[box] We welcome this guest post from OTM member Larry Sider of The School of Sound[/box]

Through its seminars and workshops dating back to 1998, the School of Sound has created a unique forum for exploring the use and creation of sound in media and the arts. It’s masterclasses by innovative, visionary practitioners, artists and academics, have created an on-going ‘conversation’ about the connections between creativity, technology and audience perception that define 21st century sound design.

As Diane Sider of the School of Sound explains, the SOS began in 1998 as a response to the way sound was being taught in film schools, more as a technical necessity than a creative practice. In the seventeen years since, that attitude has been turned around and the subject of sound, how it’s used and how it’s taught, increasingly involves the philosophical, neurological and physiological. This reflects its impact in the arts and entertainment as well as product design and the IoT. Industries as diverse as filmmaking, architecture and auto manufacturing now look at sound as a key component in our created environment.

This April’s School of Sound International Symposium focuses on how we listen and communicate through sound. Leading creatives as diverse as Oscar-winning sound designer Walter Murch and choreographer Siobhan Davies will analyse their working methods in film, theatre, games, music, dance, gallery work, radio and … yoiking. In one key session, Sony’s Joanna Orland and Playdead’s Martin Stig Andersen – sound producer of Limbo – compare the audio techniques of AAA games producers versus new wave indie titles, looking at how industry practices are developing more organic, intuitive approaches to sound design to match the changing nature of interactive entertainment.

Based on past years’ meetings, those attending are guaranteed to come away with a eye (and ear)-opening new awareness of how sound operates in the audio-visual world.

The School of Sound International Symposium, 8-11 April 2015, Southbank Centre, London. Programme and registration information at http://www.schoolofsound.co.uk/sos/programme