Sonic Object Based Learning: exploring curiosity through sound

This workshop builds on sessions offered through UAL-wide Academic Support, where students come together from across the University to explore synergies in ways of learning. Many workshops in the programme use modelling and objects (for example museum and archival objects) as mediating artefacts for learning awareness and self-enquiry, while other workshops draw on less tangible approaches such as movement, dialogue and contemplative practices such as mindfulness.

This particular workshop will explore the question of whether aural material can be beneficial for enquiry into learning processes, practices and purposes through the use of ‘sonic objects’, particularly for practitioners who are more accustomed to working visually. By switching to sonic material, cognitive and affective responses and habits might surface more readily.

The question at the heart of this workshop is whether curiosity can be cultivated, and if so, what are the optimal conditions for curiosity to emerge? Similarly, if learning is emergent from dynamic conditions, what influence can a learner have over those conditions? Therefore, practices of self-enquiry and learning awareness become important for recognizing what we can attend to, influence or change to enhance learning, including awareness of our habits of mind, resistances, motivations and intentions. Reflection on the exercises and experiences then formed the basis of an enquiry into whether working with sound can be helpful to explore conditions for learning and for increasing understanding of what might cultivate curiosity.