Francesca Gavin (2016), Christian Marclay: the art of sound, DAZED, ... Coldcut, Flow Motion, Renée Green, Rupert Huber and Richard Dorfmeister (TOSCA),.
Sound Art Establishment
The term of ‘sound art’ been well used since later 1990s, the process of use of the term, however, caused lots of confusion, even artists who work with sound catch the connotation of sound art in different ways, or denied to use the term. In 1960s, Max Neuhaus thinks sound as a natural element to obtain an approach for musical composition without depends on the context of concert hall or even musical instruments.1 As Neuhaus said, ‘I think we need to question whether or not 'sound art' constitutes a new art form. The first question, perhaps, is why we think we need a new name for these things which we already have very good names for. Is it because their collection reveals a previously unremarked commonality?’2 Similarly, Christian Marclay's works blurring the boundary between sound and image, as he claimed that, ‘it is always been a challenge to describe sound with words. It’s such a mistranslation. I did some works around this idea of the limitation of words.’3 They both working with sound based medium, and having a similar perspective that denied absolute legitimacy of the term ‘sound art’. Marclay assembled the sound sources in auditorium and conducted with signs, which shows that music can be more than just sound and how much listeners become accustomed to getting by with just a fraction of the substance from the media listeners receive.4 Is that to say this attitude is a kind of refuse to be categorized? But what is the subject and object of the term pointing to? Is it art or music?5 If there were boundaries between different genres in contemporary art, the reason would towards accurate classification and naming to purify the different things. This chapter will demonstrates some arguments that how is the sound art established, and compare with the visual arts.
1
Brandon LeBelle (2006), Background Noise: Perspectives on Sound Art, Bloomsbury Academic, p.154-165
2
Introduction to the exhibition ‘Volume: Bed of Sound’, P.S. 1, Contemporary Art Center, New York, July 2000 (http://www.maxneuhaus.info/soundworks/soundart/SoundArt.htm Last Accessed 26/2/2017) 3
Francesca Gavin (2016), Christian Marclay: the art of sound, DAZED, (http://www.dazeddigital.com/artsandculture/article/ 23621/1/christian-marclay-the-art-of-sound Last Accessed 12/2/2017) 4
Cf. Klangkunst (1966), Akademie der Künste Berlin (ed.), Munich, pp. 96
Kenneth Goldsmith (2008), The Noise of Art, University of Pennsylvania, (http://pmc.iath.virginia.edu/text-only/issue. 108/18.2goldsmith.txt Last Accessed 2/11/2017) 5
Installation at the White Cube Bermondesy, Christian Marcaly, 2015
The term of sound art be used by Dan Lander in the middle of 1980s, at the beginning, the generaltype of use this term have been questioned and caused series of controversy. His book, ‘Sound by Artists’, simply denied the versatility of the term of sound art. He emphasized that sound making fundamentally is interdisciplinary and consider sound as medium, which he did not use sound art at the same plane as sound making.6 Around 2000s, there are clear-cut stand exhibitions about ‘sound art’ appeared, but its confusion also followed. For examples, ‘Sonic Process: A New Geography of sound’7 and ‘Bitstreams’8 focused the commonalties between digital media as art form and electronic music, as well as ‘Sonic Boom’, curated by David Toop who aimed a problem that when enters the exhibition one is immediately overwhelmed by a dense noise and sounds, how many
6
Dan Lander & Micah Lexier (1990), Sound by Artists, Toronto: Art Metropole/Walter Philips Gallery
Sonic Process. A new geography of sounds explored the field of electronic music produced in the previous ten years, from the perspective of its hybridisation with methodologies associated with the visual arts. The main aim of Sonic Process. A New Geography of Sounds is to underline the breaks and the continuities that appear in recent works using electronic sounds and images, by artists like Doug Aitken, Mathieu Briand, Coldcut, Flow Motion, Renée Green, Rupert Huber and Richard Dorfmeister (TOSCA), Mike Kelley, Gabriel Orozco, Scanner and David Shea, with respect to experiments in sound performance, the so-called post-rock attitude. 7
8
Bitstreams, Whitney Museum, (http://whitney.org/www/bitstreams/index.html Last Accessed 28/2/2017)
sounding objects can one put into a space?9
