Project Format
Below is a very flexible framework around which we base all of our Sonic Postcard projects. It is to be used as a guide to understand the key elements of the project. However, at the planning meeting at Stage 1, the content of the other stages will be carefully decided with the teachers so that the project can be as relevant and inclusive as possible.
STAGE 1 - PLANNING AND TIMETABLING
Led by: Sonic Arts Network Team
Participants: Head Teacher, ICT co-ordinator and teachers involved in the project
Logistics: After school meeting for each participating school (1-2 hours)
This session will be an opportunity for the project manager and artists to meet the teachers involved and discuss logistics and the ideas behind the Sonic Postcards project and for the teachers to input possible cross-curricular links. The project manager and artist will also spend some time auditing the schools’ technology to assess suitability of existing equipment.
STAGE 2 - INSET TRAINING FOR TEACHERS
Led by: Sonic Arts Network Team
Participants: All members of staff taking part in the project
Logistics: After school meeting (2 hours maximum).
Workshop leaders will introduce the project and focus on creative techniques to develop cross-curricular work in the classroom. Teachers will also be equipped with the relevant technical skills including capturing and transforming sound with technology and using the internet to exchange music and communicate with others.
STAGE 3 - INTRODUCTION AND THE SONIC POSTCARDS WEBSITE
Led by: Sonic Arts Network Team and Teachers
Participants: All students and participating staff
Logistics: Half a day (approx 2.5 hours)
Students will be expected to continue working on the assignments in their own time or during lesson time.
Teachers and students will be introduced by the workshop leaders to different soundscapes from around the UK and the world. Following preliminary discussions about sound and the environment, they will be asked to work on three assignments:
- Sound Journals – students will be asked to keep a written journal of sounds they hear and their reactions to them. They'll do this in various locations outside the classroom, in the street, the home, on the bus, at a sporting event etc
- Sound Maps – students are asked to make a sound map of an area or location of their choice with the following guidelines: A sound map should show two things (i) a geographical location; (ii) the sounds that have been heard in that location
- Sound Awards – in the second session an outstanding sonic location will be selected from these maps and journals by the whole group as the focus for the next stage
STAGE 4 - INTRODUCTION TO THE TECHNOLOGY
Led by: Sonic Arts Network Team
Participants: All students and staff
Logistics: Half a day (approx 2.5 hours)
During this session students will be introduced to music technology relevant to the Sonic Postcards project. ICT facilities will need to be made available.
STAGE 5 - OFF SITE FIELD TRIP
Led by: Sonic Arts Network Team, school staff and adult assistants where necessary
Participants: All students and participating staff
Logistics: Half a day or a full day if possible
THIS WILL BE AN OFF SITE VISIT
Having chosen a location to visit in their local area the students will work in groups to record the sounds of that place. Video, sketched, annotated, or photographic records may also be collected to create visual collages back in the classroom and to feed into other curriculum studies.
STAGE 6 - CREATING AND SENDING SONIC POSTCARDS
Led by: Sonic Arts Network Team
Participants: All students (in groups) and staff
Logistics: Two half day sessions (approx 2.5 hours each)
Students may need access to computer facilities so that they can continue to work on their Sonic Postcards in their own time if required.
Using digital music technology on computers, pupils and teachers will explore their creative responses to the sounds in their environment and become sound designers themselves. Incorporating the field recordings made in Stage 3 of the project, participants will explore compositional techniques of selection and sound processing to create Sonic Postcards from their locality. Students will work individually or in small groups to produce their postcard, which will then be compressed to MP3 format and sent by email to partner schools. The postcards will also be uploaded to the Sonic Postcards website.
STAGE 7 - PROJECT PRESENTATION / INSTALLATION
Led by: Participants and Sonic Arts Network Team
Participants: All school
Logistics: One period (1 hour maximum)
The project will culminate in the showing of works to the whole school by creating an installation with the materials from the project, both visual (journals, maps, photographs etc) and sonic.
STAGE 8 - RECEIVING SONIC POSTCARDS
Led by: Sonic Arts Network Team
Participants: All students and staff
Logistics: Half a day (approx 2.5 hours) about a month after the presentation
This will be an opportunity for the pupils to listen to Sonic Postcards they will have received during the previous month in response to the Sonic Postcards they sent via email to other schools. It is also an opportunity to recap the different elements of the project and another chance for teachers to extend the project into other curricular areas. During this session postcards and supporting visual materials from other schools will be downloaded, compared and contrasted to consider other environments, new places and different cultures.
