Sound art

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sound art, Klangkunst, sound installation, Klanginstallation, sound-space-art, sound sculpture, Klangskulptur, sound walk, sonic art, musicalization of sound, sound in the arts, audio art, Audiokunst, sound in art

Artists, events, initiatives

Compilations

  • Sound Sculptures, Wergo, 1985, 2-LP. Curated by Klaus Hinrich Stahmer.
  • From The Pages Of Experimental Musical Instruments series, 8 volumes, Experimental Musical Instruments, 1986-1993. Cassettes. Curated by Bart Hopkins.
  • Tellus 24: FluxTellus, 1990. Cassette.

See also the sections Magazines, Catalogues and Monographs below.

Journals and Magazines

  • Sound Image: A Magazine of Aural and Visual Arts, 3 vols., Deerfield, MA: Sound Image Inc., 1975-77. LP-magazine. Published by Jim Metzner. Volume 1, [1].
  • The Wire, London, since 1982.
  • Essays in Sound, eds. Shaun Davies, Annemarie Jonson, et al., Newtown, NSW: Contemporary Sound Arts, 1992; 1995; 1996; 1999.
  • Sound Arts: Xebec SoundCulture Membership Magazine, Kobe: Xebec Corporation, 1994-1998.
  • Acoustic Space, eds. Rasa Šmite, Raitis Šmits, et al., Riga: E-Lab and Xchange Network, quasi-annually since 1998. [2] [3] (English)/(Latvian)
  • Hz, ed. Sachiko Hayashi, Stockholm: Fylkingen, since 2000. Online open-access journal. [4]
  • China: the Sonic Avant-Garde, 2 issues, 2005-2006. (Chinese)
  • Field Notes, eds. Daniel Knef and Lasse-Marc Riek, Hanau: Gruenrekorder, 2008 ff. (English)/(German)
  • Writing Around Sound, 3+ issues, since 2015. Print journal that engages with audio culture and sonic art in New Zealand.
  • Disclaimer, Melbourne: Liquid Architecture, since 2019.
  • Grapefruits: A Fanzine on Female* Composers and Sound Artists, 4+ issues, Düsseldorf: Institute for Music and Media--RSH Düsseldorf, since 2019. Review: Neural. [5]
  • Resonance: The Journal of Sound and Culture, eds. Jay Needham and Phylis West Johnson, University of California Press, since 2020.
The Record as Artwork: From Futurism to Conceptual Art, 1977, Log, PDF.
A Sound Selection: Audio Works by Artists, 1980, Log, PDF.
Für Augen und Ohren: von der Spieluhr zum akustischen Environment, 1980, Log, PDF.
Broken Music: Artists' Recordworks, 1989, Log, PDF (DE, EN, FR).
Ars Electronica: Der freie Klang, 1987. PDFs (DE).
Heidi Grundmann (ed.), Zeitgleich, 1994, HTML (EN/DE).
Klangkunst, 1996, Log, PDF, Documentary. (DE)
Noises and Whispers in Avant-Gardes: Early Sound Art Works, 1909-1945, 2004. PDF, MP3s.
Miguel Molina Alarcón, Baku: Symphony of Sirens: Sound Experiments in The Russian Avant-Garde, 2008.

