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Music as Noise: Making Sound Art (MUSI30246)
Undergraduate level 3Points: 12.5Not available in 2026
About this subject
Overview
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The notion of noise as potential music has been an enduring preoccupation in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Various contexts for noise-based music include performance works, recordings, installation artworks/sound sculpture, radiophonic works and online.
This subject looks at noise art's development from the Futurists through to Cage's and Oliveros's experimentalism, to contemporary postmodern sound art and into the current post-postmodern era. Students will learn how to create a short sound art work in a style of their choosing, and to contextualise their creative approach within the genre's history.
Intended learning outcomes
On completion of the subject, students should be able to:
- understand and critically evaluate the history and aesthetics of the phenomenon of noise-as-music
- demonstrate basic skills in sound art creation
- articulate and situate their creative endeavours in this area
Generic skills
On completion of this subject, students should possess:
- a capacity to apply and extend existing skills and knowledge to new expression in creative musical practice.
- the ability to engage with new ideas and respond to them in a thoughtful, critical and personal way, in both written and creative platforms.
- the ability to communicate effectively.
Last updated: 3 March 2026