Sound Arts: Experimental Music
Sound arts and experimental music occupies one of the most intellectually and creatively adventurous territories in contemporary practice, working at the edges of what music, sound, and listening can be. It encompasses electroacoustic composition, sound installation, improvisation, noise music, field recording, radiophonic practice, and a wide range of approaches that challenge the conventions of concert music and recorded pop alike. The discipline asks fundamental questions about what sound is, how it is experienced, and what it can do in contexts that range from the gallery and the concert hall to public space, broadcast, and the expanded environments of new technology.
At the University of the Arts London you will study this three-year programme at one of the world's leading creative education institutions, developing your practice across the full range of experimental music and sound art. You will work with the conceptual, technical, and performative dimensions of sound, developing a practice that is informed by critical engagement with the history and theory of the field alongside the development of your own creative voice. The programme includes a sandwich year and a work placement, giving you direct professional experience in a relevant creative or cultural environment before you graduate.
Graduates of sound arts and experimental music work as composers, sound artists, performers, and researchers in the gallery and performance sectors, in new media and digital arts organisations, in film and television sound design, in radio and broadcast, in community arts, and in music education. Some build freelance creative practices that combine composition, installation, live performance, and critical writing. Others move into postgraduate study in sound arts, music composition, sonic arts, or cultural studies, developing specialist expertise or moving into academic practice and research.
The creative confidence and technical breadth the programme develops are assets in any professional context that involves working with sound.