Catalogues

  • For Eyes & Ears, ed. Nicolas Calas, New York: Cordier & Ekstrom, 1964, [4] pp. Exh. held at Cordier & Ekstrom Gallery; 3-25 Jan 1964. Exh. reviews: NYT, NYT. [6]
  • Sound, Light, Silence: Art That Performs, ed. Ralph T. Coe, Kansas City, MO: The Nelson Gallery, 1966, [32] pp. Exh. held at Nelson Gallery/Atkins Museum; 4 Nov-4 Dec 1966. [7] [8]
  • Sound, ed. & intro. Ray Pierotti, New York: Museum of Contemporary Crafts, 1969, [6] pp. Exh. held 25 Oct 1969-4 Jan 1970.
  • Hören, sehen. Texte, Bilder, Environment, Bremen: Kunsthalle Bremen, 1972, 24 pp. Exh. held 6 May-11 Jun 1972. (German)
  • Sehen um zu hören. Objekte und Konzerte zur visuellen Musik der 60er Jahre, ed. Inge Baecker, Düsseldorf: Städtische Kunsthalle Düsseldorf, 1975, 75 pp. Exh. held 17-26 Oct 1975. [11] [12] (German)
  • Sounds: 4 Lainoc: Sound/Environments by 4 Artists, ed. Betty Turnbull, Newport Beach, CA: Newport Harbor Art Museum, 1975. Exh. held 8 Dec 1975-11 Jan 1976.
  • 6° Internationaal Mixed-Media Festival 1976, Ghent: Stichting Logos, 1976. Held at Koninklijke Academie voor Schone Kunsten, Ghent; 26-29 Jan 1976.
  • Bild. Raum. Klang. 11 internationale Künstler, ed. T. Deecke, Bonn-Bad Godesberg: Deutschen Akademischen Austauschdienst, 1976, [52] pp. Exh. held at Wissenschaftszentrum, Bonn-Bad Godesberg; 12 Nov-15 Dec 1976. [13]
  • VIIe Internationaal Mixed-Media Festival 1977, Ghent: Stichting Logos, 1977. Held at Museum voor Hedendaagse Kunst, Ghent; 21 Feb-3 Mar 1977.
  • VIIIe Internationaal Mixed-Media Festival 1978, Ghent: Stichting Logos, 1978. Held at Oranjehuis, Antwerp; 5-12 Feb 1978.
  • Audio Art, Luzern: Apropos, 1978, [21] pp. Text by Richard Kostelanetz. Exh. held at Apropos, Luzern/CH, Mar-Apr 1978. (English)/(German)
  • Sound: An Exhibition of Sound Sculpture, Instrument Building and Acoustically Tuned Spaces, Pasadena, CA: Los Angeles Institute of Contemporary Art, 1979, 68 pp. With 12" LP containing 26 tracks [14]. Large-scale exhibition curated by Robert Smith and Robert Wilhite; held at Los Angeles Institute of Contemporary Art, 14 Jul-31 Aug 1979; and in a vastly expanded version at Project Studios 1 (Institute for Art and Urban Resources, today's MoMA PS1), New York, 30 Sep-18 Nov 1979. [15]
  • Für Augen und Ohren: von der Spieluhr zum akustischen Environment. Objekte, Installationen, Performances, eds. René Block, Lorenz Dombois, Nele Hertling and Barbara Volkmann, Berlin: Akademie der Künste, 1980, 312 pp. Catalogue for a large-scale exhibition held at the Akademie der Künste, 20 Jan-2 Mar 1980; curated by Nele Hertling and René Block. Essays by Dieter Krickeberg, Siegfried Wendel, Wolf D. Kuehnelt, Juan Allende-Blin, Billy Klüver, René Block; chronology by Helmut Danninger. Documentary. Radio report. (German)
    • Écouter par les yeux: Objets et environnements sonores, Paris: Musée d'art moderne de la Ville de Paris, with Berlin: Akademie der Künste, 1980, 144 pp. Catalogue for an exhibition held on 18 June-24 August 1980 at Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris. Essays by Suzanne Pagé, Franck Popper, René Block. Works by L. Anderson, Ben, Beuys, Cage, Filiou, Kienholz, Kounellis, Ray, B. Lavier, D. Oppenheim, Paik, Sarkis, Satie, Takis, Vostell, Watts. [16] (French)
  • Soundings, ed. Suzanne Delehanty, Purchase, NY: Neuberger Museum/State University of New York, 1981, 96 pp. Exh. held 20 Sep-23 Dec 1981. Essays by Suzanne Delehanty, Dore Ashton, Germano Celant and Lucy Fischer.
  • Sonorità prospettiche: suono, ambiente, immagine / Perspectival Sonorities: Sound, Environment, Image, ed. Franco Masotti, Rimini: Il Comune editions, 1982, 183 pp. Catalogue for an exhibition dedicated to Athanasius Kircher, curated by Franco Masotti and held on 30 January-15 March 1982 in Rimini. Exhibition review. (Italian)/(English) Introduction also in (German).
  • Audio, ed. Peter R. Meyer, Stockholm: Moderna Museet, 1983, [49] pp. Exh. held 12 Mar-10 Apr 1983. (Swedish),(English)
  • Vito Acconci, William Hellermann, Don Goddard, Sound/Art, New York: The Foundation, 1984, 29 pp. With an essay by Don Goddard. Exhibition curated by William Hellermann and held simultaneously at SculptureCenter’s former location on East 69th Street in Manhattan and the Brooklyn Arts and Cultural Association (now Brooklyn Arts Council). [17]
  • Vom Klang der Bilder: Die Musik in der Kunst des 20. Jahrhunderts, ed. Karin von Maur, Munich: Prestel, 1985. For an exhibition held at Staatsgalerie, Stuttgart. (German)
  • ECHO: The Images of Sound, ed. Paul Panhuysen, Eindoven: Het Apollohuis, 1986, 144 pp. [18]
  • Sound Re Visited: An Anthology Concerning Sound in Art / Geluid Her Zien: Een Anthologie Over Geluid in Kunst, Amsterdam: VOID, 1987, 48+51 pp. Exhibition catalogue published in conjunction with "Sound 'Re' Visited," a festival on sound in the visual arts, held in nine Amsterdam venues, 7-29 April 1987. Texts by Ursula Block, Germano Celant, Hetty Huisman, Harry Ruhé, William Furlong, Gerald Lindahl and Louwrien Wijers. [19] (English)/(Dutch)
  • ECHO. The Images Of Sound II, Eindhoven: Het Apollohuis, 1987. CD with 38-page booklet. Festival held in Eindhoven, 1 May-14 Jun 1987. Excerpts from CD. [20] [21]
