Sonic Designing
The class was suspicious from the first lecture.
ACUL 1013, Art, Culture, and Society, seemed like an interesting class from the course calendar. Part of the Sonic Design program, it was a mandatory class to complete my certificate, but after Francis Gerard introduced himself to us as the founder of an arts collective, my suspicions started to grow. They only increased after I read the syllabus for the class, the words No Assigned Reading in bold text stood out to me, followed by the class schedule and descriptions:
- Week 1: Spaces I - II
- Week 2: Physicality - Real Reality
- Week 3: Loudspeakers - Physicality II
- Week 4: Projectors and Projections I-II
Now, in Week 7, Physicality III - Real Reality II, it was crystal clear that this class was an obligation that Francis had to fulfill rather than a serious academic pursuit.
This week's class opened with Francis telling Jen to stand up and reach into a black bag, find the object, and describe it to us and draw what she described. After a few minutes, she was asked to reveal the object, a yellow hedgehog pencil sharpener.
"Though she was describing it accurately," Francis said with an intense look on his face, "You were all unable to accurately draw it."
Now, nearly three hours later we were watching our third David Bowie music video of the class,"Wild is the Wind".
Francis turned the projector off with the remote, and flicked the light switch, flooding the room with fluorescent light as the overhead fan revved up to cool the projector bulb. Looking up, I noticed the "Property of Carleton University" sticker peeling itself off, as if it, too, were trying to escape the class early.
"Such range, yeah? Fabulous."
As Francis sat down in his chair, the seminar room on the fourth floor of the St. Patrick's building remained silent. Picking up the yellow hedgehog pencil sharpener from his desk, and playing with it in his hands, Francis surveyed the room of twenty-somethings, most of whom were avoiding eye contact.
About a week ago I asked a question about stereo microphones, causing him to go on and on about the "sublime experience of listening to a Call to Prayer... over a loudspeaker... in a Jordanian marketplace" that protracted thirty minutes of the two hour time slot, the balance of the class being taken up by a video about the Theremin, paused every five to ten minutes for Francis to bloviate about a particular factoid from whatever trip he had been on.
By occupying our time with these stories, it became clear that Francis was largely here to conduct his own research and, while obligated to teach at least one class, it was clear he was more interested in introducing himself as a professor at parties than teaching or doing research.
This afternoon, after meditating on the yellow plastic hedgehog for a while, Francis spoke at length and off the cuff about David Bowie's early career for ninety minutes, mentioning something about media, I'm sure, along the way. I do remember he also managed to work in his girlfriend, Claudia, and how they had met in the South of France over a glass of Bordeaux. Then he had us watch and "discuss" the videos for "Ashes to Ashes" and "Be My Wife" before having us close out the class with "Wild is the Wind".
After completing the class mysteriously with an A, I only saw Francis Gerard one final time, the following academic year, at a campus bar, as we clocked each other, I saw a woman hanging off of his arm as he waved me over to a vacant seat at the bar next to him. I stood instead.
"Matthew, hello."
"Hi Francis."
"This is my fiancee, Jeanine."
"A pleasure," she said, extending an arm creating an awkward limp handshake.
"I wanted to say," Francis said, turning to me, "That I found your field recording assignment very unique and interesting."
"Thank you?"
He turned to the bartender and ordered a shot of Jägermeister and a glass of white wine. Turning back to me, and handing the wine to Jeanine, he held the shot glass aloft as we exchanged a couple more pleasantries, with Jeanine's loud laugh punctuating the conversation.
However, what stood out to me, and what I remember to this day, is that as he spoke, he took tiny sips of Jägermeister, as though he were a European lord.