VISUAL SOUNDSCAPES
Stop-animation and Sound Editing

Level: Summer ESL+D & ESL+M/ Beginner to Low-intermediate

Language Focus:

ESL+D: design vocabulary

ESL+M: sound vocabulary
*High-frequency vocabulary

Design Focus:

ESL+D: Typographic treatment and color + stop animation using Adobe Photoshop

ESL+M: Sound theories and experiments + sound editing in Adobe Premiere and Adobe Audition

Time: 5 hours 35 min. (5 h. 10 min. activities + 25min. break+debrief)

Prep time: 4.5 hours (+D and +M co-teachers)

Lesson Description:

In this lesson, ESL+D and ESL+M students collaborate in creating a visual soundscape. ESL+D teacher introduces design vocabulary, color, and typography (personality, treatment, and contrast) to help students visualize sounds in the form of an image+word stop-motion story; ESL+M teachers introduces sound vocabulary and theories to guide students in editing a composed story through sound mixing. ESL+D and ESL+M students write a final process brief using introduced vocabulary and theories.

Josefina Bailleres, Summer 2016

Shira’s Rakoover, Spring 2015 examples of “sound with no visuals,” “video with no sound,” and final piece VIDEO+SOUND

Ephemeral, The Music Video Experiment 

FOR TEACHERS:

ESL+M

Readings:
– Guide to Field recordings [http://bit.ly/2qzack9]

• Musical Illusions [http://bit.ly/2rfpUFi]
• Oliver Sacks, “Musicophilia: Tales of music and the brain.” (Part I: 5, pages 41-48; Part II: 13, pages 160-183)
• Storyboarding [http://bit.ly/2sCNbyt]

Visual Aids:

TEDtalk

Julian Treasure: The 4 ways sound affects us [http://bit.ly/2rxceqi]

ESL+D

Readings:

• The Art of Time and Spacing 
• Oliver Sacks, “The mind’s eye.”(pages 48-59).
• Oliver Sacks, “Musicophilia: Tales of music and the brain.” (Part I: 4, pages 30-40)

Visual Aids:

TEDtalks:

• Paul Zak, The Future of Storytelling
• Daniel Tammet, Different Ways of Knowing
• Neil Harbisson, I Listen to Color

FOR STUDENTS:

ESL+ M

Readings:

• Tony Hiss, “The Experience of Place”
• Raymond Schafer, “The New Soundscape” excerpt
• Chion’s Modes of Listening

Worksheets:

• Recording/Classifying sounds

ESL+ D

Readings:

• Introducing Lines: Understanding Formal Analysis by The J. Paul Getty Museum

Handouts:

• Design Vocabulary: Graphic Design Glossary + Point, Line, Plane
• Types of Lines

Worksheets:

• Visualizations/sketching
• Storyboarding