September 13-15, 2024
Aura(l) is an intensive, three-day workshop that explores modular sound design as a platform for expanding the visual artists’ toolbox. Although designed for sound and music, modular synthesizers lay bare the individual building blocks of composition, atomizing the process and providing a novel sandbox with tremendous potential to expand creative practice. In an increasingly multidisciplinary era, antidisciplinary space (the void between disciplines) offers artists a potential rapid expansion into unexpected and exciting new practices and methods.
In this workshop students will get hands-on experience with modular synthesizers, and…
-Learn the basic functions of the modular environment
-Discover control voltage and the mechanics of patching
-Explore waveform topology by creating and manipulating wave shapes
-Experiment with ideas such as timing, signal flow, nonlinearity, and timbre, as well as consider their visual analogs
-Use electricity to create images in novel ways and gain insight into antidisciplinary artmaking
-Play with wires, knobs, sliders, buttons, and oscilloscopes to make all sort of sounds, both pleasant and otherwise
Once foundations are laid, we will look closely at ways in which ideas that are largely alien to visual art can be used to dictate and supplement methodology, formal structure, and narrative in visual works. Projects include generating fields of texture using rhythm and text, creating sonic accompaniment for pre-existing artworks, building graphic scores for modular synthesizers, and composing audiovisual pieces that tell stories.
Modular synths can feel a bit out of reach and difficult to approach, but we will smash those barriers with an approach focused on experimentation, intuition, and play. In addition to using hardware synthesizers, participants will also be introduced to free software (VCV Rack) so that they can continue modular experiments where it could otherwise be cost prohibitive.
This workshop is FREE
Dates and Times: Aura(l) will take place in Fairbanks Hall over three days in 2024 – Sept 13-15 (Fri-Sun), 10a-1p.
Limited Seats Available (accepting just 6-8 positions)
Requirements: Students must be enrolled at OSU for Fall Term 2024. Members of Montage Collective (OSU student art club) may get priority, but joining is super easy -- just reach out to @montageosu on Instagram.
While this is an advanced studio practice workshop, no experience with modular synthesizers, sound art, or sound design required. A visual arts vocabulary and a laptop is helpful. You do not need to be a visual arts student to participate, though it will help to have experience creating visual works because this workshop may be a bit conceptually dense.
To Apply: Send an email to johnny.beaver at oregonstate.edu with a 500-800 word statement summarizing your art practice (what you do and why) and why you’d like to attend this workshop (most specifically, how you think it might benefit you?). Please include between 6 and 10 samples of your visual artwork (either as JPGs, zipped JPG, or in a PDF... if you have video or otherwise, please provide links), and use your oregonstate.edu email address to avoid being accidentally sent to Junk.
Applications are open May 19th through June 20, 2024. Selections will be made by June 24th.
Aura(l) is an intensive, three-day workshop that explores modular sound design as a platform for expanding the visual artists’ toolbox. Although designed for sound and music, modular synthesizers lay bare the individual building blocks of composition, atomizing the process and providing a novel sandbox with tremendous potential to expand creative practice. In an increasingly multidisciplinary era, antidisciplinary space (the void between disciplines) offers artists a potential rapid expansion into unexpected and exciting new practices and methods.
In this workshop students will get hands-on experience with modular synthesizers, and…
-Learn the basic functions of the modular environment
-Discover control voltage and the mechanics of patching
-Explore waveform topology by creating and manipulating wave shapes
-Experiment with ideas such as timing, signal flow, nonlinearity, and timbre, as well as consider their visual analogs
-Use electricity to create images in novel ways and gain insight into antidisciplinary artmaking
-Play with wires, knobs, sliders, buttons, and oscilloscopes to make all sort of sounds, both pleasant and otherwise
Once foundations are laid, we will look closely at ways in which ideas that are largely alien to visual art can be used to dictate and supplement methodology, formal structure, and narrative in visual works. Projects include generating fields of texture using rhythm and text, creating sonic accompaniment for pre-existing artworks, building graphic scores for modular synthesizers, and composing audiovisual pieces that tell stories.
Modular synths can feel a bit out of reach and difficult to approach, but we will smash those barriers with an approach focused on experimentation, intuition, and play. In addition to using hardware synthesizers, participants will also be introduced to free software (VCV Rack) so that they can continue modular experiments where it could otherwise be cost prohibitive.
This workshop is FREE
Dates and Times: Aura(l) will take place in Fairbanks Hall over three days in 2024 – Sept 13-15 (Fri-Sun), 10a-1p.
Limited Seats Available (accepting just 6-8 positions)
Requirements: Students must be enrolled at OSU for Fall Term 2024. Members of Montage Collective (OSU student art club) may get priority, but joining is super easy -- just reach out to @montageosu on Instagram.
While this is an advanced studio practice workshop, no experience with modular synthesizers, sound art, or sound design required. A visual arts vocabulary and a laptop is helpful. You do not need to be a visual arts student to participate, though it will help to have experience creating visual works because this workshop may be a bit conceptually dense.
To Apply: Send an email to johnny.beaver at oregonstate.edu with a 500-800 word statement summarizing your art practice (what you do and why) and why you’d like to attend this workshop (most specifically, how you think it might benefit you?). Please include between 6 and 10 samples of your visual artwork (either as JPGs, zipped JPG, or in a PDF... if you have video or otherwise, please provide links), and use your oregonstate.edu email address to avoid being accidentally sent to Junk.
Applications are open May 19th through June 20, 2024. Selections will be made by June 24th.