Sound arts has quickly become a topic that I cannot stop thinking about. I have tried multiple times to narrow down a definition, but it seems almost impossible. However, I don’t think that it needs one. Sound arts, to me, is something that should be felt and doesn’t really need to be pinned down.
Coming from a history in music, I have been guided to categorise sound into ‘good’ and ‘bad’. The categorisation of sound has lead to some dissonance within me, as I have always sought out experimentation and play in my creative practice. I have been striving to unlearn this since joining the sound arts course. What if I want to present ‘bad’ sounds and give them a context to elicit a reaction out of an audience. This thinking has lead me to the politics of sound arts; Who has a voice? Why does one person have a say and not the other? Who are the people we need to be listening to? These are questions I have been chewing on since stepping into my first lecture with Annie. Although the works shown in class have been produced by predominately white men, I can feel the movement away from this ideology, and for other voices to be presented.
The openness to experimentation was one of the first things that caught my eye about sound arts, this contrasts with the way I felt the music production course would be pushing for ‘industry standard’. Some works are completely generative, site-specific or ‘unfinished’. Umberto Eco details that some works are like tool kits that are to be deciphered at the time of performance (p. 4, 1962). This resonates particularly well with me, as I have a growing interest in installation pieces and an audiences interactivity with such work.
The organisation that I am currently building with a close friend (new*club) is also aiding in my exploration of sound arts. We are researching ways we can present a combination of audio and visual experiments to the public, though fashion and experience. This could be explored in multiple differing forms, one such form could be a Chladni plate created by the user on site, to then be printed on their own clothing.
Recently, I have been unsure of where my work belongs. I do not feel the work I produce is ‘sound art enough’ to be placed in a museum but what I create is also ‘not musical enough’ to garner a crowd in a bar or club. This is causing a feeling of isolation within myself and work. However, with each budding artist that I speak to, I begin to realise how unimportant labels such as; sound artist, music producer etc. are, and am learning to let my work speak for itself. As Roland Barthes wrote ‘It is language which speaks, not the author’ (p. 143, 1967). I hope that if a future version of myself is reading, you have committed to this. It will save your mind, which you need to keep creating.
References
Eco U. (1962) The Open Work. Cambridge: The Harvard Press.
Barthes R. (1967) Image, Music, Text. London: Fontana.