Teaching is essential to my art. I teach what I make: Field recordings; soundscape composition and phonography; vintage electronic music; software-based systems composition with AudioMulch (RIP), Max/MSP, and SuperCollider; classic analog synthesis; installations; performance art; handmade instruments; databending & sonification; live improvisation, music journalism; and of course, my beloved acoustic music.

CD teaching at Western Washington University

I earned my PhD at Goldsmiths, University of London in 2020 with a research programme, “Activist Sound: Field Recording, Phonography, and Soundscapes of Protest.” My dissertation focused on the history of the term “soundscape,” the concept of earwitnessing, and the intersection of field recordings and protest.

A revised section of my dissertation was published as Imperfect Sound Forever: A Letter to a Young Phonographer (2021) in Resonance: The Journal of Sound and Culture.

I also hold a Master of Fine Arts from Bard College. My studies integrated acoustics, audio production, and software-based performance with critical theories of sound and performance.

Since 2010, I have served as a Guest Artist, Visiting Artist, Invited Lecturer, and Visiting Assistant Professor at over a dozen schools, colleges, and universities, including the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Harvard University, Cornish College of the Arts, Duke University, UC Boulder, University of Washington, University of Montana, and Western Washington University as well as most recently at The College of William & Mary and in the Conservatory at The Peabody Institute.

Here’s a short video featuring my computer music class building (and playing!) a primitive synth. (Yes, that’s my voice at the end saying “I could listen to that forever!”)

Courses, modules, and workshops taught

Students try analog granular synthesis - photo by David Dossett

Students perform analog granular synthesis with rice, beans, and other objects with a contact microphone

  • Introduction to Sound Studies
  • History and Theories of Media
  • Music, War, Protest, and Power
  • Live Sound & Audio Production
  • Introduction to Computer Music
  • Sound Synthesis Techniques
  • Advanced Digital Audio Techniques
  • History of Electronic Music
  • Music Theory I & II; Post-Tonal Theory
  • Contemporary Theories and Practices
  • Analysis of 20th and 21st Century Music and Soundwork
  • Composition (Beginning, Intermediate, Advanced)
  • Introduction to Field Recording, Soundscape Composition, and Phonography
  • Advanced Techniques in Soundscape Composition and Field Recording
  • Scoring and Sound Design for Multimedia
  • Live Performance with Electronics (circuit-bending, scavenged instruments, synthesizers, software, etc.)
  • Music, Sound Design, and Science Fiction
  • Writing Loud: Music Journalism
classroom experimentation with a hydrophone - photo by David Dossett

classroom experimentation with a vintage ultra-sensitive hydrophone

I also present workshops about my work:

  • Favorite Intermissions and other New Directions in Improvisation
  • Found Soundscapes: Investigating the Interstitial
  • [Your city or school] Phonographers Union: Collective Improvisation with Field Recordings
  • The Moving Microphone: Field Recording as Site-Specific Performance
  • Fair Use Music: A History of Quoting, Sampling, and other Sonic Appropriation
  • Build a flap-o-phone (construction and improvising with a cardboard record player)

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