Sound Studies Group


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This is the Sound Studies Group at the SUSTech School of Design, Shenzhen. It is led by Dr. Qiushi Xu and Dr. Marcel Zaes Sagesser. Our research focuses on sound in relationship with technology, the environment, and human listening. It includes sound technology, sound studies, Human Computer Interaction (HCI), sound design, philosophy of science and technology, spatial audio, interactive audio, and creative media. The output of this team is published in prestigious international journals, at domestic and international conferences, and at international exhibitions and concert halls.

#Sound Studies
#Creative Media
#Digital Media Arts
#VR + Sonic Architectures
#Interaction Design
#Sound Design
#Auditory Interaction
#Human Computer Interaction HCI


We are continuously looking for exceptional students for short-term or long-term internships and visiting student positions in our group. Please send us your CV and your portfolio if you are interested.
Shared Class Folder (password folder)
Shared Class Notes
Class + Group Projects + Skill Sharing List
Mapping with QGIS open-source project
Sound Synthesis with VCV Rack
Audio Editor Audacity (free)
Virtualpiano.net

DS345 Sound Design 声音设计


Designing for Inclusion, Accessibility and Public Spaces: Interventions with Sound Design for Yuanling Street, Shenzhen

-> Sound Design for Cultural Accessibility

Collaboration Partners: 
-> C-Foundation, SACA, Paralympics, Yuanling Street Office
Fall 2024


Prof. Marcel SAGESSER
Office hours Marcel: (will be announced)
Teaching Assistant: WEN Jiayi 文嘉懿 (12333207)
Research Assistants assisting the course: FU Xuehua 付雪画 | JIN Yixuan 金仡暄 | ZHENG Hao 郑好





Course Description

This course takes the students on a journey into the realm of the sonic. As something that is quite always around us and yet often remains underinterrogated, students learn about the emotional, narrative, social, and informative potential that sound has in contemporary media applications and beyond. This course focuses on sound as a malleable, raw material that we can craft, and that we can craft with – that is, sound as an opportunity for design. Students will learn to generate sound from scratch with synthesis, and by so doing, will develop critical listening skills, a vocabulary to analyze sound & affect, and will sharpen their skill to imagine auditory worlds for their future projects. The gained skill will help students more critically design intangible, socially engaging experiences in their life as designers. Beyond understanding the basic principles of acoustics, sound generation, composition, and audio editing, this course also surveys contemporary opportunities for the delivery of sound in digital media. The students will engage in English-language classroom discussion, will work both individually and in groups, and they will develop, produce, and deliver a large-scale sound design project that is relevant for experience design. This course might include field trips and/or collaborations with external partners depending on availability. Lecture and activity schedules are indicative and may be adjusted.
Skills: composition, sound generation, editing .


Design Brief for Fall 2024

This course is offered in collaboration with the Yuanling Street Office (Shenzhen-Futian) and SACA, the Shenzhen Accessibility Association, and is funded by C-Foundation. 

For the 2025 Paralympics and Special Olympics in Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao, the City of Shenzhen is launching several initiatives to render Shenzhen more accessible and inclusive. The games will attract athletes, as well as a large number of audiences from close by and far away. For Shenzhen, it is an opportunity to improve its infrastructure and showcase innovation projects in the domain of accessibility and inclusion.

With this course, the SUSTech School of Design will realize 4-6 sound design projects that provide more accessibility and inclusion to the Yuanling neighborhood of Shenzhen, where a part of the games will take place. The focus of this course lies on cultural accessibility: how can sound be used to communicate to the visitors – athletes, guests, but also local spectators – what the local culture is, and how they can better learn about, explore, and navigate, the area? 

The SUSTech School of Design will specifically not focus on physical modalities of accessibility. Instead, they will put emphasis on what the special competence area of this school is: on innovation and creative, digital technologies. As a School within SUSTech University, this course will combine the core capabilities in scientific approaches and creative innovation. Sound is one of these technologies, and particularly the use and application of interactive digital sound design will showcase how new media and new technologies can be applied to improve the city also in public space.

Accessibility and Inclusion often means that people with special ability can participate fully in society, including sports and culture. Yet accessibility is more than that, it also includes any potential citizen, and can help them feel more welcomed, and more taken seriously, if they are met with content that is tailored to them with the sensibility for cultural nuance and appropriateness. 