Volume: Bed of Sound, held at MoMA PS1, 2000
Although those exhibitions claimed possibilities of sound art and sound as medium in art. However, is these exhibitions more closer to an experimental music retrospective show, rather than sound art exhibitions? According to Cage’s definition, an experimental action is one the outcome of which is not foreseen.10 The word ‘experimental’ provide it understood simply as an act outcome from unknown, rather than descriptive of act to be judged in terms of success or failure. Since there are different ways understand the term of sound art, this development and established process would be consider to explore more possibilities rather than fixed genre. However, such experimental way will be regarded as abortive concepts, since they did not grasp a subject.11 This blurred concept lead to self-proclaimed as a sound artist could gains a certain of degree of legitimacy compares to the experimental music artist. Since the term ‘experimental music artist’ labeled as a semi-professional musician, cannot actually be understand by musician from music system. 9
Jean Martin (2000), Exhibition Review: Snoic Boom - The Art of Sound, Hayward Gallery, South Bank Centre London 27. April 18. June 2000 (http://www.musicweb-international.com/SandH/2000/may00/SonicBoom.htm Last Accessed 28/2/2017) 10
John Cage (1961), Silence: Lectures and Writings, Middletown, Conectitcut: Wesleyan University Press, p.39
Heinz-Klaus Metzger (1959), Abortive Concepts in the Theory and Criticism of Music, translated by Leo Black, Die Reihe 5: Reports, Analysis, p.21–29 11
Compared to the English, ‘sound art’ in Germany belongs to much more clear category as a term. Klangkunst (sound art) has be discussed in Germany under the structure of music during the period of 1970s. On the one hand, Helga de la Motte-Klingende Raume claimed that sound art should be breaks the binary opposition between traditional space art and time art, sound art should be considered as construction of sound space.12 In this case, the term sound art has a clear directivity pointing to the sound apparatus. On the other hand, Golo Follmer believed that sound based on the environment and media, in this case, it emphasized many of environment sound works provided integrated into the creative techniques, and possibilities to process a variety of other subject matter.13
Douglas Kahn in his book, ‘Noise Water Meet: A history of sound in the Arts’, argued that sound art should belongs to the category of multimedia art, rather than single dimensional of independent discipline. He believed that the vulgar view of sound art is merely cheap label with hype in the urban art center, art market and educational institutions.14 From perspective of deconstructing the modern art history of visual-centralism, despite establishing a single, pure and elitist sound art history, Kahn would like to study on the individual work under the social context. In his angle of view, the sound has always exist in the practice of variety of artists who use different genres to appellation of their works, and a variety of sound practices only can be made, read and understood in specific social context.15 That is to say, based the consideration of labor and production, there is no longer demand for such common label for sound artist. According to Kahn’s point of view, there is a idea that implies to against alienation and differentiation of classification in labor process. In the
12 Andres
Engstrom & Asa Stjerna, (2009) Sound art or Klangkunst? A reading of the German and English literature on sound art
13
Golo Follmer, Audio Art, (http://silakka.fi/kuva/materials/Golo_Follmer_Audio_Art.pdf Last Accessed 12/2/2017)
14
Douglas Kahn (2001), Noise Water Meat: A history of Sound in the Arts, London: Cambridge, Massachusetts
Douglas Kahn (1992), Introduction: Histories of Sound Once Removed, in Wireless Imagination: sound, radio and the AvantGarde, Cambridge: MIT Press, p.2 15
legal classification was considered to be rely on production process, the possibilities approaches to provide effective criticism of art to industrial society was claimed autonomy or liberation.16 However, since the division of labor, social division, freedom of capital, individualism and sound art establishment, pointed to the different direction of movement: how can art being autonomy from capital manipulation? If sound art appeared as an alienation of labor, what is the position of art to against or embrace alienation? Is this become a kind of paradox?
