Sound art is an artistic activity in which

sound In physics, sound is a vibration that propagates as an acoustic wave through a transmission medium such as a gas, liquid or solid. In human physiology and psychology, sound is the ''reception'' of such waves and their ''perception'' by the br ...

is utilized as a primary time-based medium or material. Like many genres of

contemporary art Contemporary art is a term used to describe the art of today, generally referring to art produced from the 1970s onwards. Contemporary artists work in a globally influenced, culturally diverse, and technologically advancing world. Their art is a ...

, sound art may be

interdisciplinary Interdisciplinarity or interdisciplinary studies involves the combination of multiple academic disciplines into one activity (e.g., a research project). It draws knowledge from several fields such as sociology, anthropology, psychology, economi ...

in nature, or be used in hybrid forms. According to Brandon LaBelle, sound art as a practice "harnesses, describes, analyzes, performs, and interrogates the condition of sound and the process by which it operates." Lydinstallation ARoS

Western art The art of Europe, also known as Western art, encompasses the history of visual art in Europe. European prehistoric art started as mobile Upper Paleolithic rock and cave painting and petroglyph art and was characteristic of the period bet ...

, early examples include the

Futurist Futurists (also known as futurologists, prospectivists, foresight practitioners and horizon scanners) are people whose specialty or interest is futures studies or futurology or the attempt to systematically explore predictions and possibilities ...

Luigi Russolo Luigi Carlo Filippo Russolo (30 April 1885 – 4 February 1947) was an Italian Futurist painter, composer, builder of experimental musical instruments, and the author of the manifesto '' The Art of Noises'' (1913). Russolo completed his second ...

's '' Intonarumori'' noise intoners (1913), and subsequent experiments by

dada Dada () or Dadaism was an anti-establishment art movement that developed in 1915 in the context of the Great War and the earlier anti-art movement. Early centers for dadaism included Zürich and Berlin. Within a few years, the movement had s ...

ists, surrealists, the

Situationist International The Situationist International (SI) was an international organization of social revolutionaries made up of avant-garde artists, intellectuals, and political theorists. It was prominent in Europe from its formation in 1957 to its dissolution ...

, and in

Fluxus Fluxus was an international, interdisciplinary community of artists, composers, designers, and poets during the 1960s and 1970s who engaged in experimental performance art, art performances which emphasized the artistic process over the finishe ...

events and other

Happening A happening is a performance, event, or situation art, usually as performance art. The term was first used by Allan Kaprow in 1959 to describe a range of art-related events. History Origins Allan Kaprow first coined the term "happening" i ...

s. Because of the diversity of sound art, there is often debate about whether sound art falls within the domains of

visual art The visual arts are art forms such as painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, ceramics, photography, video, image, filmmaking, design, crafts, and architecture. Many artistic disciplines such as performing arts, conceptual art, and texti ...

experimental music Experimental music is a general label for any music or music genre that pushes existing boundaries and genre definitions. Experimental compositional practice is defined broadly by exploratory sensibilities radically opposed to, and questioning of, ...

, or both. Other artistic lineages from which sound art emerges are conceptual art,

minimalism In visual arts, music, and other media, minimalism is an art movement that began in the post-war era in western art. The movement is often interpreted as a reaction to abstract expressionism and modernism; it anticipated contemporary post-mi ...

site-specific art Site-specific art is artwork created to exist in a certain place. Typically, the artist takes the location into account while planning and creating the artwork. Site-specific art is produced both by commercial artists, and independently, and can ...

sound poetry Sound poetry is an artistic form bridging literary and musical composition, in which the phonetic aspects of human speech are foregrounded instead of more conventional semantic and syntactic values; "verse without words". By definition, sound poe ...

electro-acoustic music Electroacoustic music is a genre of Western art music in which composers use recording technology and audio signal processing to manipulate the timbres of acoustic sounds in the creation of pieces of music. It originated around the middle of the ...

spoken word Spoken word is an oral poetic performance art that is based mainly on the poem as well as the performer's aesthetic qualities. It is a 20th-century continuation of an oral tradition, ancient oral artistic tradition that focuses on the aesthetic ...

avant-garde In the arts and literature, the term ''avant-garde'' ( meaning or ) identifies an experimental genre or work of art, and the artist who created it, which usually is aesthetically innovative, whilst initially being ideologically unacceptable ...

poetry,

sound scenography Sound scenography (also known as acoustic scenography) is the process of staging spaces and environments through sound. It combines expertise from the fields of architecture, acoustics, communication, sound design and interaction design to convey ar ...

, and

experimental theatre Experimental theatre (also known as avant-garde theatre), inspired largely by Richard Wagner, Wagner's concept of Gesamtkunstwerk, began in Western theatre in the late 19th century with Alfred Jarry and his Ubu Roi, Ubu plays as a rejection of bot ...