  • Extended Play, eds. Ursula Block and Christian Marclay, New York: Emily Harvey Gallery, 1988, [53] pp. With an audio disc (33 1/3 rpm). Exh. held 12 Feb-12 Mar 1988.
  • Broken Music: Artists' Recordworks, eds. Ursula Block and Michael Glasmeier, Berlin: Berliner Künstlerprogramm des DAAD & gelbe Musik Berlin, 1989, 278 pp; repr., facs., New York: Primary Information, 2018. Exh. held at daadgalerie Berlin (18 Dec 1988-12 Feb 1989), Magasin Grenoble (30 Sep-26 Nov 1989), 8th Biennale of Sydney (12 May-9 Jun 1990), and Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal (4 Nov 1990-10 Feb 1991). Writings by Block, Adorno, Moholy-Nagy, Dubuffet, a.o. A nearly 200-page bibliography of artists' records. Publisher. (German),(English),(French)
  • Moments Sonores (Oto no aru Bijutsu) [Fine Art Having Sound], Tochigi: Tochigi Prefectural Museum of Fine Arts, 1989. Exh. held 13 Aug-2 Sep 1989. (Japanese)
  • d.i.s.c.o.t.h.è.q.u.e. … Expériences Sonores d’Artistes, 1989. Exhibition curated by Mauricio Nanucci and Blandine Bardonnet at Maison du Livre, de l’Image et du Son, Villeurbanne, France, Oct–Nov 1989. [22] [23]
  • Klangkunst, ed. Akademie der Künste Berlin, Munich: Prestel, 1996, 303 pp. Sonambiente festival held in Berlin, 9 Aug-8 Sep 1996. Documentary (50 min), [25]. (German)
  • singuhr — hoergalerie in parochial: Klangkunst — Ausstellungen 1996-1998, eds. Susanne Binas and Carsten Seiffarth, Saarbrücken: PFAU, 1998, 120 pp. [26] (German)
  • The American Century: Art & Culture 1950-2000, ed. Lisa Phillips, New York: The Whitney Museum, with W.W. Norton, 1999, 398 pp. The exhibition included I Am Sitting in a Room: Sound Works by American Artists 1950-2000 programme curated by Stephen Vitiello, 11-16 Jan 2000. [27], [28], Review of the programme, Interview with the curator.
  • Sound Art - Sound as Media, eds. Minoru Hatanaka and Takeo Nozaki, Tokyo: NTT, 2000, 80 pp. With CD. Exhibition held at NTT [ICC], Tokyo, 28 Jan-12 Mar 2000. Texts by Minoru Hatanaka and Rob Young. [29]
    • サウンド・アート - 音というメディア, 2000. [30] (Japanese)
  • Sonic Boom: The Art of Sound, London: Hayward Gallery, 2000, 128 pp. With 2-CD. Large-scale exhibition curated by David Toop; held 27 Apr-18 Jun 2000. CD, [31] [32].
  • Volume: Bed of Sound, New York: P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center, 2000. "CD-catalog", with liner notes by Max Neuhaus. Exhibition curated by Elliot Sharp and Alanna Heiss; held 2 Jul-19 Nov 2000. [33] [34] [35]
  • Resonanzen/Resonances. Aspekte der Klangkunst/Aspects of Sound Art, ed. Bernd Schulz, Heidelberg: Kehrer, 2002, 174 pp. With CD. Exhibitions held at Stadtgalerie Saarbrücken; 6 Jun-25 Aug and 15 Sep-24 Nov 2002. Essays on sound art and documentation of works by Bosshard, de Marinis, Julius, Kubisch, Leitner, Oldorp, Osborn, Riches, Roden, Stache, Yui. Schulz: "Sound art is an art form [..] in which sound has become material within the context of an expanded concept of sculpture [..] for the most part works that are space-shaping and space-claiming in nature" (14). (English)/(German)
  • Sonic Process: une nouvelle géographie des sons, Paris: Centre Georges Pompidou, 2002, 309 pp. Exh. held 16 Oct 2002-6 Jan 2003 at Centre Pompidou, Paris, and 18 Mar-21 May 2003 at Podewil, Berlin. Essay by Van Assche. Exh. booklet. Exh. review: Sterken (NL). Commentary: Fryberger. (French)
  • Sons & lumières: une histoire du son dans l'art du XXe siècle, ed. Sophie Duplaix, Paris: Centre Georges Pompidou, 2004, 375 pp. [36] [37] (French)
  • Sonambiente Berlin 2006: Klang Kunst Sound Art, eds. Helga de la Motte-Haber, Matthias Osterwold and Georg Weckwerth, Heidelberg: Kehrer, with Berlin: Akademie der Künste, 2006, 408 pp. Texts by Helga de la Motte-Haber, Christian Scheib, Gerhard Rühm, Christoph Cox, Claudia Tittel, Rolf Langebartels, Uwe Rüth, Sabine Sanio, Marion Saxer, Sabine Breitsameter, Akio Suzuki, Andres Bosshard, Khaled Saleh, Detlev Ipsen, Gordon Monahan, Julie H. Reiss, Raimar Stange, Lutz Fahrenkrog-Petersen, Rolf Großmann, Nicolas Collins, Jörg Stelkens, Paul B. Davis, Sven König, Golo Föllmer, Gerhard Eckel, Stefan Weinzierl + Kees Tazelaar, Christopher Frauenberger, Frieder Butzmann, Markus Bodden, Nele Hertling. [38] [39] (German)/(English)
  • LARM: Från munhåla till laptop: ljud i nordisk konst / From Mouth Cavity to Laptop: The Sound of Nordic Art, eds. Maria Bjurestam, Maria Hägglund, Mona Petersson, and Liv Strand, Kabusa, 2007, 27 pp. With 2 CDs. Texts by Maja Ratkje, Stine Hebert, Catharina Dyrssen, Natasha Barrett, Yvonne Spielmann, Thomas Millroth, Adina Popescu, Zeenath Hasan, Søssa Jørgensen, Yngvild Færøy, Grethe Melby, Johanna Gustafsson, Anne Hilde Neset, Nina Björk Eliasson, Pauline Oliveros, Maria Bjurestam, Bodil Persson, Ina Blom, Kristin Björk Kristjansdottir, Thor Magnusson, Karl Holmqvist, Mika Hannula, Meena Kaunisto, Elisabet Indra Ragnarsdottir, Liv Strand. [40] [41] [42] (Swedish)/(English)
  • Miguel Molina Alarcón, Baku: Symphony of Sirens: Sound Experiments in The Russian Avant-Garde. Original Documents and Reconstructions of 72 Key Works of Music, Poetry and Agitprop from the Russian Avantgardes (1908-1942), London: ReR Megacorp, 2008, 72 pp. With 2-CD. [43]
