Sound Art Revisited

by Alan Licht

The first edition of Sound Art Revisited (published as Sound Art: Beyond Music, Between Categories) served as a groundbreaking work toward defining this emerging field, and this fully updated volume significantly expands the story to include current research since the book's initial release. Viewed through a lens of music and art histories rather than philosophical theory, it covers dozens of artists and works not found in any other book on the subject.

Locating sound art's roots across the centuries from spatialized church music to the technological developments of radio, sound recording, and the telephone, the book traces the evolution of sound installations and sound sculpture, the rise of sound art exhibitions and galleries, and finally looks at the critical cross-pollination that marks some of the most important and challenging art with and about sound being produced today.

Genres: Nonfiction, Art, Music

ebook

Published August 1, 2019

Reviews

[Matthew Butler · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the more lucid and pragmatic books on the topic that clearly delineates boundaries between the terms "sonic art", "sound art", "audio art". Quite enjoyable for its technically wonky perspectives on the field. After reading too much theory on the subject, it's refreshing to read about how artists engage with the AV equipment and recording media. This revised edition, in particular, is also a pleasure for the sheer amount of artwork cataloged. Rather than deep dive on a few important pieces, Sound Art Revisited enumerates hundreds of pieces and clusters them around meaningful categories such as "Sound in the Art World". It seems obvious to discuss how visual artists use sound in their work but this book addresses it earnestly and historically. The lack of philosophizing about abstractions such as "Silence" and "Listening" also brought a real clarity to the material. Like every book on sound art, it does lean heavily on 4'33" and I Am Sitting In A Room to tell its story, but that only illustrates the relationship sound art has with the space containing it.

"It would be admittedly easy, on first glance, to draw parallels between the ambient chill out room and the sound installation in a gallery, and environmental sound as a source and model for both ambient and sound art. Both the ambient chill out room and sound art installation can be a respite from the urban environment, as an atrium would--the sounds are often meant to approximate natural settings. But ambient was meant to decorate a room, not to map it; it was perhaps a commercialization of some of sound art's qualities, rather than an extension or mirror of them."

[Nichol · Rating 3 out of 5]

I feel like this is a great resource book for discovering sound artists rather than an in-depth analysis as to what sound art is, which is what I believe the point of the book to be.
With all of the artists listed, the author ties in relevant information to sound art and the artist's background information as needed, but never delves too far into one artist. I think this is fine, it gives way for many examples as to what "sound art" can be considered.
I use quotations on sound art as I like the ending being somewhat open ended to the term in general, as it's still growing even in the 21st century.

I give 3 stars rather than 4 as I cannot give a 3.5. I believe it was well made a good resource for students looking for sound art inspirations, but felt disappointed in the lack of extended analysis into what the art form can and could be.

[Francisco Taborda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Introductory questions and facts on sound/sonic arts. Licht goes through many sound works, perhaps without much depth. Clearly it's not his purpose. Still this is a necessary book for the sound studies bibliography.