Designing Audio Experiences: Art, Science and Production MA

This practice-based MA will create highly trained individuals who understand how humans make sense of the world through sound and can apply that knowledge, along with specialist technical spatial audio skills, to create compelling, convincing audio experiences for diverse audiences and contexts.

We constantly hear sound, our ears never close. How do we use sound in our daily lives? What role does sound play in establishing the nature of the environment that we feel we are in? How does audio experience impact our emotions?

This degree will explore many aspects of sound, including its propagation and perception (sound in mechanical and psychoacoustic terms), the role it plays in human development (within a lifetime and across cultures), audio storytelling techniques (critically engaging with different media forms), soundscape composition and sonic anthropology, aesthetic principles of sound from stereo to future formats, virtual and real sonic spaces, accessibility in audio experiences, sound for moving image, sound in dynamic and experimental experiences, and sound in material environments (considering architecture, different venues and impact on wellness).

This course is the first of its kind, and unique in the world. It will develop both your artistic capacities, and your technical abilities, enabling you to produce ambitious, immersive audio experiences, whilst giving you the confidence to work in diverse teams and situations.

Since, like other media-oriented programmes run by the Anthropology department, this programme involves constant interaction with members of the public, ethical considerations form a central part of our work. We aim to develop your appreciation of the uncertainty, ambiguity and limits of knowledge in the context of immersive audio work.

With the rapid expansion of Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality (XR), and ubiquitous headphone use, there are more and more opportunities for delivering and experiencing immersive audio. This degree will equip you with the necessary expertise in spatial audio technologies such as binaural, ambisonics, next generation audio CODECs and VBAP. You will learn the features and creative approaches that differentiate spatial audio approaches from more traditional audio workflows using industry-leading hardware and software.

As this course will be embedded within an Anthropology department, rather than a Music or traditional audio-engineering context, it offers an alternative form of engagement to existing MAs in Sonic Arts, experience and design. You will be expected to think critically about the role of sound across cultures and develop a multi-disciplinary approach. This will develop your artistic, personal interpretation of sound and soundscapes and you’ll be able to apply that to ambitious works that have the audience at their core.