Reflecting upon the prevalence of sound in my life in terms of art and curriculum, there are not many instances where I worked with or experienced sound art.
I did not experience sound art until my undergraduate career, and even then, I did not know much about it and did not ever create it myself. I just knew that a lot of sounds were connected to installation pieces to contribute to their ambiance.
More recently, over the summer, I went to the Edward Hopper House in Rockland, NY, where they had an interactive sound installation in their garden. It was set up in a corner area of the garden, somewhat behind the porch, which did not give it much visibility or incentive to interact with the installation. It did not look like something that someone could interact with either, it could have been a supportive structure for a future piece or something that the museum coordinators have not cleaned up yet. It was a white structure made of small speakers and motion sensors that were placed in a somewhat closed geometric shape. People could walk through it and as they did, sounds from conversations and opera songs in different languages would come on.
After seeing this, it had me thinking about the potential for sound in a curriculum. I thought that it worked well with the visual/installation component. Although sound art does not need to have a visual component to it, I think it only adds to the concept of the art. Based on that, I do think that it is not enough to just have structure that emits the sound, like the one at the Edward Hopper House. The artist should consider the presentation as well. Overall, it was interesting to hear a story being told through sound, which provides a lot of interpretation on the side of the audience. In terms of curriculum, students would be able to essentially learn how to create an environment and tell a story with sound. In addition, working with sound provides the opportunity to enable students with a visual impairment. Since most students have a smart phone, sound art can be cost effective for a class since they will not have to purchase recording devices. But, there could be a deeper learning curve for the editing software teachers use for mixing sounds. Because it is also a digital media, there are also opportunities to apply sound to other digital medias. In terms of curriculum, it would be refreshing to have students record or make their own sounds to put together a larger piece.