Curating Sound Art: A London Perspective

This paper 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.

Over the last decade, many interesting new methodologies have emerged within the field of sound art curating / curating sound. These methodologies are tied up with the creative use of digital technologies and computational techniques such as physical and tangible computing. More specifically, interactive art and design seem to offer a promising new potential for letting an audience experience and interact with sound objects (tangibly, bodily, etc.) and in that way acquire insight and knowledge about them. The seminar at the ZKM focuses on the methodologies, histories, theories and practices of sound art curating.

The seminars, which take place in 2013 and 2014 will present an opportunity to focus on the increasing use of interactive art and design for curatorial purposes, which is transforming the curator’s role into a hybrid function placed between art, science and social technology.

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