grad seminar: sonic science fiction

Spring 2013
Professor: Trace Reddell, PhD
Tues 5-8:50pm | Shwayder Art Building 221 (The Node)
Office Hours:  Thursday 1-3pm and by appt.
Office: Sturm 216B
Contact: treddell@du.edu

In its literary form, science fiction has only rarely taken up the idea of new sounds and sound-related technologies. The history of the science fiction film, however, takes a crucial twist that literary sf could not achieve on its own merits: the direct engagement with emergent technological forms for the creation and processing of new sounds. Science fiction's sonic turn participates in larger technocultural discussions regarding musicality and noise encountered throughout the sonic avant-garde since the early 20 th century. At the same time, the sf film has proven a popularizing force, providing a venue by which unusual sounds gain purchase on the popular imagination as well as a way for new sound technologies to proliferate through culture. By destabilizing cognitive and cultural distinctions between music and noise, emergent sound technologies push into the thematic heart of science fiction's major ontological and phenomenological tropes – particularly those regarding the nature of consciousness.

This seminar examines ten primary films (and a score of secondary films), including: The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951), Forbidden Planet (1956), 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), Blade Runner (1982), For All Mankind (1989), and Wall-E (2008). All film soundtracks are explored both in terms of the developments and transformations of sound-related technologies as well as human consciousness. To consider the more important sonic trajectories through contemporary technoculture – its promise as well as its potential demise – we will supplement our study of the films with readings of several recent publications in the field of sound studies.

Resources
Syllabus
Sonic Science Fiction Blog

Class Schedule

Session 01 (03-26-2013) | Introductions: The Sonic Novum and Sound of Things to Come
Le Voyage dans la lune (1902), Metropolis (1927), Things to Come (1936)
Sonic Science Fiction: The Sound of Things to Come

 

Session 02 (04-02-2013) | Planetary Minds in 1950; Alien Mind
*
Rocketship X-M (1950), Destination Moon (1950), *The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951), The Thing from Another World (1951)
- Brend, The Sound of Tomorrow : Chapters 1-2
- Chion, Film, A Sound Art : Chapters 7, 13-15, 18

Session 03 (04-09-2013) | The Cybernetic Mind
*Forbidden Planet (1956), Der schweigende Stern (The Silent Star) (1960)
- Bogost, Alien Phenomenology : Chapters 1-2
- Brend, The Sound of Tomorrow : Chapter 3
- Demers, Listening Through the Noise : Chapters 1-2

Session 04 (04-16-2013) | Cosmic Consciousness
Vortex and Six Short Films by Jordan Belson

Session 05 (04-23-2013) | The Psychedelic Experience of 1968
Ikarie XB-1 (1963), Terrore nello spazio (1965), Fantastic Voyage (1966), *2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), Barbarella (1968), Planet of the Apes (1968), Solaris (1972)
- Brend, The Sound of Tomorrow : Chapters 4-5, 7-8
- Chion, Film, A Sound Art : Chapter 16

Session 06 (04-30-2013) | Self-Consciousness and the End of the Future in 1977
THX 1138 (1972), *Star Wars (1977), *Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), Demon Seed (1977)
- Berardi, After the Future
- Chion, Film, A Sound Art : Chapter 8

Session 07 (05-07-2013) | Research Investigation Proposals
- Goodman, Sonic Warfare

Session 08 (05-14-2013) | Replication and Memory
Tron (1982), *Blade Runner (1982), *For All Mankind (1989)
- Brend, The Sound of Tomorrow : Chapter 9
- Chion, Film, A Sound Art : Chapter 12
- Demers, Listening Through the Noise : Chapter 5

Session 09 (05-21-2013) | Apocalyptic Mind of the Posthuman
*The Wild Blue Yonder
(2005), Encounters at the End of the World (2007), *WALL-E (2008), Tron: Legacy (2010), Le Voyages dans la lune (2012)
- Bogost, Alien Phenomenology : Chapters 3-5
- Chion, Film, A Sound Art : Chapters 3, 24
- Demers, Listening Through the Noise : Chapter 6

Session 10 (05-28-2013) | Live Science Fiction Cinema in the 21 st Century
Amon Tobin, Flying Lotus, Francisco Lopez, Paul Prudence, Evelina Domnitch & Dmitry Gelfand, Noisefold, Monolake Surround

Final (06-04-2013) Final presentations; links should be posted on the class blog to your work or web supporting report by 5pm.