Brothers get a sound fine arts education
Church bells pealing in the east end Montreal, the popping of bubble tea, and birds chirping in Parc Jean-Drapeau are some of what you can hear on the Montreal Sound Map — the brainchild of Bachelor of Fine Arts graduates and brothers Max and Julian Stein.
Lured from Pennsylvania to Quebec by Concordia’s undergraduate electroacoustic studies program, the twins began developing the Google-based map in 2008. The project sprang from their simple desire to share the sounds they had been recording around the city and to encourage other students to upload their own sound clips.
The project expanded into an auditory archive of the culture, history, technology and other aspects of city life in Montreal. Each sound has its subject matter, location and the type of recording tagged to make the online map a user-friendly database.
While the first sound maps emerged four decades ago, the use of web-based technology that enables anyone to contribute sound clips makes the Steins’ audio atlas unique.
Their pioneering work has been recognized far and wide. They travelled to France to present their project at a conference. Max, who taught himself web programming, has also helped people in Sweden, Belgium and Angola to set up their own maps.
The Montreal Sound Map was included in Concordia’s 2011 President's Conference Series — an honour rarely given to undergraduate research work. Extensive media coverage has included feature-length articles in Montreal’s Le Devoir and The Gazette newspapers.
The project didn’t grow from a class assignment, and so the students didn’t earn any credit. Any official credit, that is — the experience was invaluable. “It was a lot of extra work – kind of like a second job,” says Max, but adding, “I’m happy we decided to put in the extra effort because it really paid off.”
The brothers, who also founded the Concordia Electroacoustic Studies Student Association, say it’s not enough for students these days to focus on studying when they get to university. “It’s important to set yourself apart — to build connections,” says Julian, who served as a student representative on the Fine Arts Faculty Council this past academic year.
Both Steins have individually earned a number of scholarships and awards. They both have also been working as research assistants at various labs at Hexagram-Concordia, the university’s renowned centre for research-creation in media arts and technologies. They hope to continue working at Hexagram and on other projects for another year or so before applying to graduate school.
It sounds like they have their foreseeable future all mapped out.
Related links:
• Read about more 2012 Great Grads in the Faculty of Fine Arts
• Montreal Sound Map
• Department of Music
• Electroacoustic Studies
• ”Montreal is pleasant to view, and listen to,” by Marian Scott, The Gazette, December 29, 2011