Sound is special in that it can communicate information and emotion at once. An audio guide could encompass auditory geographic navigation within Yuanling for visually impaired. Yet more so, communicating to all kinds of visitors through sound means to give them access to information that otherwise remains hidden: the local sports traditions, stories of local people who have lived here for many decades, the history of the district, its culinary specialties, it‘s musical and cultural heritage and contemporary culture, and so on. These specially designed insights will provide the visitors a better experience as they will gain valuable cultural knowledge which then helps them navigate the area with a sensitivity for the place, the history, and the people of Yuanling. These sound design innovations will even allow them to explore the area on an emotional level, beyond receiving helpful information.

The student design teams will create prototypes of site-specific, interactive audio guides for Yuanling, as well as sound design elements for selected sites in public space. By the end of the course, students will also document their sound designs in high-quality concept films that demonstrate their contribution in cultural accessibility for the Yuanling district and for Shenzhen.


Deliverables

  • Small assignment #1 (individual skill demonstration in sound)
  • Small assignment #2 (individual skill demonstration in sound)
  • Interactive audio guide and public sound design, 1st draft (audio files, map, title, concept note) — interim presentations in classroom
  • Interactive audio guide and public sound design, final version (audio files, map, title, concept note) — outdoor demonstration in Yuanling
  • Concept film, documenting the interactive audio guide and public sound design, 1st draft (video, contains your sound design, contains your map, annotations, accompanied by bilingual poster) — final presentations in classroom
  • Concept film, final version, with bilingual poster, final version — final course submission


Learning Outcomes

  1. Demonstrate skill in sound composition and sound editing
  2. Analyze, identify, and critically describe sound design opportunities within experience design
  3. Present original research on the social and cultural consequences of sound
  4. Realize and present an original high-quality creative project in sound design





Syllabus / Weekly Plan


Week 1 (Dr. XU Qiushi + FU Xuehua – Marcel at SMPR’24)

Introduction  to sound design: what can sound do within experience and industrial design? Welcome, overview of the course content, practice project, and the expectations about academic, ethical and creative rigor.

  • Course intro
  • What is sound? Outdoor recording exercise
  • What is sound design? Reading of  book chapter introduction
  • Introduction to the practice project (Yuanling Paralympics Shenzhen)



(image courtesy of amazon.com)

Week 2

Theory of acoustics and listening: what is sound, and how do we perceive it?
Basic knowledge, skill, and keywords, introduction to sound editing
In the studio: sound recording
The principles of microphones, loudspeakers, storage, recording techniques, norms, and applications
Introduction to Mapping, Fieldwork, and Ethnographic work

  • Course administration
  • Recap theory from last week
  • Theory: how do microphones and loudspeakers work?  (short)
  • Topic: 
  •     What is cultural accessibility?
  •     Final project, and a few case studies (including Hao)
  •     Discussion: what can design do? (design for ...)
  •     Exercise: topic search, academic desk research (individual), with upload
  • Examples of sound:
  •     Analysis exercise of sound design cases
  • Preparing for fieldwork:
  •     Ethnographic methods, anthropology
  •     Interviewing (book chapter 7, page 147-154)
  •     Data Collecting
  •     Mapping
  •     Design Opportunities
  •     Topic mapping -> group making
  •     Technical demo of audio recorders

Homework until Tuesday Sep 24, 8:00pm (individual, upload to class folder)
  • The director of the 园岭 street office has helped me to organize several local residents who are willing to talk to you on Friday and answer your questions in short interviews. The director wants to see your questions earlier, therefore I need to change the date for the interview questions:
    Each of you upload 3 good interview questions in Chinese *and* English and upload them to the shared course folder (OneDrive) before tomorrow evening, Tuesday Sep 24, 8:00pm into the folder called "week 2 interview questions". Label the text file clearly with your name. Remember, the project is about cultural accessibility, so you want to use the locals to find out a lot of information about the local culture of Yuanling, and which parts of their culture they think is important for visitors to know about. You can choose your favorite areas of culture, of course, for example sports. But please talk to colleagues and make sure that not everyone is asking the same topic or the same question, we want some wider range of topics.

Homework until Wednesday Sep 25, 8:00pm (individual, upload to class folder)
 Prepare for fieldwork: Make a fieldwork plan
  • define your “field” (what are the part(s) of culture that you think you want to study there?)
  • find 1 academic article and 1 internet source about Yuanling
  • list 3 tentative design opportunities based on your desk research
  • define your methods that you will use (at least four, 1 is sound recording and 1 is interview, 1 is mapping, 1 is free)
  • read book chapter 7 “interview”
  • create 3 good interview questions that you would like to ask to a local resident of Yuanling
  • prepare a map
  • -> put all of it into your fieldwork plan, make it look nice -> be creative
Deadline: upload to class folder on Wednesday evening, 8pm (Sep 25) - individual homework


Week 3 - Fieldwork (Futian Excursion)

