Re: [microsound] sound art / music

[Michael Palace <palace@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Some friends got me a book called

Sound Art:  Beyond music, between catagories
by Alan Licht

This might be of interest to those in on this dialogue.

Mike Palace

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Andrew Benson" <cloudmachine99@xxxxxxxxx>
To: "microsound" <microsound@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Wednesday, October 22, 2008 7:31 PM
Subject: Re: [microsound] sound art / music


> For me, the distinction is so much about context and the intention of the 
> maker and audience expectation.  For example, I come from a fine arts 
> background and have studied the formal aspects of sound in great detail 
> and experimented with sonification in various forms for several years, and 
> use that knowledge to create performative and installation works of sound 
> (as well as other media).  I don't use the term 'music' to describe my 
> work because to call it music would be to draw attention away from the 
> site-specificity, the physical relationships involved in the performance, 
> the context of the sound, and other aspects that are integral parts of my 
> artistic intentions.   While there may be certain features of my work that 
> engage musicality, I have no interest in producing music proper.  There 
> are audience expectations and critical foundations that have been 
> established for the reception of music over centuries, and I simply don't 
> think that it is necessary to force sound art to be music or for music to 
> be sound art.  They of course share a common history, a common set of 
> tools, a lot of common practitioners and exchange, and nobody can deny the 
> importance of sound artists understanding music as another type of 
> organized sound, but the critique and reception of each is different. 
> However vague the distinction may seem, it is important to respect the 
> specific context that an artist works within as being part of our 
> experience and expectations of their work.  That said, I don't think 
> anyone is interesting in drawing a thick black line between the two 
> practices, as exchange between the two can only foster higher-quality and 
> more thoughtful work in each. Anyways, I am happy to see this topic 
> discussed as part of the microsound discourse, and look forward to more 
> thoughtful discussion on the matter.  As an educator, I find that posing 
> these types of questions to students is a useful way to draw out 
> underlying preconceptions and biases about the use of sound.
>
> Best,
> Andrew Benson
> > > Hello All,
> > >
> > > So, I have a basic -- and perhaps naïve -- question for the group: what 
> > > is
> > > the difference between sound art and music?
> > >
> > > Kim's remark about microsound being a philosophical position within 
> > > sound
> > > art sparked this question for me. I'm pretty sure there's no absolute
> > > distinction we can make, but I'm ignorant about what the common
> > > distinctions
> > > are.
> > >
> > > Thanks for any help,
> > > -greg
>
>
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