These questions could traced back to the historical establishment of art in the social hierarchy. Western Europe gradually developed a new professional class after Renaissance – Artist.17 Compare to artisans to make crafts or decorations in public space, artists start to own the independent workshop instead of control by nobilities and religions, in order to access to the interpretation of artistic production and rationality of autonomy. The obviously difference laying on economy and ideology, there are new class, bourgeois, appears stand for representation and decriminalization of new arts in capitalist ethical system. In this period of time, the production of artists gradually became customized products in workshop system.18 Till 19th century, artists in workshop system began to own social expectations, such as middle class expect and wish to appreciating the attitude that art expression divorce from religious and aristocratic traditions.19 Modern art and professional collection system at this stage is increasingly matured. During World of War II, due to the demands of politics, the regime in Europe and American reach to establish decriminalization of their cultural ideology whether Nazi or communism.20
16
Theodor W. Adorno & Max Horkheimer & Gunzelin Noeri (2002), Dialectic of Enlightenment: Cultural Memory in the Present, Stanford University Press, p.94-136 17
Bruce Cole (1983), The Renaissance Artist at Work: From Pisano to Titian, New York: Harper & Row, (http:// arthistoryresources.net/renaissance-art-theory-2012/renaissance-artist.html Last Accessed 2/11/2017) 18
Bruce Cole (1983), The Renaissance Artist at Work: From Pisano to Titian, New York: Harper & Row, (http:// arthistoryresources.net/renaissance-art-theory-2012/renaissance-artist.html Last Accessed 2/11/2017) 19
Mary Ann Stankiewicz (2002), Middle Class Desire: Ornament, Industry, and Emulation in 19th-Century Art Education, National Art Education Association, Vol.43, No.4, p.324-338 The master’s voice, Radio had come of age in Europe, empowering the Nazis by giving global voice to Hitler, while the BBC's hand was being forced by Chamberlain (https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2008/oct/09/radio.hitler.bbc.czechoslovakia Last Accessed 12/2/2017) 20
Neville Chamberlain making his 'peace in our time' speech after meeting Hitler in 1938
In this process, based on political and business demand, art galleries, national cultural units, and the tendency of consumption, started to make rule and arrange space in order to consisting art, literature, music design, fashion, and even food that influence by soft power.21 In other words, in the early age of modern art, production and consumer has been elevated, allowing certain of space to the institutional manipulation.
When artists enter cultural production, the essential nature of career turns to institutional establishment. According to Karl Marx explanation of commodity fetishism:
‘As against this, the commodity-form, and the value-relation of the products of labour within which it appears, have absolutely no connection with the physical nature of the commodity and the material relations arising out of this. It is nothing but the definite social relation between men themselves which assumes here, for them, the fantastic form of a relation between things. In order, therefore, to find an analogy we must take flight into the misty realm of religion. There the products
21
Joseph Nye (2004), Soft Power: The Means to Success in World Politics, New York: Public Affairs, Ch 3
of the human brain appear as autonomous figures endowed with a life of their own, which enter into relations both with each other and with the human race. So it is in the world of commodities with the products of men's hands. I call this the fetishism which attaches itself to the products of labour as soon as they are produced as commodities, and is therefore inseparable from the production of commodities.’22
That is to say, the market exchange of commodities obscures the economic character or value exchange of the social relations between the labors and the capitalists.23 In such established structure, it can say that, the reason of a modern artist has been recognized as professional career is certificated from galleries, museum, and colleges. Their artworks shows in those institutions not only pursuit the exchange value for marketing, but also to established specific language to distinguish the eligibility of insiders and outsiders. The audience of modern art are not merely ordinary people, but specific groups, and lead the process of appreciate of artwork into educational process. Adherence to this principle became the basis for ascension of duties and academic training lead to alienation of the legalization of labor division. The art world now becoming merged to the world of economy, politics, science and technology, which the production, circulation, sale, education and communication feature are essentially reproduction of industrial society follows the logic of division of labor.
Compare to art, musical composition appears corresponding to the technical bureaucracy in capitalist society. Music has more complete system of differentiation, such as, audiences, amateurs, critics, various instrumentalists, composers, conductors, performers, and relative institution, such as music academy, music association, publishers, cultural directors. Music composition in this period played as a important role, because music score already became the standard to music circulation,
22
Karl Marx (1990), Capital, London:Penguin Classics, p.165
Karl Marx (1876), The Fetishism of The Commodity and Its Secret, from ‘The consumer Society Reader’, Juliet School & Douglas Holt, eds. New York: The New Press, 2000, p. 331-342 23
the music without score is easily to lost, which is closely associated with discipline of modernity. So-called solfeggio24 can be regarded as the foundation of modern auditory discipline. Solfeggio means performance music depends on the score, which turns music becoming a practice or exercise process of the score. In this case, the score restricted the connections between visual, physical and spiritual. It is also could say that Descartes’s dualism25 expanded into music. Traditional music could be see as a separation of soul and meat. A musician during a performance should concentrates on ears, listening and injects the maximum perceptual to his performance, but in the music theory, music psychology and acoustics that requires a sort of absolute rationality.
24
Solfeggio is a music education method used to teach pitch and sight singing of Western music. Solfeggio is a form of solmization, and though the two terms are sometimes used interchangeably, the systems used in other music cultures such as swara, durar mufaṣṣalāt and Jianpu are discussed in their respective articles. Dualism or duality is the position that mental phenomena are, in some respects, non-physical, or that the mind and body are not identical. As Descartes was concerned, it encompasses a set of views about the relationship between mind and matter, and between subject and object, and is contrasted with other positions. 25