  • Jøran Rudi (ed.), Absorpsjon og resonans – lyd og mening / Absorption and Resonance: Sound and Meaning, Oslo: NOTAM, 2008, 168 pp. Texts by Katharine Norman, Leigh Landy, Jøran Rudi, Aeron Bergman and Steinar Sekkingstad. Rudi's essay. Exh. held at held at Henie Onstad Arts Center. (Norwegian)/(English)
  • The Art of Listening, Seoul: Arts Council Korea, 2008. With DVD. [44] (English)/(Korean)
  • singuhr - hoergalerie in parochial 1996-2006: sound art in berlin, eds. Carsten Seiffarth and Markus Steffens, Heidelberg: Kehrer, 2010, 296 pp. With DVD (74 audio tracks). [45] [46] (German)/(English)
  • Andrey Smirnov, Liubov Pchelkina, Pokolenie Z [ПОКОЛЕНИЕ Z], St. Petersburg: PRO ARTE Foundation, 2010, 20 pp. Booklet-newspaper of the Generation Z exhibition. (Russian)
  • A House Full of Music: Strategies in Music and Art, eds. Ralf Beil, Peter Kraut and Institut Mathildenhöhe Darmstadt, Hatje Cantz, 2012, 416 pp. With CD. Catalogue for an exhibition curated by Ralf Beil, Mathildenhöhe Museum, Darmstadt, 13 May-9 September 2012. Texts by Ralf Beil, Stefan Fricke, Peter Kraut, Thomas Schäfer and others. [48] [49]
    • Kunst zum Hören: A House Full of Music: Strategien in Musik und Kunst, 2012, 52 p. Parallel edition in German. (German)
  • Sound Art. Klang als Medium der Kunst, ed. Julia Gerlach, Karlsruhe: ZKM, 2012, 44 pp. Exhibition curated by Peter Weibel; held at ZKM, 17 Mar 2012-6 Jan 2013. (German)
  • Records by Artists: 1958-1990, ed. Giorgio Maffei, Perugia: Viaindustriae Edizioni, and Ravenna: Danilo Montanari Editore, 2013. Exhibition curated by Giorgio Maffei; held at Biblioteca Universitaria, Bologna, Sep-Oct 2013. A selection of 130 artists records chosen among Maffei’s personal collection. [50] [51]
  • Sünkroonist väljas. Helikunstist vaatega minevikku / Out of Sync. Looking Back at the History of Sound Art, eds. Ragne Nukk and Kati Ilves, Tallinn: Kumu Art Museum, 2013, 128 pp. On the developments in Estonian sound art from the 1960s to the present day. Exh. held 27 Sep 2013-12 Jan 2014. [52] (Estonian)/(English)
  • Art or Sound, ed. & intro. Germano Celant, Milan: Progetto Prada Arte, 2014, 520 pp. Excerpt. Exh. held at Fondazione Prada, Venice, 7 Jun-3 Nov 2014. [53] [54] (English),(Italian)
  • singuhr — hoergalerie 2007-2014: sound installation art in berlin, eds. Carsten Seiffarth und Markus Steffens, Heidelberg: Kehrer, 2016, 272 pp. With DVD (34 audio tracks). [55] [56] (German)/(English)
  • Soundtracks, forew. Neal Benezra, intro. Rudolf Frieling and Tanya Zimbardo, ed. Jennifer Knox White, San Francisco: San Francisco Museum of Art, 2017. Digital catalogue; with contributions by Dena Beard, Chris Downey, Rudolf Frieling, Brandon LaBelle, Frank Smigiel, and Tanya Zimbardo. Exh. curated by Rudolf Frieling and Tanya Zimbardo; held 15 Jul 2017-1 Jan 2018.
  • Escuchar con los ojos. Arte sonoro en España, 1961-2016, Madrid: Fundación Juan March, 2016. Book + MP3. Exhibition held at Museo de Arte Abstracto Español, Cuenca, 16 Jun-18 Sep 2016; Museu Fundación Juan March, Palma, 10 Feb-21 May 2016; Fundación Juan March, Madrid, 14 Oct 2016-15 Jan 2017. Curated by Manuel Fontán del Junco, José Iges and José Luis Maire. (Spanish)
  • Sounds Remote, 2 vols., eds. Kirsty Collander-Brown, Maria Papadomanolaki, Dawn Scarfe, and Grant Smith, Devon: Uniformbooks, and London: SoundCamp, 2016, 28+28 pp. An inventory and reader of the sounds, sites and streams assembled for the Soundcamp/Reveil radio broadcast on 2 to 3 May 2015. [57] [58]
  • zwischen grenzen: klangräume in mexiko und deutschland / entre límites: espacios sonoros en méxico y alemania / sound spaces in mexico & germany: 2015-2017, eds. Carsten Seiffarth and Markus Steffens, Berlin: Singuhr Editions, 2018, 80 pp. (German)/(Spanish)/(English)
  • Unplugged, ed. David Korecký, Prague: Galerie Rudolfinum, 2020, 24 pp. Exhibition. Publisher. (English)
  • Místa chvění. Zvuk jako médium, eds. Jakub Frank and Anežka Chalupová, Humpolec: 8smička, 2023, 171 pp. Exhibition. Exh. review: Dolanová (Artalk.cz). [59] (Czech)
  • Atmosphere of Sound: Sonic Art in Times of Climate Disruption, eds. Victoria Vesna and Anuradha Vikram, Los Angeles: UCLA Art Sci Center, Sep 2024, 250 pp. With essays by Victoria Vesna, Anuradha Vikram, Ivana Dama, Aisen Caro Chacin, Carlo Ventura, Stephanie Loveless, Lena Ortega Atristain, and María Antonia González Valerio and a round table with scientific and artistic researchers. TOC. Multi-exhibition program (Sep 2024-Jun 2025). Project website.
Further exhibitions, without catalogue
  • Sound Sculpture As, Museum of Conceptual Art, San Francisco, 30 Apr 1970. Curated by Tom Marioni. [60]
  • Sound as Visual / Visual as Sound, Vehicule, Montreal, Mar 1973; Wayne State College, Detroit, Jun 1973.
  • Audio Works, Artists Space, New York, 21 Jan-18 Feb 1978.
  • Künstlerschallplatten, Gelbe Musik, Berlin, 1 Feb-15 Mar 1983. Curated by Ursula Block.
  • Künstlerschallplatten gelbe Musik, Galerie Vorsetzen, Hamburg, 14 Mar-4 Apr 1987. Curated by Ursula Block.

