Exploring Audio: Sound for the Moving Image at GSA

“Music is the cup that holds the wine of silence. Sound is that cup, but empty. Noise is that cup, but broken.”

It’s an old Robert Fripp quote, the King Crimson guitarist’s words hanging rather awkwardly against the fluid contexts of our aural environment. “I don’t know if he’s trying to elevate music above the overall sound experience, which may be natural for a musician to do,” laughs Ronan Breslin, Programme Leader for The Glasgow School of Art’s Master’s course in Sound for the Moving Image. “But I think sound encompasses the whole gamut, from music to field recordings, sound design to environmental sound, sound ecology, sound art.

“It’s a huge scope, and the interesting thing is that it’s become a much more serious area of academic study than it was around 20 years ago.”

Dynamic, holistic, propagating fertile relationships with the moving image; it’s this understanding of sound that helps to underpin the programme. Aimed at postgraduate students wishing to explore and develop creative practice through sound design, music composition and production, the MDes course provides an academic framework within which – as Ronan explains – technical knowledge serves as a platform for expression and creative experimentation, whether working with film, animation, television, theatre, electronic games or visual art.

“I don’t think there’s been a student who didn’t have a musical background,” he says. “But there’s more than music; it’s quite a broad church of interests, some students coming from the more traditional sound engineering background, others arriving via fine arts or music composition, which means that there are a wide variety of aspirations on the course. We also accept graduates with unrelated degrees who can demonstrate a serious commitment to sound or music or both.

“The focus is on sound, but students are encouraged to make their own visual material, whether narrative-based or more experimental, and explore the synergy between sound and visuals.”

Freedom and experimentation

A three-stage programme covering theory, research and independent critical reflection, it’s also designed not to be prescriptive, the set projects – such as re-engineering badly compromised sound from broadcast television – serving to empower rather than confine. “How does sound design take a fairly mundane documentary and turn it into something people want to watch?” Ronan ponders. “Poor sound is poor sound, whether it’s on TV or in a gallery or in an installation, so we do focus on the technical side of sound.”

But as alumnus Kevin Murray – nominated for BAFTA Scotland’s New Talent award for 2016 for his film Paperclips, which was made as part of his coursework – notes: “I liked that whilst you obviously had certain criteria to meet to ensure a pass, there was a lot of freedom to explore avenues that interested you. I was able to tailor the course to suit me and what I wanted to study.”

Kevin Murray - MDes Sound for the Moving Image from The Glasgow School of Art on Vimeo.

“At the end of stage one, all students have to make a short film with sound as the main driver,” Ronan continues. “We get some fascinating pieces of work, some very much narrative-based, others that are experimental.

“We allow students room to manoeuvre and develop the ideas that they’re most interested in. That’s especially pertinent at the final stage, where students actually develop their own Masters project. We get such a wide variety of work, ranging from the very technical, such as coding an ambisonic soundtrack for a computer game, to others who do fascinating audio-interactive things – films with a strong sound focus.”

Diversity of practice

It’s this virgin-canvas approach to the definition of sound that encourages such a diverse range of work. For instance, there’s Shannon Bolen, currently a music teacher in the US. “My thesis, titled Integrating Sound Literacy in Secondary Education, gave me an opportunity to explore a potential curriculum for teaching sound literacy; the ability to listen, create, and comprehend sounds within a broad range of contexts,” she says. 

“Before studying the course I understood the relationship between music and moving image, but did not understand the relationship between moving image and sound. Learning how to create and plan a sound-driven film felt like inspiration had a new path to freely flow and explore. I’m less afraid to experiment and try new concepts, and I am more confident in my choices. With an extended vocabulary coming from several different perspectives of studying sound, I can usually keep track of what sounds I imagine.”

Meanwhile, Jessica Argo’s experience on the Sound for the Moving Image programme led to a PhD analysing reactions to sound within sensory rehabilitation, her final MDes project comprising eight compositions reflecting sound’s interaction with body and soul.

“I really wanted to get to grips with the musical rules of emotion; the keys – the tritone, the Devil’s chord – but also the psychoacoustics; what acoustic qualities would set people off, whether its nails on a chalkboard or babies crying,” she explains.

Argo also expands on the student experience – surely the crux of any academic pathway. “You’re exposed to so many different cultural influences,” she says. (The student profile is high on international intake.) “But also to people with different skill levels. I played cello and taught myself video, but I didn’t know what [digital audio workstation] Pro Tools was, so there were people with technical skills that I learned a great deal from. The point of this course is that you’d be equipped to go out into the real world.”

Real world skills 

Ah yes, the real world. Academia – and postgraduate research in particular – doesn’t always carry the sharpest relationship with the world beyond the studio, where creativity all too frequently falls subservient to societal ‘norms’.

Ronan Breslin again: “In this industry, freelance working skills are essential. We emphasise that and discuss, ‘How do you make contacts?’ It’s really quite pleasant when you’re sitting at home, watching a documentary on TV, and you suddenly see ‘sound recorded’ by one of the students, or ‘sound mixed’ by one of the ex-students who you haven’t seen for a couple of years. I do try to keep in touch with everyone and find out what they’re doing.

“What’s very gratifying is that the course has developed a really good reputation amongst sound professionals – we’ve got ex-students working in just about every single post-production facility in Glasgow, not to mention the wider world. We also have a large number of students who go on to work in other disciplines, such as sound for computer games. But there are also people who’ve gone on and expanded their artistic practice, such as Raydale Dower, a previous winner of Creative Scotland’s Vital Spark award.”

[Work by current student Adriana Minu]

Award-winning futures 

Ronan talks enthusiastically and passionately about the programme, as does every student – past and present – The Skinny chats to; a fact that speaks for itself. Take Kevin Walls, winner of a 2015 BAFTA Scotland New Talent award for his film Identical: “The hands-on approach of learning was a big draw for me, as was the opportunity to use the professional-level facilities available at the Digital Design Studio. It seemed like the obvious first step in pursuing a career in sound for film.”

Or current student Aiste Veseckaite: “That the lecturers still work in the industry is a good factor. I think that this connection and understanding of industry, as well as newly gained skills, will be key in the development of my career.”

Identical from Digital Design Studio on Vimeo.

Based at the School’s Digital Design Studio, a pebble-throw from the BBC Scotland complex, the facilities are extensive, featuring 5.1 surround sound dubbing studios and an ambisonics laboratory, which enables students to experiment in immersive, three-dimensional sound techniques.

Not that the course celebrates hardware fetishism for its own sake; the final projects disprove any idea on that count. With the interim degree show in May, and the final degree show in September, we’ll all be able to see (and hear) that for ourselves.

Or to quote Taylor Buntain, another current student: “What I love about the MDes Sound is that the emphasis is on your practical work and justification of approach rather than very dry written work. Reports and essays have their place but I did plenty of them during my undergraduate degree and am much happier to be creating something every time and having it as another piece in my portfolio.”

The degree shows, then: if you happen to see him, do invite Robert Fripp.

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Students from postgraduate programmes at the Digital Design Studio present their interim degree show on Thursday 19 May 2016 at The Art School, Scott Street from 7pm.

For information on the event visit www.gsa.ac.uk/ddsinterimshow2016

www.gsa.ac.uk/sound

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