the context of the new content afforded by the digital media, such as generative composition & sound design, audio programming for new media applications and interactivity, hybrid (lived and virtual) environments, interface and new instrument design, computer games, locative media, apps design for mobile media.

Modules

• Experimental Sound Practice
• Practice-based Research Methods
• Critical Theory – Research Essay
• Contemporary Debates in Sonic Media and Sound Arts
• Sound Research Project and Professional Practice: Stage 1 (Initiation)
• Sound Research Project and Professional Practice: Stage 2 (Resolution)

Some modules are shared with students from the Digital Media, Culture and Society MA, and the Digital Media Arts MA, enabling a cross pollination of ideas and strategies.

Facilities

Students have access to high-end equipment, resources and expert staff support, including:

• four state-of-the-art networked digital studios equipped with surround sound, high-end sound processing, AV post-production capable via fully automated mixing and mastering, which includes an array of analogue hardware synthesizers and specialised analogue outboard equipment and instruments, for example Theramin
• two sound isolated sound recording booths with connection to all studios
• sound diffusion lab dedicated for multi-channel sound (up to 16 channel), HD video projections and digitally controlled LED DMX eight channel lighting system for research and experimentation with multi-channel audio-visual interactive systems
• computer suite with specialised audio and AV software
• recording equipment: digital mobile multi-channel professional digital recorders, professional condenser and dynamic microphones, 5.1 surround sound microphone
• specialist software: IRCAM Spat, MaxMSP, Pure Data, Logic Audio Pro, Cubase, Pro Tools, Melodyne, Final Cut Pro, full Adobe Suite
• dedicated electronic workshop mash-up area to aide building and experimentation with interface design, new instrument design, sensors via dedicated Arduino kits
• AV technical support
• technical inductions and workshop sessions
• tutor support for practice-based research and theoretical research project development.

Location

Campus where this course is taught

Accommodation

Maps

Accommodation

University building

Grand Parade campus map