Origin of term

According to Bernhard Gál's research, the first published use of the term was found in Something Else Press on the cover of their 1974 ''Yearbook''. The first use as the title of an exhibition at a major museum was 1979's ''Sound Art'' at the Museum of Modern Art in New York (MoMA), featuring Maggi Payne, Connie Beckley, and Julia Heyward. The curator, Barbara London defined sound art as, "more closely allied to art than to music, and are usually presented in the museum, gallery, or alternative space." Commenting on an exhibition called ''Sound/Art'' at the SculptureCenter in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

in 1984 art historian Don Goddard noted: "It may be that sound art adheres to curator Hellermann's perception that 'hearing is another form of seeing,' that sound has meaning only when its connection with an image is understood...The conjunction of sound and image insists on the engagement of the viewer, forcing participation in real space and concrete, responsive thought, rather than illusionary space and thought."

Sound installation

Sound installation is an

intermedia Intermedia is an art theory term coined in the mid-1960s by Fluxus artist Dick Higgins to describe the strategies of interdisciplinarity that occur within artworks existing between artistic genres. It was also used by John Brockman to refer to ...

and time-based art form. It is an expansion of an art installation in the sense that it includes the sound element and therefore the time element. The main difference with a sound sculpture is that a sound installation has a three-dimensional space and the axes with which the different sound objects are being organized are not exclusively internal to the work, but also external. A work of art is an installation only if it makes a dialog with the surrounding space. A sound installation is usually site-specific, but sometimes it can be readapted to other spaces. It can be made either in closed or open spaces, and context is fundamental in determining how a sound installation will be aesthetically perceived. The difference between a regular art installation and a sound installation is that the latter contains a time element which gives the visiting public the option to stay longer to explore the development of the sound over time. This temporal factor also gives the audience an incentive to explore the space more thoroughly and investigate the disposition of the different sounds in space. Sound installations sometimes use interactive art technology (

computer A computer is a machine that can be Computer programming, programmed to automatically Execution (computing), carry out sequences of arithmetic or logical operations (''computation''). Modern digital electronic computers can perform generic set ...

sensor A sensor is often defined as a device that receives and responds to a signal or stimulus. The stimulus is the quantity, property, or condition that is sensed and converted into electrical signal. In the broadest definition, a sensor is a devi ...

mechanical Mechanical may refer to: Machine * Machine (mechanical), a system of mechanisms that shape the actuator input to achieve a specific application of output forces and movement * Mechanical calculator, a device used to perform the basic operations o ...

and kinetic devices, etc.), but they can also simply use sound sources placed at different points in space (such as

speakers Speaker most commonly refers to: * Speaker, a person who produces speech * Loudspeaker, a device that produces sound ** Computer speakers Speaker, Speakers, or The Speaker may also refer to: Arts and entertainment * Speaker (song), "Speaker" ( ...

), or acoustic instrument materials such as piano strings played by a performer or by the public. In the context of museums, this combination of

interactive Across the many fields concerned with interactivity, including information science, computer science, human-computer interaction, communication, and industrial design, there is little agreement over the meaning of the term "interactivity", but mo ...

digital technology and multi-channel speaker distribution is sometimes referred to as

Sound structure in sound installations

#The simplest sound form is a repeating sound loop. This is mostly used in

Ambient music Ambient music is a genre of music that emphasizes Musical tone, tone and atmosphere over traditional Musical form, musical structure or rhythm. Often "peaceful" sounding and lacking Musical composition, composition, beat, and/or structured melod ...

-like art, and in this case the sound is not the determinant factor of the art work. #The most used sound structure is the open form, since the public can decide to experience a sound installation for just a few minutes or for a longer period of time. This obliges the artist to construct a sound organization that is capable of working well in both cases. #There is also the possibility to have a linear sound structure, where sound develops in the same way as in a

musical composition Musical composition can refer to an Originality, original piece or work of music, either Human voice, vocal or Musical instrument, instrumental, the musical form, structure of a musical piece or to the process of creating or writing a new pie ...

. This type of structure can be seen in interactive sound installations like "The Zone," created by the collaborative group Volumetric Units, which explores the phenomenological experience of hyperreal cyberspace

Sound sculpture

Sound sculpture is an

and time-based art form in which

sculpture Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...

or any kind of art object produces

, or the reverse (in the sense that sound is manipulated in such a way as to create a sculptural as opposed to temporal form or mass). Most often sound sculpture artists were primarily either

visual artists The visual arts are art forms such as painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, ceramics, photography, video, image, filmmaking, design, crafts, and architecture. Many artistic disciplines such as performing arts, conceptual art, and texti ...

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and def ...

s, not having started out directly making sound sculpture. Cymatics and

kinetic art Kinetic art is art from any medium that contains movement perceivable by the viewer or that depends on motion for its effects. Canvas paintings that extend the viewer's perspective of the artwork and incorporate multidimensional movement are ...

have influenced sound sculpture. Sound sculpture is sometimes site-specific. Bill Fontana's research on urban sound sculpture delves into the concept of shifting ambient noise music within cityscapes to produce distinct auditory encounters. Through this approach, he modifies the surrounding soundscape, impacting how listeners perceive their environment while highlighting both the auditory and visual elements of a particular space. Sound Artist and Professor of Art at

Claremont Graduate University The Claremont Graduate University (CGU) is a private, all-graduate research university in Claremont, California, United States. Founded in 1925, CGU is a member of the Claremont Colleges consortium which includes five undergraduate and two grad ...

