Curating Sound Art: A London Perspective

This essay explores the practical implications of sound-based works entering the gallery space in London in recent decades. Issues with the term ‘Sound Art’ are discussed, and a review of sound art’s relationship to the arts institution is carried out. The common ground between, and overlapping concerns of ‘New Media Art’ and ‘Sound Art’ are investigated. Curatorial concerns are drawn from interviews conducted with members of London based organisations: Mark Jackson of Image Music Text Gallery, Matt Lewis and Jeremy Keenan of Call & Response, and Helen Frosi of SoundFjord. Independent sound artists Paddy Collins and Pia Gamberdella of Brown Sierra make further contributions to the discussion. In this review of the vibrant and rapidly evolving sound art scene in London, I will confront the curatorial factors that seem to deny sound art works a wider distribution and audience, describing the ways in which these problems have hindered sound art’s inclusion in wider contemporary art discourse.