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FILMSOUND at the Academy of Fine Arts, Helsinki


KUNO Express course (Nordic Sound Art): FILMSOUND
Dates: 22-26 May 2017, Academy of Fine Arts in Helsinki
KUNO seats: max 5
ECTS credits: 2 (3 with an essay)
Apply by 21 April by sending a motivation letter to kuva.international@uniarts.fi
Teachers: Caspar Stracke, Päivi S. Takala and guest composers

French audio theorist Michel Chion has argued that watching films with rich, sophisticated soundtracks is more than just a visual exercise – it enacts a process of “audio-viewing”. It is the audiovisual element that makes use of a wealth of tropes, devices, techniques, and effects that convert multiple sensations into image and sound, therefore rendering, instead of reproducing, the world through cinema.

This course investigates the role of sound design and the role of music in contemporary moving image. In artist moving image work, sound is often given a subordinary role to the image, a way to accentuate and nuance gradual changes. However, it is attributed with a subliminal role, even a “grammatical role” which has the ability to create a counterpoint to the grammar of montage.

Film sound and film music are discussed as a potentiality – in what cases is the appropriate sound capable of multiply the intended outcome and when does it possibly act counterproductive. How one can detect boundaries, can decide between diegetic and non-diegectic sound as well as harmonic patterns. What kind of sound will turn out to be the better companion for particular moving images. The course includes a lecture by Päivi S. Takala (linked to her weekly course at Sibelius Academy), a visit into a post-production sound studio, the inclusion of two lectures by film composers / sound designers Sanna Salmenkallio and Olli Huhtanen as well as a sound editor and a foley artist.

The course is designed equally for filmmakers to engage with in-depth studies of sound design and music, as well as sound artists and composers to engage with moving image sound and cinema.