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About UTS Music.Sound.Design Symposium 2008

In 2007 the deans of the Faculty of Design, Architecture and Building and the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Desley Luscombe and Theo van Leeuwen, started the collaboration between design and the humanities to investigate the development of a new course. A working group was formed with researchers from both faculties with expertise in areas of study in sound and music: Shannon O'Neill, James Hurley, Norie Neumark, Theo van Leeuwen, Ben Hewett and Bert Bongers. The group was extended with Ben Byrne, hired as the coordinator to begin to investigate and develop the potential teaching curriculum as well undertake logistical planning, market research and the organisation of the symposium to launch the project.

The UTS Music.Sound.Design Project aims to bring together a variety of approaches which are traditionally separated into different fields of study and different institutions; music in conservatoriums, sound installations in art schools, acoustics and perception studies in universities, sound design in film schools and design departments, etc. Some of the program areas that UTS Music.Sound.Design seeks to encompass are:

  • Acoustics, Psychology and Perception
  • Auditory Culture Theory
  • Instrument Design and Building
  • Music/Composition
  • Radiophonics
  • Sonology: Creating and Understanding Sounds
  • Sound Art and Installation
  • Sound Design: Sound Interfaces, Products, Exhibitions and Sonifications
  • Sound Engineering: Production, Recording and Live sound.
  • Soundtrack: Sound for Animation, Film, Games & Theatre

The UTS Music.Sound.Design Symposium 2008 is a platform to bring together local expertise and interests as well as international contributions, to investigate and establish a common ground for music, sound and design in teaching and research. The three symposium days are planned with themed lectures and presentations in the morning and late afternoon, keynotes mid day, workshops in the afternoon and concerts in the evenings. The workshops have specific themes, related to the program areas described below, and are aimed at grounding our efforts in curriculum development towards a bachelor program aimed to commence in or before 2010, and subsequent Master's programmes for specialisations. In the meantime various activities such as the symposium but also guest lectures, workshops and some teaching are also planned.

Designed as a launch for the project the symposium will run from Wednesday February 13 to Friday February 15 2008 and will feature a mix of panel presentations, keynotes and performances, all of which are free and open to the public as well as some private workshop sessions where delegates will be assisting us to develop the new program.

Presenters will delve into issues across such diverse practices as acoustics, composition, recording, installation, broadcast, sound in the environment, instrument building, interactivity, performance, audiovisuals, new media/game sound, theatre/film sound and auditory culture, materiality and technology theory.