See also SAET: Sound Art Exhibitions Timeline compiled by Jérôme Joy and Thom Holmes (former version) and an overview of group exhibitions of sound art from 1964-2012 in Maes 2013.

John Grayson (ed.), Sound Sculpture, 1975. PDF.
Dan Lander, Micah Lexier (eds.), Sound by Artists, 1990, Log, PDF.

Anthologies

  • Sound Re Visited: An Anthology Concerning Sound in Art, 1987. Catalogue. (see above)
  • Sound by Artists, eds. Dan Lander and Micah Lexier, Toronto: Art Metropole, and Banff, Alberta: Walter Phillips Gallery, 1990, 385 pp; facs.repr., Blackwood Gallery and Charivari Press, 2013, 372 pp. Essays on sound art by writers and artists including Bruce Barber, John Cage, Ihor Holubizky, Douglas Kahn, Christina Kubisch, Annea Lockwood, Alvin Lucier, Christian Marclay, Ian Murray, Rita McKeough, Max Neuhaus, and many others. [66] [67]
  • Caleb Kelly (ed.), Sound, London: Whitechapel Gallery, with MIT Press, 2011, 239 pp. "This anthology argues for sound's importance within contemporary art itself. In doing so it [does] not focus primarily on ‘sound art’ – although it includes all the relevant discussions of this term. Rather, the focus is on ‘listening’ to the visual arts." (15)

Book series

  • Sound Studies, Bloomsbury.
  • Critical Ear, Errant Bodies. Series of monographs featuring contemporary artists working with sound, experimental music and electronic media.
  • Errant Bodies: Anthologies. Publications exploring themes related to sound art, performance, radio and spatial practices.
Trevor Wishart, On Sonic Art, 1985/1996. Download.
Douglas Kahn, Noise, Water, Meat: A History of Sound in the Arts, 1999. Download.
Allen S. Weiss (ed.), Experimental Sound & Radio, 2000. Download.
Seth Kim-Cohen, In the Blink of an Ear: Toward a Non-Cochlear Sonic Art, 2009. Download.
Salomé Voegelin, Listening to Noise and Silence, 2010. Download.

