Sound Arts

LOOP PROFESSIONAL MEETINGS Title: Sound Arts: An Important Component of the Contemporary Art Creation1 Lead by: Anne-Laure Chamboissier Curator Participants: Maite Camacho Curator, In-Sonora Pascale Cassagnau Responsible for Audiovisual Collections, Video and New Media, Centre National des Arts Plastiques (CNAP) Barbara Held Flutist, Composer and Curator Arnau Horta Curator Bertrand Lamarche Artist Mario Mazzoli Director, Galerie Mario Mazzoli Lluís Nacenta Curator Michele Spanghero Artist Emiliano Zelada Artist 2

Meeting Report by Lucila Piffer and Victoria Sacco

TOPICS: Sound art experimentation in museums and galleries, relation to audiences, possible strategies for the future…

1. General notes on sound art and its specificity • •

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Sound artists come from very different backgrounds, and that’s a very interesting characteristic.

Sound art became a fashion practice. It’s important to take care about fashions in art, and recognize the contributions of people who have been working on this for many years.

Sound is a matter: it might seem obvious, but the most important aspect of this art form is that sound is what brings sense to the work. Sometimes it’s used as a fancy addition in sound art pieces.

Listening is making sense of the work: the meaning of the work should be the act of listening, which is supposed activate more of the audience's senses.

Although the visual aspect can be important too, it’s not about creating a nice piece, but using sound as a conceptual central point of the work.

Musicians have been thinking about objectivity in listening and in terms of pure sound, but that's not enough.3 The context and conditions are determinant.

Until now, listening in art was always listening to music. Sound art changes this perspective.

Many difficulties from sound art are very close to the problems that faced digital art. Sound pieces also become more and more quickly obsolete. It’s a very challenging format, because the materials are obsolescent.

The meeting was held on Friday 5 June 2015.

The present report aims to provide a summary of the discussions that took place during a professional meeting. It does not aim to be a a transcription of the conversations, so we emphasize its summary character.

3 Pierre Schaeffer.

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2. Sound art as a site-specific, renewing practice. Its relation to museums and institutions Why did sound art move to museums and institutions and how does it relate to them? What difficulties appear when producing sound pieces in these contexts? How can sound art modify the museum environment and produce a paradigm shift? How does critique relate to this art form?

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Starting to produce sound involves an effort. The equipment is in general very expensive.

The fragility and costs of sound equipment is also a matter that concerns museums and galleries. Sound art rarely gives back the huge effort it requires.

Relationship with institutions and museums is not always easy and there is a lack of investment.

The main question when starting the creative process is the environment: where is the work going to be developed and exhibited? This art form is in a way always site-specific, because the place where the work is being presented imposes its technical conditions and modifies the perception as well.

The relationship with the museum or the gallery can be a difficult topic. There is a different way of treating the materials and organizing an installation, and it can be difficult for the curator and the artist to agree on installation agreements with the general disposes of museums and institutions. One of the first things sound artists are asked, for example, is not to set the installation very loud.

There are very few projects being done in auditoriums. People in charge usually do not gamble with booing experimental projects because they want to make sure attendance is high. A concert cannot be programmed in their empty halls; somehow the museum is leaves more possibilities in this regard. There is the need to understand and answer to the question of why sound art moved into museums and galleries.

Museums seem to be open and have flexible codes, but in the practice many difficulties appear. It provides the frame to institutionalize art sound, although it’s maybe not the proper place to exhibit it.

Sound art should be understood as an epistemological deconstruction of art. It could be interesting for museums because they have been established from a visual perspective. Paradoxically, art is nowadays not the central issue: there is a crisis in the art system in many ways and the role of museums in society is something that needs to be discussed about.

Critical problems also in influence the way sound art is spread; there is almost no ability to say if something is a good sound piece or not. Not enough criticism has developed, and it would be of crucial importance to do a work of sensibilization.

Sound-art History is many times not recognized by new artists, who ignore the background of this discipline. It would be interesting to go deeper in art schools and in the education of new generations, in order to stimulate tributes or dialogues with the modern and contemporary art history.

3. The audience How do people relate to sound art in general? What is to be done in terms of diffusion and perception education? Are there difficulties in reaching and attracting new audiences?

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There is not enough sound art culture. Most people don’t understand it and have almost no knowledge about it. Very few people are used to experiencing sound art.

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Many people are not familiar with sound investigation. Performance, happenings and video art, in which artists have been challenging the institution of art, were once less problematic. It’s worth noting that also in the professional context of art fairs sound art is almost unknown or ignored, also by other artists.

For many producers and artists it’s fundamental to compromise in order to show people something attractive. Sound art is very detached to the public: people hear weird noises and wonder what they are. They can also become annoyed because they have no choice but to listen to it: sound is invasive to them and doesn’t give the chance to decide whether to hear or not.

Nowadays it’s very rare to have an artist concerning about this distance with the audience: instead of trying to close the abyss, they make an experience for specialized public. This should to be changed.

It’s not about obeying the audience or creating in an endogamic circuit: there is the need of a flowing dialogue.

There are books that can also introduce people very easily into this world.4

4. The future of sound art What are the perspectives and solutions in sight? What can sound artists do to develop their projects in different and new directions?

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There is a need to relate to traditional music. It sounds obvious but it’s fundamental to say this. When this happens, a lot of interesting things appear.

It’s not necessary that sound artists know to play an instrument, but when they do very interesting things happen.

In terms of reaching new audiences, a good strategy might be to bring sound art more often to public, open spaces.

Collaboration with museums could also be helpful to introduce the world of sound art to bigger audiences.

It would be good to have feedback from contemporary artists, who are most of the time disconnected to sound experimentation.

In order to make a sound piece somehow “successful” it should remain simple.

People can be reached easily and have the sensation that they understand and enjoy what they’re listening to. There seems to be an attitude in many sound artists that makes people feel incapable of hearing how amazing a strange piece is.

Putting speakers in a museum is neither the only nor the best way of listening to sound art because it’s presenting it in a very similar way to music, so people feel they have to approach it in a musical way. Much more work should be done on the presentation. There is the possibility to move on and make something different, to include also visual aspects.

CONLUSIONS • •

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Sound art is facing a critic moment. It’s important for artists to stay in touch and collaborate.

Sound art is in a way always site-specific. The context imposes its technical conditions and modifies the perception as well.

Pascale Cassagnau’s book ‘‘Une idée du Nord: Des excursions dans la création sonore contemporaine’’ is mentioned as an example.

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The relationship with the museum or the gallery is a topic to be aware of and one of the most difficult issues to face and improve. Sound art shows the limits of the white cube architecture.

There is not enough sound art culture. Most people don’t understand it and have almost no knowledge about it. Artists, curators and institutions should make an effort to help people approach sound art more easily without betraying the work and investigation.