In the Field: fieldwork in Yuanling Street, Shenzhen-Futian

  • Each student, run at least four methods while we are in the field, and collect as much materials as possible for your tentative project topic(s), for your intended directions, and for seeking for opportunities. 
  • Mandatory methods: sound recording with Zoom H4, interview, mapping
  • Free methods: choose 1 more method

Homework:
Before the next class starts, before 7:59am on Sun Sep 29,  upload all your materials from yesterday to Onedrive:
  • Sound recordings, Images, Videos --> to the folder "Fieldwork Yuanling" - select the corresponding sub-category or create your own --> put all the files there into a subfolder clearly labeled with your name.
  • Sketches, maps, drawings, notes, hand written notes, etc.: into the folder projects --> "week 3 field notes"

Week 4 (Sunday class! – Sep 29)

In the machine: sound synthesis; the principles of generating sound from scratch; using sound as a malleable raw material to craft with; sound in the machine as an opportunity for interaction
-> hand out assignment #1 prompt
-> Postponed: guest talk #1 (waiting for confirmation)


  • Post-processing of fieldwork: interview transcription of 3 important parts + translation, interview analysis, fieldwork analysis, update mapping, define opportunities
  • Clarify grading
  • Introduction to Audio Editing
  • Group making process
  • Skill sharing session organization
  • New topic: “In the machine - synthesis” (see above)

Homework:
  • Assignment #1 (individual, upload to OneDrive)
  • Final project: progress (individual, upload to OneDrive under the folder “week 4 fieldwork analysis”), tasks: interview transcription of 3 important parts + translation, interview analysis, fieldwork analysis, update mapping, define opportunities
    Deadline: upload to class folder on OneDrive by  Oct 11, 7:59am

Assignment #1
Deadline: upload to class folder on OneDrive by  Oct 11, 7:59am
  • Individual Work
  • Use VCV Rack (and Adobe Audition or any other professional audio editor)
  • Create a generative sound design work that remains interesting for a duration of 2 minutes. “Interesting” means that some elements must be constantly changing (fast oder very slow, or both).
  • It should have at least 3 layers of sound (3 Oscillators / VCO).
  • It should use filters (VCF)
  • It should use time control (Step Sequencer SEQ and/or Low Frequency Oscillator LFO)
  • All sounds must be made with VCV Rack 2.
  • The sounds can be assembled in Adobe Audition or any other professional audio editor. Audition can also be used to add additional reverb, or effects such as EQ, panning, automation.
Upload to the OneDrive folder “week 5 sound synthesis”
  • audio file (2 minutes, .mp3 / .wav / .aif), ideally stereo with left and right channel
  • VCV Rack project file (.vcv)
  • screenshot of your VCV Rack project that shows everything in a way that can be reproduced
  • diagram (made by hand or by computer) that shows the concept of your sound design.

(National Holiday Break)

Week 5

Opportunities for sound in experience design: survey of sound design applications, workshop on identifying and developing new opportunities, project work, background research, idea development
-> submit assignment #1 (technical sound design skill)

  • Peer Skill Sharing Sessions (10 minutes for each student in class; individual)
  • Reading: book chapters 1 / 2
  • Lecture: opportunities in sound design (experience design) - analysis of examples -> mapping, seeking for opportunities, in-details analysis of soundscape
  • Report from Oct 10 meeting at Yuanling Street Office - what other universities are doing
  • Input on Audio Guide Development (in-progress, presented by ZHENG Hao)
  • First group tutorials

Homework for next week (deadline: upload to class folder, under projects, by Oct 18, 7:59am)
Project work, develop your final project, including background research, idea development, mapping of Yuanling, sound collection, and making sketches + drafts (individual upload inside the new “Project / Group X” folder)
-> follow the group tasks that are written down in the TencentDoc.


Week 6

Sound and affect: the social and cultural consequences of sound; theory of affect; sound as emotional, narrative, informative, and ambience. Theory of socio-cultural context of sound-making; project work, background research
-> hand out assignment #2 prompt
-> guest talk #2 (waiting for confirmation)


Week 7

Composing sound is composing time: imagining auditory worlds; conceptualizing timelines, perception of time, advanced audio composition: integration, collaging, cutting, transitioning, decontextualizing, working with depth, arranging time, and creating original auditory worlds
-> submit assignment #2 (technical sound design skill)


Week 8

Advanced time structures: non-linearity and interactivity; conceptualizing advanced timelines; non-linear, cyclical, interactive, and generative structures with their social and cultural consequences for users; project work, interim review preparations


Week 9 - Interim Review

Interim Review: presentation and critique of background research and project drafts


