Sound Studies and Acoustic Environments
One might say that Sound Studies is in the DNA of The New School and radical pedagogy: Hanns Eisler, Aaron Copland, and John Cage were members of our faculty, and The New School auditorium (since named the John L. Tishman Auditorium) served as a prototype for the modern acoustics of Radio City Music Hall. Whether in music or in conjunctions with dance, architecture, and film, various engagements with sound have been informed by the critical and socially engaged thinking of The New School. Given the university's rich history of sound scholarship and production and its location in New York City (home to a vibrant music scene and the many of the world's largest media companies as well as to a polluted acoustic ecology, the plague of most metropolitan areas), The New School is favorably situated to engender progressive, interdisciplinary sound research, teaching, and practice. In fulfilling their MA degree requirements, students focusing in Sound Studies and Acoustic Environments take Fundamentals of Sound Studies, two audio production courses, and three sound seminar electives. Through this complement of courses, students realize in praxis and through cross-divisional collaboration the radical ideals of The New School's founders.
A Sampling of Courses: