DISCOVER SONIC ARTS

In some respects, it's easier to say what sonic art is NOT rather than what it IS. There is surprisingly little overlap between music technology as it is conventionally understood and sonic art. Although sonic art uses many of the same technical tools, it uses them in a different way and to different ends. There is no one comprehensive definition of sonic art : it can encompass a wide range of areas, some of which it may share with music technology although it often ventures into computer programming or fine art. It is at least as likely that one would experience the products of sonic art in an art gallery as in the context of a performance.

Historically, sonic art derives from the academic tradition of electroacoustic (electronic) music. Until quite recently, advanced electronic and computer technology for audio work has only been available to members of institutions such as universities and radio stations. During the 1950s and 60s, a new discipline emerged in colleges and university music departments. Based on the work of Pierre Schaeffer and Karlheinz Stockhausen, this was known as electroacoustic music and used electronics to generate or modify sound. Students and practitioners of electroacoustic music were almsost alway trained musicians who wished to specialise in this new field. Meanwhile, outside academia, rock and pop musicians began to have access to the new audio technology and started to use it in ways that took little or no account of the emerging "classical" electroacoustic tradition. These two strands have existed in parallel with, until quite recently, little or no acknowledgement of each other's existence or of the increasingly universal technical and aesthetic concerns that they share.

Trevor Wishart has come close to a definition of sonic art but the term is still used in various contexts to mean a variety of things. Sonic art is a new field that is still defining itself. Studies at Middlesex are themselves part of that process. By so doing, we aim to help refine, explore and extend both the scope and meaning of this new and significant art form. The way we define it at Middlesex, sonic art could include music/sound composition, sound-based installations, performance, ambient music, sound design for time-based media such as film or video, interface design, multimedia or even such issues as acoustic ecology and acusmatics. Although we use some of the technologies of the recording studio, these are merely "tools of the trade" and not objects of study in their own right. In the same way, some of our work may involve popular commercial music, although this is an incidental aspect and not one that we emphasise.

Based upon early work at the former Hornsey College of Art, the School of Music at Middlesex (now part of the School of Art, Design and Performing Arts) decided to offer a music technology degree in 1993 to allow both classical and non-classical musicians to work and study together in an exploration of the expressive potential of new audio technology. In 1994, the studios were moved to the Cat Hill campus, forming an adjunct to the postgraduate Lansdown Centre for Electronic Arts. Since then, a symbiotic relationship has developed between the visual and sonic elements as a result of which, the music technology programme moved from the Music Set to the Electronic Arts Set in 1996. In recognition of this move and that the term "music technology" was no longer appropriate and often misunderstood, the programme was renamed "sonic arts" more accurately to reflect its ethos and objectives.

Following this change of emphasis, Sonic Arts has gone from strength to strength, attracting students who wish to cast off the limitations of conventional music and work in the more experimental forms in which the programme specialises. So successful has this approach proved that an MA Sonic Arts programme has now evolved from it, bringing with it the possibility of study at postgraduate level in this exciting and fast - developing subject. Not only this, but Sonic Arts also has a range of new facilities and course modules under development and these, together with committments to innovation and constant monitoring of quality makes Sonic Arts at Middlesex a unique and exciting area of activity.