Monographs, Edited books

  • Peter Chamberlain, An Investigation of Sound/sculpture Relationships, New York: State University College, 1976, 134 pp. [68]
  • Trevor Wishart, On Sonic Art, Harwood Academic Publishers, 1985; 2nd ed., ed. Simon Emmerson, Routledge, 1996, 357 pp. "[S]onic art includes music and electroacoustic music. At the same time [..] it cross[es] over into areas which have been categorised distinctly as text-sound and as sound-effects. [..] I have chosen the title On Sonic Art to encompass the arts of organising sound-events in time. This, however, is merely a convenient fiction for those who cannot bear to see the use of the word 'music' extended. For me, all these areas fall within the category I call 'music'." (4)
  • Helga de la Motte-Haber, Musik und Bildende Kunst. Von der Tonmalerei zur Klangskulptur, Laaber: Laaber-Verlag, 1990.
  • René van Peer, Interviews with Sound Artists: Taking Part in the Festival ECHO, The Images of Sound II, Eindoven: Het Apollohuis, 1993, 149 pp. Interviews with Joe Jones, Richard Lerman, Jean Weinfeld, Martin Riches, Takehisa Kosugi, Horst Rickels, Johan Goedhart, Terry Fox, Christina Kubisch, Jim Pomeroy, Walter Fähnrich, Yoshi Wada, Paul Panhuysen. Most interviews took place in 1987. [69]
  • Achim Wollscheid, The Terrorized Term, Frankfurt/M: Selektion, 1996, 167 pp. [70] [71]
  • Ulrike Roos, Markus Müller (eds.), Jahresring 45 / Jahrbuch für moderne Kunst: Make it Funky. Crossover zwischen Musik, Pop, Avantgarde und Kunst, Cologne: Oktagon, 1998, 355 pp. [72] (German)
  • Douglas Kahn, Noise, Water, Meat: A History of Sound in the Arts, MIT Press, 1999, 455 pp. Sparked by Dan Lander's idea of "musicalization of sound" presented in the volume Sound by Artists. ([73]; 363-4, n22). "By sound I mean sounds, voices, and aurality--all that might fall within or touch on auditive phenomena, whether this involves actual sonic or auditive events or ideas about sound or listening; sounds actually heard or heard in myth, idea, or implication; sounds heard by everyone or imagined by one person alone; or sounds as they fuse with the sensorium as a whole" (3).
  • Helga de la Motte-Haber (ed.), Klangkunst: Tönende Objekte und klingende Räume, Laaber: Laaber-Verlag, 1999, 352 pp. Review, Review. (German)
  • Brandon LaBelle, Steve Roden (eds.), Site of Sound: Of Architecture and the Ear, Los Angeles: Errant Bodies/Smart Art, 1999, 178 pp. With CD. [74]
  • Karin von Maur, The Sound of Painting: Music in Modern Art, Prestel, 1999, 128 pp.
  • Teddy Hultberg, SoundArt: Swedish Contemporary Sound Artists, Stockholm: STIM / Svensk Musik, Sep 2001, 143 pp. With 2 CDs. [75] (English)
  • Thomas Millroth, et al. (eds.), Look at the Music / SeeSound: Antologi, Ystad: Ystads konstmuseum, Brösarp: Neon Gallery, and Roskilde: Museet for Samtidskunst, 2002, 120 pp. With 2 CDs. (Danish),(Swedish)
    • Look at the Music/SeeSound: A Sound Art Anthology, Ystad: Ystad Art Museum, Brösarp: Neon Gallery, and Roskilde: Museum of Contemporary Art, 2002, 120 pp. With 2 CDs. Excerpt (pp 1-38). (English)
  • Ken Ehrlich, Brandon LaBelle (eds.), Surface Tension: Problematics of Site, Los Angeles: Errant Bodies, 2003, 328 pp. With CD. Texts by Kim Abeles, Carol Brown, CopenhagenOffice, Octavio Camargo, Jeremiah Day/Concrete Steps, Dispute Resolution Services, Jennifer Gabrys, Jen Hofer/Melissa Dyne, Lucy R. Lippard, Colette Meacher, Christof Migone/Alexander St-Onge (undo), Laurie Palmer, Lize Mogel, Michael Rakowitz, Jane Rendell, Lizzie Scott, Atau Tanaka, and WochenKlausur. [76]
  • Jim Drobnick (ed.), Aural Cultures, Toronto: YYZ Books, Banff: Walter Philips Gallery Editions, 2004, 288 pp. With Audio CD. [77], Review.
  • Anne Thurmann-Jajes, Sabine Breitsameter, Winfried Pauleit (eds.), Sound Art: Zwischen Avantgarde und Popkultur / Sound Art: Between Avant-Garde and Pop Culture, Cologne: Salon, 2006, 239 pp. With Audio-CD. Documentation of the conference held on 30 September-2 October 2005 on the occasion of an exhibition, 21 August-27 November 2005, Neuen Museum Weserburg Bremen. Texts by Sabine Breitsameter, Winfried Pauleit, Anne Thurmann-Jajes, Barbara Barthelmes, Julia Kursell, Martin Maurach, Daniel Gethmann, Wolfgang Hagen, Peter Frank, Sten Hanson, Heidi Grundmann, Barbara Flückiger. [79] (German),(English)
  • Alan Licht, Sound Art: Beyond Music, Between Categories, New York: Rizzoli, 2007, 304 pp. With CD. Foreword by Jim O’Rourke. [80], CD, Review. "Sound art belongs in an exhibition situation rather than a performance situation. [It is non-narrative, and only] rarely attempts to create a portrait or capture the soul of a human being, or express something about the interaction of human beings—its main concern is sound as a phenomenon of nature and/or technology." (14)
