 |
This article or section is written like a personal reflection or essay and may require cleanup. Please help improve it by rewriting it in an encyclopedic style.(December 2007) |
Sound art is a diverse group of art practices that concern sound and listening as their focus. It is now being understood that there are already several generations of sound artists, each with a unique constellation of connections to other disciplines and creative movements. From the Western art historical tradition early examples include Luigi Russolo's Intonarumori or noise machines, and subsequent experiments by Dadaists, Surrealists, the Situationist International, and in Fluxus happenings. Because of the diversity of sound art, there is often debate about whether sound art falls inside and/or outside of both the visual art and experimental music categories. Like many genres of contemporary art, sound art is interdisciplinary, engaging in acoustics and psychoacoustics, electronics, audio technologies (both analog and digital), found or environmental sound, exploration of the human body, sculpture, video, and an ever-expanding set of issues that are part of the discourse in contemporary art. Other artistic lineages from which sound art emerges are conceptual art, minimalism, site-specific art, sound poetry, spoken word, avant garde poetry, and experimental theater. Early practitioners include Tristan Tzara, Kurt Schwitters, Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, Hugo Ball and Henri-Martin Barzun.
Contents |
Controversy
|
|
This article or section is written like a personal reflection or essay and may require cleanup. Please help improve it by rewriting it in an encyclopedic style.(December 2007) |
There is debate among artists and theorists concerning the definition and history of sound art, which gives rise to other contentious issues. Here is a partial list of some of the current arguments (documented in the articles and books listed in this entry):
- Is "sound installation" the only true form of sound art? (This relates to the definition of German "Klangkunst.")
- Which genres fit into the category of sound art?
- Which artists qualify as sound artists?
- Is music a subcategory of sound art?
- Is sound art a subcategory of music?
- Where should sound art be taught and how?
- Is sound art exclusively an electronic medium, or can it also exist without the loudspeaker (i.e., acoustic sound, thought, physical movement)?
- If sound art is exclusively an electronic medium then is it synonymous with electronic music?
- Was John Cage's 4'33" sound art? (This relates to statements by Cage that refer to his work as music.)
See the Articles listed below for various views.
Sound Artists
- Further information: List of sound artists
Sound art organizations and festivals
- Sonic Arts Network
- Opsound
- NOMAD's "ctrl_alt_del" festival
- Diapason Gallery for Sound - http://diapasongallery.org/
See also
- List of topics related to Sound Art
- Sonification
- custom-made instruments
- list of custom-made instrument builders
- Soundscape
- Sound installation
- Sound sculpture
- Intermedia
- Electronic Music
Further reading
- Cox, Christoph and Daniel Warner, eds. Audio Culture. (New York: Continuum, 2004). ISBN 978-0826416155.
- Cox, Christoph, "Return to Form: Neo-modernism in Sound Art." Artforum (November 2003). [1]
- de la Motte, Helga; Leitner, Bernhard; and Schulz, Bernd, eds. (2003). Resonances. ISBN 3-933257-86-7.
- Drobnick, Jim, ed., (2004). Aural Cultures. ISBN 0-920397-80-8.
- Kahn, Douglas. Noise, Water, Meat: A History of Sound in the Arts (Cambridge: MIT Press, 2001).
- LaBelle, Brandon, Background Noise: Perspectives on Sound Art (New York: Continuum, 2006).
- Lander, Dan and Micah Lexier, eds., Sound by Artists (Toronto: Art Metropole/Walter Phillips Gallery, 1990).
- Licht, Alan, Sound Art: Beyond Music, Between Categories (New York: Rizzoli, 2007).
- Lucier, Alvin and Douglas Simon, Chambers, (1980), (Wesleyan University Press: Middletown, Connecticut, 1980). ISBN 0819550426.
- Oliveros, Pauline, Software for People, (1984), ISBN0914162608.
- Paik, Nam June, "Post Music Manifesto," Videa N Videology (Syracuse, New York: Everson Museum of Art, 1963).
- Schafer, R. Murray, The Soundscape, (1977), (Destiny Books: Rochester, Vermont), ISBN 0892814551
- Toop, David, Haunted Weather: Music, Silence, and Memory (London: Serpent's Tail, 2004).
- van Peer, René, Interviews with Sound Artists (Eindhoven: Het Apollohuis, 1993).
External links
Articles
- Boundaries and Definitions: The SoundAsArt Conference, Aberdeen Scotland (24–26 November, 2006) by Scott Wilson in CeC eContact! 9.2
- Artkrush.com feature on Sound Art (January 2006)
- The Art of Noise by David Toop, Tate Online, Issue 3, Spring 2005
- Short Circuit: Sound Art and The Museum by Brandon LaBelle, 2004?
- Bring Da Noise: A Brief Survey of Sound Art by Kenneth Goldsmith in newmusicbox the webmagazine of American Music Center, March 1, 2004.
- Return to Form: Neo-Modernism in Sound Art by Christoph Cox, ArtForum, November 2003.
- The sound installation by Manuel Rocha Iturbide, unpublished, 2003.
- What is Sound Art? by N.B. Aldrich, August, 2003.
- GUARDIAN: Prick up your ears, Stephen Poole on sound art Saturday November 17, 2001
- It's Sound, It's Art, and Some Call It Music By Kyle Gann, New York Times, January 9, 2000
- Aesthetical Issues of Sound Art by Paul Panhuysen, 2000?
