Sound

Whitechapel: Documents of Contemporary Art

by Caleb Kelly (Editor)

The "sonic turn" in recent art reflects a wider cultural awareness that sight no longer dominates our perception or understanding of contemporary reality. The background buzz of myriad mechanically reproduced sounds increasingly mediates our lives. Tuning into this incessant auditory stimulus, some of our most influential artists have investigated the corporeal, cultural, and political resonance of sound. In tandem with recent experimental music and technology, art has opened up to hitherto excluded dimensions of noise, silence, and the act of listening. Artists working with sound have engaged in new forms of aesthetic encounter with the city and nature, the everyday and cultural otherness, technological effects and psychological states. New perspectives on sound have generated a wave of scholarship in musicology, cultural studies, and the social sciences. But the equally important rise of sound in the arts since 1960 has so far been sparsely documented. This volume is the first sourcebook to provide, through original critical writings and artists' statements, a genealogy of sonic pathways into the arts, philosophical reflections on the meanings of noise and silence, dialogues between art and music, investigations of the role of listening and acoustic space, and a comprehensive survey of sound works by international artists from the avant-garde era to the present.

Genres: Art, Music, Art History

240 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2011

Reviews

[Terence · Rating 2 out of 5]

Every other selection mentioned John Cage, very little new here. Great for people new to sound. But it could really use a CD or DVD component, kind of weird to read about audio projects.

[Melissa Jason · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book completely blew my mind. I thought I knew what “sound art” meant before reading Caleb Kelly, but I didn’t. Sound is part art history, part philosophy, part cultural study and somehow, it all flows beautifully. Kelly’s research is meticulous. He doesn’t just catalog artists; he contextualizes them. You start to see sound not as a backdrop but as a living, breathing entity that interacts with our politics, psychology, and even our sense of self. The way he discusses silence as something as powerful as noise really stayed with me. I’d recommend this to anyone interested in modern art, experimental music, or the way technology shapes perception.

[Pembroke · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tacit assimilation

[yuefei]

Skimmed through for FMP. Like with Ruins there’s a lot of good stuff I’d love to come back to when I have more time. Loved the Michael Snow interview.

[Kim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice anthology of research, thoughts, artworks and installation relating to sound and sound art practice. Scratches the surface and generally doesn't get too deep into the field but it's a good read for an overview / revisiting of various approaches to sound and art.

[Mills College Library]

709.0407 S7241 2011