Sound art

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Sound art is a new media art practice rooted in early 20th century experimentation. From the Western art historical tradition early examples include the Italian Futurist "Intonarumori" or noise machines created by Luigi Russolo, and subsequent experiments by Dadaists, Surrealists, the Situationist International, Fluxus, Happenings, and many other contemporary practitioners. Russolo stated in his 1913 essay, "The Art of Noise": "This musical evolution is paralleled by the mulitplication of machines" and indeed, as technology evolves--becoming increasingly available, mobile, and integrated throughout our lives, the world of sound art has also exploded into various forms, concerns, and approaches.

Though some sound artists are inspired by the history and practice of experimental or "avant garde" music it is important to note that works of sound art are not "music" for a variety of formal, conceptual, and political reasons, but simply put because the issues they are concerned with are not musical in nature.

Sound art enjoys a relation to physicality and "sculptural" or spatial concerns such as movement, mass, accumulation, and disintegration but significantly unlike sculpture, always exists in time. Like many genres of contemporary art, sound art is often very interdisciplinary. Common creative techniques include collage and cut-up, repetition, spatial manipulation, and signal processing.

Other artistic lineages from which sound art emerges are spoken word, avant garde poetry, and experimental theater. Well-known early practitioners include Hugo Ball, Tristan Tzara, and Henri-Martin Barzun of the Zurich-based Dada group, who in 1916 performed works of phonetic poetry or Poème Simulatane (simultaneous poems) at the Cabaret Voltaire. These illogical sound-based compositions emphasized acoustic rather than literal expression.

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[edit] Further reading

de la Motte, Helga; Leitner, Bernhard; and Schulz, Bernd (Editors) (2003). Resonances. ISBN 3-933257-86-7.
Jim Drobnick, Jim (Editor) (2004). Aural Cultures. ISBN 0-920397-80-8.