Lesson video

Hello, and welcome to the second lesson in this unit on a New Media.

My name's Simon and I'm going to be talking to you about sound art today.

And we're going to create an art piece that is inspired by sound, which is a little different to sound art.

So if you're ready and you have your colouring pencils and your pencil and your paper and your sketchbook then let's get stuck in.

Okay, so today is exploring sound art and creating an art piece that illustrates sounds and noise.

So funny enough, these are kind of different things but it's a good way to kind of think about how art is so much more than just looking at things and drawing them really well.

Art is about different ideas, about creative thinking, about experimentation, and about thinking outside the box.

And sound art and using sound to inspire your art is a great way to think outside the box.

Your equipment for today is pretty easy going.

You'll need your sketchbook, you'll need a pencil, you'll need some colouring pencils and maybe a quiet room because you're going to need to hear some sounds.

Of course, you can be inspired by lots of different things but the sounds that we hear today, you need to think clearly about.

So you need to have that space to be able to listen carefully.

Alternatively, if your headphones are on that might block out the sound around you.

In today's lesson, we are going to: describe what sound art is, consider what sound art is like in a gallery.

We're going to experiment with sound and creating art and then we're going to create art that is inspired by sound.

There are lots of different things to think about there.

But that's what we going to go through during today's lesson.

Keywords are in the first instance, we've already used it many times, sound art.

And this is art where sound is the medium you experience the art from.

So of course, bear in mind that if you think about sometimes you'll create a painting which uses paint.

If you're creating sound art, you're using sound but that's a different way of thinking.

And of course, for some of you who are more interested in sounds and music, that might be something you're more interested in.

Contemporary art, we've used already.

We used that in last week's lesson.

And this is art that is made in the present time period, and sound art is very much contemporary art.

Abstract art, which we're going to get to later in the lesson is art that is non-representational, and it might use colour, shape, line and pattern.

So it's not that you're drawing a thing.

You're not looking at a person, nor drawing a person or a face or an object, you're drawing shapes and patterns and colours.

And of course, this is a good way to represent sound.

Thus it's non-representational.

Let's try and recap some information from the previous lesson.

Can you remember any other examples of new media arts? There's lots of images in front of you now which we looked at in the last few lessons.

Now new media arts, if you remember, is more technologically minded.

So you can see lots of different ones there.

Can you remember any? So you might remember things like digital art, computer graphics, virtual arts, or virtual reality.

When you put on a headset to kind of experience an art form, sound art, interactive art, internet art.

When you're using content from the internet to create your art form.

Cyborg art and robotic art, where you're using robotics and robots to create an art piece.

Art is biotechnology.

So this is more scientifically-based using biological parts of things to create an art piece.

Video games, computer animation.

These all come under the umbrella of new media art.

So you can see here all those words which we've just gone through.

So if you do want to find out more, by all means look into it.

Because again, for all I know I might be talking to the new and upcoming cyborg artist.

And this research that you do will light the fire and get you interested.

But of course, these are mediums that, in terms of general, it's not easy to access.

But you might find a way yourself.

You might start saving up the money to be able to make a robot or something.

But again, the idea is that these are much broader than the few things which I mentioned.

So many things are listed.

So sound art and music.

Now we're going to have a short moment in a second to get you to think and write down what do you think is the difference.

So, first off, what is the difference between sound art and music? Where do you normally listen to music? Where? So the place.

And where do you experience art? And does that matter? I want you get a pen and a paper and you get your sketchbook to be able to write this in and think about those questions.

It's your turn to write down, what do you think the difference is between sound art and music? And again, do they differ that much at all? Okay, we're going to move on.

Hopefully you've paused and you've written down your thoughts on this.

Okay, and the answer really is about where you experience the art.

Of course, if you're listening to music or you're at live performance of music, you're often in a concert hall, or you might have them on your headphones and you'll listen to it in that manner.

Whereas sound art is about experiencing it in an art gallery.

When we're in an art gallery we experience things in a different way.

There are as to when they put things in a gallery they know that people are going to these pieces with a different sense of awareness.

You are looking and you are listening to things, feeling like, okay, this is art.

What does it say to me? How does it speak to me? If you were to do noises of a busy London street then of course the noises of that when you're just walking around you might not pay attention to.

But if you're listening to that or hearing that in an art gallery, you might be more aware.

Okay, I recognise this.

I can hear this.

Isn't it interesting how much is going on and how I can hear so many things? So the key difference between sound art and music and music experimentation is where you experience it.

And the fact that sound art is experienced in an art gallery.

Okay, here is an optional activity if you're up for it.

With regards to sound art, you can obviously create your own sound art.

And there are lots of different programmes that can help you do that.

Audacity is one that's free.

So you can download Audacity if you want to create your own sound art.

It's a free multi-track audio editor and recorder.

You're going to have to check with an adult before downloading any software, but this will give you the starting point to create your own soundscapes and experiments with sound art.

Now, I'm going to click on the icon here.

You're going to see my little cursor select it and you're going to hear lots of different sounds from the art room.

You might want to think to yourself, what are those sounds? Because you might recognise them if you go to an art room yourself.

Here we go.

So again, it's only short and it's only an experiment.

But again, if we think about sound art, it's not necessarily about music, it's about creating a kind of soundscape.

And those sounds are sounds which I hear as an art teacher every single day.