  • Alexis Bhagat, Gregory Gangemi (eds.), Sound Generation, Brooklyn: Autonomedia, 2008; rev.ed., Brooklyn: Autonomedia, 2013. A collection of interviews with contemporary sound artists and composers.
  • Ulrich Tadday (ed.), Klangkunst, Munich: Richard Boorberg, 2008, 199 pp. Excerpt. Contributions by Helga de la Motte, Volker Straebel, Sabine Sanio, Uwe Rüth, Wolfgang Heiniger, Julia H. Schröder, Christoph Metzger, Bernd Schulz/Carsten Seiffarth, Claudia Tittel, and Marion Saxer. (German)
  • Seth Kim-Cohen, In the Blink of an Ear: Toward a Non-Cochlear Sonic Art, New York and London: Continuum, 2009, 296 pp. "If [Duchampian] non-retinal visual art is liberated to ask questions that the eye alone cannot answer, then a non-cochlear sonic art appeals to exigencies out of earshot. But the eye and the ear are not denied or discarded. A conceptual sonic art would necessarily engage both the non-cochlear and the cochlear, and the constituting trace of each in the other." (xxi)
  • Craig Dworkin, Unheard Music, information as material, 2010, 30 pp. A survey of almost one hundred compositions and performances of silent music.
  • Salomé Voegelin, Listening to Noise and Silence: Towards a Philosophy of Sound Art, Continuum, 2010, 256 pp. "[This text] is about sound art in that it focuses on sound as its 'object' of investigation; and it is philosophical in that it speculates and inquires into new ways to consider art, the world and our position within the production of art and the world through a sonic sensibility." (xiv)
  • Peter Kiefer (ed.), Klangräume der Kunst, Heidelberg: Kehrer, 2010. With Video-DVD. Review. (German)
  • Llorenç Barber, Montserrat Palacios, La mosca tras la oreja: de la música experimental al arte sonoro en España, Madrid: Autor, 2010. With 4-CD. [81] (Spanish)
  • Galen Joseph-Hunter, Penny Duff, Maria Papadomanolaki (eds.), Transmission Arts: Artists & Airwaves, PAJ Publications, with free103point9, 2011, 169 pp. Project website. Cover. [82] [83] [84]. Review: Barber (Leonardo).
  • Peter Price, Resonance: Philosophy for Sonic Art, New York: Atropos Press, 2011, 324 pp. Publisher.
  • Lars Mørch Finborud, Mot det totale museum; Henie Onstad kunstsenter og tidsbasert kunst 1961-2011, Oslo: Forlaget, 2012, 305 pp. Excerpt. [85] (Norwegian)
  • Joe Banks, Rorschach Audio – Art and Illusion for Sound, London: Disinformation, 2012, 192 pp. Project website. Interview. [86] [87]
    • Τζό Μπανκς, Rorschach Audio, trans. Γιώργος Καναβός, Athens: Topovoros, 2022, 224 pp. Publisher. (Greek)
  • Thomas Gardner, Salomé Voegelin (eds.), Colloquium: Sound Art and Music, Winchester, WA: Zero Books, 2016, 217 pp. Based on a 2012 colloquium at University of the Arts London. [89]
  • Yael Kaduri (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Sound and Image in Western Art, Oxford University Press, 2016, 552 pp. Publisher.
  • Marcel Cobussen, Vincent Meelberg, Barry Truax (eds.), The Routledge Companion to Sounding Art, Routledge, 2017, 482 pp. Publisher.
  • Esther Venrooy, Sounding Things Out: A Journey through Music and Sound Art, Eindhoven: Onomatopee, 2018, 144 pp. Publisher.
  • Jørgen Larsson, Håndbok for lydarbeid i visningsrom, eds. Sissel Lillebostad and Bjørnar Habbestad, Bergen: Lydgalleriet, 2018, 200 pp. Author. Publisher. (Norwegian)
  • Peter Weibel (ed.), Sound Art: Sound as a Medium of Art, MIT Press, 2019, 744 pp. Publisher.
  • Caterina Tomeo (ed.), Sonic Arts. Tra esperienza percettiva e ascolto attivo, Rome: Castelvecchi, 2019, 176 pp. Publisher. (Italian)
  • Cathy Lane, Angus Carlyle, Sound Arts Now, Uniformbooks, 2021, 240 pp. Features 20 interviews. Excerpt. [90]
  • Jane Grant, John Matthias, David Prior (eds.), Oxford Handbook of Sound Art, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2021, 632 pp. Publisher.
  • Raoul Mörchen, Carsten Seiffarth (eds.), Listening / Hearing, Mainz: Schott Music, 2021, 344 pp. Publisher. (German)
  • Elena Biserna (ed.), Going Out: Walking, Listening, Soundmaking, Dijon: Les presses du réel, and umland, 2022, 580 pp. Publisher.
  • Katsushi Nakagawa (中川克志), サウンド・アートとは何か: 音と耳に関わる現代アートの四つの系譜 [What is Sound Art?: Four genealogies of Sound in the Arts], Nakanishiya, 2023, 286 pp. First comprehensive description of the term and the genre of sound art in Japanese. Publisher. (Japanese)
Kunstjournalen B-post: "Sound / Lyd", 2012. View online (EN/NO).

