First week

Listen to the audio at ALL of the following links:

al amin dada by Jelle Meander and Maja Jantar

The Search for Pet Clark by Glenn Gould

Brain Mash by Gregory Whitehead

PAUL D. MILLER, a.k.a. DJ SPOOKY on Radio Radio by Martin Spinelli

and prepare a 10 minute commentary on one of them. This can be a simple essay or a scripted performance that includes sound cued from CD.

Post your commentary on your blog at blogger.com. You should plan on doing some research into the subjects that are featured in the pieces and/or the artists responsible. It is acceptable for you to make your commentary take the form of an imitation of any one piece.

i.e.
Your commentary on the Glenn Gould piece could take the form of a new essay that provides a similarly structured essay relating to a more contemporary popular song.

Your commentary on Brain Mash could take the form of an essay listing the dangers of drug use..or more specifically unsupervised brain surgery.

Commentary of DJ Spooky's interview could involve a random re-cutting of the audio file with some form of read introduction.


The most important requirement is that your piece take up 10 minutes of radio time.

We will have a broadcast in class next week that will be streaming on the internet.... and possibly broadcast in San Francisco.... featuring the classes discussion and each commentary.

MULTM 150-RA Syllabus

Left of the Dial: New Radio
MULTM 150RA - 3603
Spring Semester 2007

Instructor:
R. Lee Montgomery
xt. 2593

E-mail:
lee@multimedia.dvc.edu

CLASS SCHEDULE:
M 2-4:50

Instructor will be available for 2 hours prior to each class meeting for supervised lab time.


OFFICE HOURS:

M, 12-2 pm / W 10am-12pm /Th 10am – noon
Appointments are preferred though not required.

Instructor will be available for 2 hours each week in the hours before class meetings.


OVERVIEW:

As digital files become the new format for music distribution, notions of “radio” have changed. Nicecasting, shoutcasting, podcasting , and on-demand music purchasing have changed the way people relate to audio content. Likewise, how we view that old analog device the radio receiver and the content it delivers has changed and is still changing. Left of the Dial will cover how to produce and think about the medium of radio. For our purposes, radio will be defined as the medium that deals with only 2 things sound and silence, and as a medium for “the autonomous, electrified play of bodies unknown to each other”. We will learn how to technically produce radio for a traditional passive audience, as well as challenge audiences to a new experience of the potential of radio.


EVALUATION:

50% of student grades will be determined by averaging grades various project assignments over the course of the semester and one final exam.

30% Will be based on weekly radio content that students will bring in to record.

20% of student grades will be based on class participation. Students must attend class in order to effectively participate.

REQUIRED TEXT:

Wallker, Jesse [2004]. Rebels on the Air: An Alternative History of Radio in America: An Alternative History of Radio in America. NYU Press.


REQUIRED SUPPLIES:

Students must have some form of storage to backup their files. Either a USB key drive, CD-R or CD-RW… DVDs… a portable hard drive/music player. Any storage medium that will allow you to have a duplicate of the files you store on the Multimedia servers.

Students also should purchase no less than 20 CDs.


ATTENDANCE POLICY:

Students are expected to attend all of every class meeting unless they have received prior permission from the instructor. Attendance will be taken at the beginning of each class meeting. Anyone absent when attendance is taken will be assumed absent from the class. If you are late to class it is your responsibility to make sure your attendance is acknowledged by talking to the instructor.

If a student misses two weeks of class without being excused, it can be assumed that the student is intending to drop the class. Because this class meets once a week that means two absences will be grounds for the instructor to drop you from the class.

If you are intending to drop the class, it is your responsibility to drop the class. You should not assume that the instructor will automatically drop you because of absences. If you stop attending classes, you do not drop the class, and the instructor has not dropped you from the class; the instructor may be required to give you a grade of F for the class.