Michael Brewster described his own works as "Acoustic Sculptures" as early as 1970. Grayson described sound sculpture in 1975 as "the integration of visual form and beauty with magical, musical sounds through participatory experience."

Notable sound sculptures

* Blackpool High Tide Organ * Gesundheit Radio * Sea organ * Singing Ringing Tree (Panopticons) * A Sound Garden * Golden Gate Bridge#Wind * Cloud harp

Gallery

Image:DallasPublicLibrary Textured Screen.jpg, Harry Bertoia, Textured Screen, 1954 Image:Singing Ringing Tree Stitch.jpg,

Panopticon The panopticon is a design of institutional building with an inbuilt system of control, originated by the English philosopher and social theorist Jeremy Bentham in the 18th century. The concept is to allow all prisoners of an institution to be ...

: The Singing Ringing Tree Image:Blackpool tide organ.jpg, The Blackpool High Tide Organ Image:The cristal baschet.jpg, The Cristal Baschet Image:Moodswinger.jpg,

Yuri Landman Yuri Landman (born 1 February 1973) is a Dutch inventor of musical instruments and musician who has made several experimental electric string instruments for a number of artists including Lee Ranaldo of Sonic Youth, Liars (band), Liars, Jad Fair ...

, Moodswinger, 2006 Image:Electrocardiophones with electroencephalophone softub4.jpg, 2 electrocardiophones & electroencephalophone Image:Sea organ Zadar 1.jpg, Bašić's sea organ

Notes

References

Kenneth Goldsmith Kenneth Goldsmith (born 1961) is an American poetry, poet and critic. He is the founding editor of UbuWeb and an artist-in-residence at the Center for Programs in Contemporary Writing (CPCW) at the University of Pennsylvania, where he teaches. He ...

, ''Duchamp Is My Lawyer: The Polemics, Pragmatics, and Poetics of UbuWeb'', Columbia University Press, New York * Kahn, Douglas. 2001. ''Noise, Water, Meat: A History of Sound in the Arts''. Cambridge: MIT Press. . * Licht, Alan. 2007. ''Sound Art: Beyond Music, Between Categories'' (with accompanying compact disc recording). New York: Rizzoli International Publications. . *Peter Szendy. 2008. ''Listen: A History of Our Ears'', Fordham University Press *Brandon LaBelle. 2006. ''Background Noise: Perspectives on Sound Art'', London & New York: Continuum. .

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Noise Music Noise music is a genre of music that is characterised by the expressive use of noise. This type of music tends to challenge the distinction that is made in conventional musical practices between musical and non-musical sound. Noise music include ...

: A History''. New York: Continuum International Publishing Group. (hardcover) (pbk) * *Keylin, Vadim. 2023. ''Participatory Sound Art: Technologies, Aesthetics, Politics''. Singapore: Palgrave Macmillan. *Kim-Cohen, Seth. 2009. ''In the Blink of an Ear: Toward a Non-Cochlear Sonic Art''. New York: Continuum. *LaBelle, Brandon. 2006. ''Background Noise: Perspectives on Sound Art''. New York and London: The Continuum International Publishing Group. (cloth) (pbk) *Licht, Alan. 2019. ''Sound Art Revisited''. London: Bloomsbury. *Lander, Dan, and Micah Lexier (eds.). 1990. ''Sound by Artists''. Toronto: Art Metropole/Walter Phillips Gallery. * Lucier, Alvin, and Douglas Simon. 1980. ''Chambers''. Middletown, Connecticut: Wesleyan University Press. . * Nechvatal, Joseph. 2000. "Towards a Sound Ecstatic Electronica".
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*Peer, René van. 1993. ''Interviews with Sound Artists''. Eindhoven: Het Apollohuis. *Rogers, Holly. 2013. ''Sounding the Gallery: Video and the Rise of Art-Music''. Oxford: Oxford University Press. * Schaefer, Janek, Bryan Biggs, Christoph Cox, and Sara-Jayne Parsons. 2012. "Janek Schaefer: Sound Art: A Retrospective". Liverpool: The Bluecoat. . *Schafer, R. Murray. 1977. ''The Soundscape''. Rochester, Vermont: Destiny Books. *Schulz, Berndt (ed.). 2002. ''Resonanzen: Aspekte der Klangkunst''. Heidelberg: Kehrer. . (Parallel text in German and English) *Skene, Cameron. 2007.
Sonic Boom
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Sonics in the Wildernesses – A Justification
" ''The Brooklyn Rail'' (April) * Wishart, Trevor. 1996. ''On Sonic Art'', new and revised edition, edited by Simon Emmerson (with accompanying compact disc recording). Contemporary Music Studies 12. Amsterdam: Harwood Academic Publishers. (cloth) (pbk.) (CD recording) {{DEFAULTSORT:Sound Art Contemporary art Visual music Digital art New media art Experimental music genres Audio works Cassette culture 1970s–1990s