Journal issues

Essays (selection)

Theses

List discussions

Athanasius Kircher, Phonurgia nova, 1673. View online.
John Cage, Silence, 1961. Download.
Pierre Schaeffer, Traité des objets musicaux, 1966. Contains "Acousmatics" (EN).

Film documentaries

Primary references

  • Athanasius Kircher, Phonurgia nova, sive conjugium mechanico-physicum artis & natvrae paranympha phonosophia concinnatum, Kempten: Rudolph Dreherr, 1673. (Latin). Early book on sound, acoustics and music; describes acoustic apparatuses and phenomena such as the tuba stentorophonica [the loud trumpet], the statua citofonica [the talking statue], or the Aeolian harp. Scans online: [119], [120]. Commentaries: [121], [122].
  • Luigi Russolo, L’Arte dei rumori, Milan: Edizione Futuriste di Poesia, 1916, 92 pp. (Italian). The manifesto was first published on 11 March 1913.
  • Erik Satie, Musiques d'ameublement, Salabert, 1999. 'Furniture music' scores written from 1917 to the 1920s. See also J.R.F., "Conseils d’été", Vogue 1 (15 June 1920), Paris, p 15, a column mentioning their first performance by Satie: "Furniture music? It is music that must be played between the acts of a theatrical or musical spectacle, and which contributes, like the sets, the curtains or the furniture of the hall in creating an atmosphere. The musical motifs are repeated without stop and it is useless, says Erik Satie, to listen to them: one lives in their ambiance without paying them any attention. It’s up to you to find a way to hear this musique d’ameublement and to devise an opinion on the topic. But that has nothing to do with the furniture we’re so taken with this season. It’s just an opportunity to make and hear music, the passion of the moment." (trans. from Mary E. Davis, Erik Satie, 2007, p 128)
  • Pierre Schaeffer, À la recherche d'une musique concrète, Paris: Seuil, 1952. (French)
    • In Search of a Concrete Music, trans. John Dack and Christine North, University of California Press, 2012, 244 pp.
  • John Cage, Silence: Lectures and Writings, Wesleyan University Press, 1961, 276 pp.
  • Pierre Schaeffer, Traité des objets musicaux, Paris: Seuil, 1966; 2nd ed., 1977. (French)
    • Includes the essay "Acousmatics"; trans. in Audio Culture: Readings in Modern Music, eds. Christoph Cox and Daniel Warner, Bloomsbury, 2004, pp 76-81. Trained as a radio engineer and announcer, Schaeffer was fascinated by the fact that radio and recording made possible a new experience of sound--what he called "reduced listening" or "acousmatic listening"--that disclosed a new domain of sounds--objets sonores or sonorous objects, the objects of "acousmatic listening".
  • Bernhard Leitner, "Sound Architecture - Space created through traveling sound", Artforum 9:7 (March 1971), New York.
  • Bernhard Leitner, "Sound Space Manifesto", New York, 1977.
  • R. Murray Schafer, The Tuning of the World: Toward a Theory of Soundscape Design, New York: Knopf, 1977; repr. as The Soundscape: Our Sonic Environment and the Tuning of the World, Rochester, VT: Destiny Books, 1993, 320 pp.
  • Brian Eno, "Ambient Music", Ambient 1: Music for Airports, EG Records, 1978. Liner notes to LP/cassette. [123] [124]. See also "Ambient Music", in Audio Culture: Readings in Modern Music, eds. Christoph Cox and Daniel Warner, Bloomsbury, 2004, pp 94-97, written in 1996; and discussion of his self-published Music for Non-Musicians, c1970, in Eno and Mills, More Dark than Shark, 1986.
  • David Toop, Ocean of Sound: Aether Talk, Ambient Sound and Imaginary Worlds, Serpent’s Tail, 1995, 306 pp; 2001.

Bibliographies

Resources

Notes

The works are in English unless noted otherwise.

For publications on individual artists, see their respective pages. For related publications, see Radio art, Sound poetry, Field recording, Electroacoustic music, Noise, Electroacoustic music, Noise, Circuit bending, SuperCollider, Streaming.

sound art, Klangkunst, sound installation (since late 1960s), Klanginstallation, sound-space-art (Leitner c1971 [126]), sound sculpture (see Grayson 1975), Klangskulptur, sound walk, sonic art (see Wishart 1985), musicalization of sound (see Lander 1990), sound in the arts (see Kahn 1999), audio art (see Föllmer 2004), Audiokunst, sound in art