Week 10 (No class - SUSTech Sports Day)

Design process: responding to critique and feedback; after the critique is before the critique: learning to respond to critique; rethinking the projects; project work, software and tech tutorials as needed by projects


Week 11 

Crafting sound II: advanced synthesis, recording, sampling, and editing techniques; sound as a material to create auditory worlds with; perfecting concepts and ideas in realization; project work; software and tech tutorials as needed by projects


    Week 12 - Audio Guide Prototype Presentation (Futian Excursion)

    Creating space: sonic architectures and post production; when time becomes spatial: thinking time-based sound design as sonic architecture; learning the techniques of spatial processing; filtering, panning, layering, automating volumes, depth, compressing, and mixing sound productions; project work 


    Week 13

    How to present something that is sonic: writing about and representing sound; project work, internal feedback, and learning to write and present sound in a report and in a presentation.


    Week 14 (Replacement Teacher – Marcel at VINCI’24)

    Tutorial Work on final projects, internal feedback


    Week 15

    Tutorial & Presentation Skill Project work, internal feedback, practice of presentation skill


    Week 16 - Final Review (classroom)

    Final Review — Presentation and critique of final projects and project reports


    Week 16 - Final Submission

    Submission of projects and project reports (Submission on Sunday evening 6:00 pm)


    Week 17

    Exam week


    Week 18

    Exam week


    Skill Sharing

    Each student has 10 minutes to present 1 selected skill to their peers. The skill has to relate to the course topic, and has to be discussed with the teacher beforehand. Students sign up at the beginning of the semester. The skill presented can be a specific software or app, a specific function/tool within an app, or can relate to hardware (sound recording / synthesis / etc.), or can relate to anything else that is of interest to the course (especially skills that help the other class members to create their projects). Examples: coding, animation, foley making, make a particular sound effect, film making, sound design, synthesis, etc. -> sign up here.


    Readings:

    • Case, Amber, and Aaron Day. Designing with Sound: Fundamentals for Products and Services. 1st edition. Beijing ; Boston: O’Reilly Media, 2018.

    Additional readings:
    • Collins, Karen. Game Sound: An Introduction to the History, Theory, and Practice of Video Game Music and Sound Design. MIT Press, 2008.
    • Collins, Karen. 2013. Playing with Sound: A Theory of Interacting with Sound and Music in Video Games. Illustrated edition. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press.
    • Collins, Karen. Studying Sound: A Theory and Practice of Sound Design. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press, 2020.
    • Filimowicz, Michael. Foundations in Sound Design for Embedded Media: A Multidisciplinary Approach. Routledge, 2020.
    • Filimowicz, Michael. Foundations in Sound Design for Interactive Media: A Multidisciplinary Approach. Routledge, 2019.
    • Horowitz, Steve, and Scott R. Looney. 2014. The Essential Guide to Game Audio: The Theory and Practice of Sound for Games. CRC Press.
    • Scott-James, Kahra. Sound Design for Moving Image: From Concept to Realization. London ; New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2018.
    • Sinclair, Jean-Luc. Principles of Game Audio and Sound Design. 1st edition. New York, NY: Focal Press, 2020

    Assessment

    • Attendance 10%
    • Final Exam 20%
    • Small Assignments (individual) 20%
    • Final Presentation / Final Project 50% (33% is group grade, 67% is individual grade)

    Attendance

    Attendance: 10%
    • 100 points for never late and never missing a class
    • 100 points for being up to 4 times late (up to 50min), OR for missing 1 entire class
    • 50 points for missing 1 entire class and being up to 4 times a little late (up to 50min)
    • 50 points for never missing a class, and being up to 8 times a little late (up to 50min)
    • 0 points for missing 2 or more classes
    • 0 points for being late for more than 8 times
    *all late or missing when unexcused. If excused with a reason, it doesn’t count toward the attendance grade.

    Classroom Policy

    After each class, the classroom has to be cleaned up properly. Everyone is responsible for their computer and their desk, chair, and the floor around them. Remove any food waste, any trash. Make order on the computer, on the desk. If the keyboard/mouse are low on battery, put them on charge. Backup your files privately, put the chair nicely to the desk.
    No eating during class time. Drinking is always allowed. The breaks can be used for eating.

    Equipment and Device Policy

    Technical devices are here to be used by the members of this class. They can be used freely during class time, and outside of class time, they can be either accessed in the classroom, or some of them can be checked out and can be taken with you. TA Jiayi is responsible for the device checkout.

    Academic Integrity

    https://msagesser.github.io/ds226-2023/SD-late-policy.pdf
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