MA Sonic Culture: University of East London

About the programme

The MA in Sonic Culture aims to critically examine the role of sound in contemporary culture, arts and media. In particular, it will seek to rebalance the priority which visual culture has traditionally been given in debates surrounding cybernetic culture, in explicating new relationships between the arts and sciences, the virtual and the real, the natural and the artificial. It will seek to underline the importance of the acoustic perspective in understanding the role of ‘synesthesia’ in the multimedia environment of contemporary culture, and will examine concepts such as affect, simulation, the soundscape and acoustic cyberspace in relation to digital capitalism and network culture. To do this, the MA will take an interdisciplinary approach drawing from cultural theory, critical musicology, philosophy, digital aesthetics, cybernetics, acoustics, physiology, psychoacoustics, sciences of complexity and theories of gender and diaspora in order to provide students with a conceptual basis for critical and creative production.

Career opportunities

The MA Sonic Culture offers the possibility to students to apply the acquired knowledge and skills to pursue a long term career development in academic research, writing and journalism, media researcher, curator, events organizer in the music industry or more generally in the diversifying field of sonic arts and media,. sound designer or sound consultant across a range of media.

Admission requirments

The admission of applicants is at the discretion of the University. Applicants will normally have a first or upper second class degree or equivalent in a humanities or social science subject, or comparable professional or research experience.

Applications from overseas and EU students are welcome. Students whose first language is not English should normally have achieved a score of 7.0 in IELTS (International English Language Testing System) or equivalent.