New Media Writing

English 4010 | Fall 2016

Nathaniel A. Rivers | nrivers1@slu.edu
Office Hours: w, 200-400
http://slunewmediawriting.tumblr.com

Week One: Intro to Sound Studies

M 8/22 Introductions and Expectations
Syllabus Overview
List of places to check out Podcasts
99% Invisible Episode 1: Noise

Week Three Soundscapes

M 9/5 No Class (Labor Day)
W 9/7 Shaping Soundscapes
DUE: Sonic Postcards
Soundscape re/design
Rice, Inquiry as Telos
Instagr/am/bient: 25 Sonic Postcards
Sonic Postcards
ASSIGN: Podcast Proposal Assignment

For Next Time

Soundmap
Sterne, Sonic Imaginations [SSR]
Sterne et al, The Politics of Podcasting
You Asked: What are Podcasts?
W 8/24 Intro to Sound Studies & Audacity
This American Life, Mapping
Audacity Hack: Respond verbally to 99%
Invisible Episode 1 or the This American Life
Mapping segment in under 30 seconds via
Audacityrecord, export, edit, save.
Audacity Setup Discussion
For Next Time
Install Audacity
Barthes, Listening [PDF]
Steve Goodman, The Ontology of Vibrational
Force [SSR]
Chion, The Three Listening Modes [SSR]

Week Two: Listening and/or Hearing

M 8/29 Listening I
RE : SOUND The Hearing Show
MIT Researchers Can Listen via Video
For Next Time
Kitchen Sisters French Manicure
W 8/31 Listening II
Assign: Sonic Postcard & Field Recording
How to Map a City: Part 1 (Well come back
to these two entries)
How to Map a City: Part 2

For Next Time

LaBelle, Auditory Relations [SSR]
Eshun, Operating System for the Redesign of
Sonic Reality [SSR]
How to reimagine Sound in Ten Easy Steps

Week Four Podcasting Ethics

M 9/12 Genre Analysis
For Next Time
Glass, Harnessing Luck As Industrial Product
Radiolab Making the Hippo Dance
W 9/14 Ethics of Amplification
Pulling Back the Curtain
Tinkering with Sound Design
Discussion on Ethics of Amplification
DIY $23.00 Mini Sound Booth built in under
an hour.
For Next Time
How Podcasts Get (And Keep) Your Attention
Smith, Living History
Tolan, Voice and the Place [RR]
Davis, Covering Home

For Next Time

Schafer, The Soundscape [SSR]
Leppert Reading the Sonoric
Landscape [SSR]
Nathaniel A . Rivers | ENGL 4010: New Media Writing | Fall 2016 | !1

Week Five Writing Sound Stories

Week Nine Remix

M 9/19 Podcasts
Listen: 99% Invisible, The Sound of Sports
Assign: Podcast Assignment

M 10/17 Remix I
DUE: Podcast 1 Interview Podcast
Blaauw-Hara and Putman, Remixing the
Personal Narrative
William S. Burroughs Teaches Writing: Calling
All Reactive Agents
Genesis Breyer P-Orridge Reflects On William
S. Burroughs Sound Experiments

For Next Time

Hilmes, Radio and the Imagined Community
[SSR]
W 9/21 Editing Workshop
Editing Podcast Analysis
For Next Time
Perception Is Reality: Psychoacoustics From An
Audio Engineers Perspective
Eidshiem Music As Vibrational
Practice [PDF]

Week Six Sound Surrounds

For Next Time

Lethem, The Ecstasy of Influence
Atalli, The Politics of Noise [SSR]
W 10/19 Remix II
RIP: A Remix Manifesto
[HOMEWORK: FINISH RIP]

Week Ten Editing Workshops

M 9/26 Live Sound

M 10/24 Editing Workshop

99% Invisible: The Sizzle
Sound Function Design Assignment

For Next Time

Roberts, Finding the Poetry

W 10/26 Editing Workshop

DUE: Podcast 2 Sonic Remediation/Remix

W 9/28 Editing Workshop

Editing Workshop
DUE: PODCAST ANALYSIS
For Next Time
Out on Wire (1-106)

Week Seven Writing with Sound

M 10/3 Telling a Story
NPR, Serial
For Next Time
Out on Wire (106-209)
W 10/5 Listening to Stories (Interviewing)
Interviewing Exercise
Hawk and Smith, Digimortal
DUE: Podcast Proposal

Week Eight Editing

M 10/10 Editing Workshop
W 10/12 Editing Workshop
DUE: Podcast 1 Interview Podcast
For Next Time
Mowitt, The Sound of Music in the Era of Its
Electronic Reproducibility [SSR]
Lastra, Fidelity v. Intelligibility [SSR]

For Next Time

Blesser-Salter, Ancient Acoustic Spaces [SSR]
Gandy, Acoustic Terrains: An
Introduction [AC]
Ouzounian, Acoustic Mapping [AC]
The Dos and Donts of Gathering Ambient
Background, or Harvesting Wild Sound
(Optional) Rath, No Corner for the Devil to
Hide [SSR]
(Optional) Picker, The Soundproof
Study [SSR]

Week Eleven Urban Acoustics

M 10/31 Sound & Space
Cities and Memory
Sounds of Street View
Stereo Public
For Next Time
Jones, Sonic Ecology [AC]
Albrechtslund, Eavesdroppin [AC]
Royaards, The Space Between[AC]
(Optional) Flitner Machines over the
Garden [AC]
(Optional) Kusiak, Acoustic
Gentrification [AC]

Nathaniel A . Rivers | ENGL 4010: New Media Writing | Fall 2016 | !2

W 11/2 Acoustic City

How to Map a City: Part 1
How to Map a City: Part 2

Week Fourteen Thanksgiving

M 11/21 Editing Workshop
W 11/23 No Class

Week Twelve Editing

Week Fifteen Presentation

Showcase

M 11/7 Editing Workshop

W 11/9 Editing Workshop
DUE: Podcast 3 Site Recording

M 11/28 Class Showcase

For Next Time

To Attract New Listeners, Podcasts Need to
Move Beyond Sound

Week Thirteen Circulating Sound

M 11/14 Sharing Sound I
Analyses of Podcast Distribution
W 11/16 Sharing Sound II
Photo Focused
Interactive Radio
How We Work

W 11/30 Class Showcase

DUE: Podcast Distribution Plan
For Next Time
Voegelin, The Landscape as Sonic Possible
World [PDF]

Week Sixteen: [Tentative]

M 12/5 Cites & Memory Remix

Nathaniel A . Rivers | ENGL 4010: New Media Writing | Fall 2016 | !3