You may have recognised some of them.

We are going to use some of those sounds for a sketchbook activity.

For the sketchbook activity, we are going to use some sounds from the art room to create some drawings.

We are going to experiment by drawing shapes, symbols and patterns inspired by listening to sounds.

Now we're going to use these shapes, symbols, patterns and forms in an abstract art piece.

And we've talked about one abstract art pieces as well already, and that's something that is non-representational.

So we're not drawing little pictures of pencils or art objects.

We are thinking of shapes and patterns and colour.

Now we're going to need some sounds for this.

So let's see what we've got.

So again, you can see lots of little sound icons here.

I'm going to press on them.

So you're going to see my cursor appear and select each one.

And I want you to think to yourself which of those six sounds is this sound from.

Here we go, here's the first one.

What a busy sound That's a sound I hear quite a lot.

It's quite a quiet sound, just listening to that one.

A bit different, that one.

Very quiet again.

It's just a very quick sound.

So you can see the options on the right-hand side there and this one, was paper rustling.

So I'll play that again.

This one is a pencil dropping.

So I'll play that again.

This is a pen making a mark.

It's very soft.

This is a pencil making a mark.

This is sellotape, and I think we've all heard this before.

These are pencils being shuffled.

That one was pencil being shuffled, so let's have a listen to that.

You can hear all the shuffling and all the business there.

The one which I always recognise is this sellotape here.

So for each of those sounds, you are going to need to draw something for it.

So I've heard the pencil drop sound and now I'm going to do a shape or pattern.

And again, there's no right and wrong here.

You've got some flexibility with how this works.

So I'm thinking of it dropping down, how it falls.

So I'm going to do something like this.

And again, because I can almost hear pieces of that come off.

I think those little triangles are going to come away like that.

Don't feel like you have to do the same thing.

Just think to yourself about what does that sound make you think of? What does it look like? So you can see my example so far of my sounds in their shapes and patterns.

And I've already heard the sellotape sound.

So I'm going to kind of just draw what might my sellotape sound looks like.

And I'm thinking of a kind of ripping how it kind of that sound.

I'm going to try and do that here.

I might even think something a lot like this.

I like those kind of shapes.

And again, that might be all I'll do.

Unless it'll look a little better.

There you go.

So that's my sounds in pictorial form.

Okay, it's now your turn to draw.

There is a sheet that you have got where you got the correlating sound noises and the terms but you can obviously just write it down as well.

That's fine too.

You need to create six abstract shapes, patterns and symbols responding to each with the sounds that you've just heard.

Now, you might want to pause the video each time a new sound is played.

And remember, don't think of it as pictures, think of it as shapes patterns and line.

So if you hear a pencil, don't draw a pencil, think of something more abstract.

Okay, here you go.

And you'll obviously see my cursor come on to the screen as well.

But of course you just pause it when you hear the sound Is paper rustling.

The next is a pencil drop.

The next is a pen making a mark.

The next one is a pencil making a mark.

The next one is pencils being shuffled.

Finally, we've got sellotape.

Finally, we've got sellotape.

So pause the video after each of those sounds and feel free to rewind the video if you need to listen to them again.

Well done, so you should have something a little bit like this.

You can see my original designs on the screen now.

Do the shapes and lines feel right? Is what you want to think to yourself.

Remember inspiration can come from anything and anywhere.

And sound and music is an art form of course unto itself.

So it's using those sounds to inspire your drawings.

So we're going to start drawing again and this is where you're going to use your colouring pencils.

Now, of course, there's lots of different ways of using colouring pencils, but I do want you to start thinking about tone.

Do you know how to create tone with a colouring pencil? That's right, it's to do with pressing harder for those darker tones and softening your grip, so it gets lighter and lighter to get lighter tones.

So of course use tone where you can, but of course, again our inspiration is coming from these sounds that we've heard all lesson.

So I want you to think to yourself are there any colours that you associate with these sounds? Is there a colour that comes to mind when you're hearing these sounds? Let's go through them again.

And again, as you do this you can pause it after each sound, colouring that particular sound shape, and then move on.

First up again, we've got paper rustling.

Second is the pencil drop.

Third is the pen making a mark.

Third is the pencil making a mark.

Fifth is the pencils being shuffled.

And finally we have the sellotape.

Fourth, we have the pencil making a mark.

Again, remember you should have paused that between each one and added colour and tone as we go through.

Well done.

Now, do you remember how this connects to new media and sound art? That's right, we're using sound to inspire our art, but of course sound art is a little different.

Sound art is when you use sounds to create a soundscape.

So that's a little bit different, but of course in both art pieces we're using sound to inspire our artwork.

Now, next week, we are going to use these in an art piece of our own.

So keep that piece of paper, keep those drawings of shapes and symbols.

You can see my examples in front of you now.

Keep that because you're going to use these in the next lesson.

So I do look forward to seeing how we can develop these even further.

Key words was sound art.

And this is art where sound is the medium that you experience the art from.

Contemporary art is art that is made in the present time periods.

So that's made now.

Abstract art is art that is non-representational and might use colour, shape, line and pattern.

So it's not a picture of an item or an object, it's shapes patterns, colours.

Much like we did towards the end of the lesson there.

If you have any work do make sure that you share it on the Oak National website.

Of course we're going to use all the work that we've done today in the next lesson, on this unit.