Key Concepts:

Authourship, Copyright & Anti-Copyright

Sound As Art

Here we wish provide a developmental survey of sound art, highlighting the =

concepts sound artists have brought to light, or as we might prefer to =

say, brought into our earshot.

John Cage is the first name that comes to the lips, when one thinks of =

sound artists. Why? Because Cage sought to right the myopic focus of the =

art (and western thinking) on the visual. Think for example of vast bias =

of visual metaphors in language. Cage established the notion of all sound =

as worthy art, where before him only music was considered sound art. See =

the John Cage page for more details of his development of panauraility.

Cage's students had the difficult job of extending Cage's work by finding =

sounds Cage had not adequately liberated. Theses Fluxus artists like =

George Brecht, Dick Higgins, La Monte Young and Tony Conrad moved =

to isolate sounds and tried "to hear a sound in itself". Brecht isolated =

by repetition of dripping sounds, while others explored long and loud =

sounds. As Douglas Khan wrote in his thorough account of sound in the =

arts "Noise, Water, Meat" (pg227), 'Cage's emphasis on small -- on the =

barley audible, the improbably and the impossibly audible -- set up a =

material imbalance with his aesthetic. ... Loud sounds would require from =

Cage a different set of ideas, that quite simply, were outside his frame =

of reference'. Ironically these experiments into isolating sound broke the =

concept of a sound, and exposed a Multiplicity of Sound, in that a =

sound is always composed of many sounds.

The Fluxus artists also extended John Cages investigation of small =

sounds. Where Cage had stopped at the impossibly audible, La Monte Young =

and Yoko Ono produced poetic work in the realm of the conceptual and =

imaginary. These artists did not feel a need for actual sound to be =

produced by their 'instruments'. For example Young in his performance =

Composition 1960 #5, used butterflies as instruments, which where =

released and flew out the performance space. Young assumed the audience =

would follow that the butterflies must be making sound, for Young the fact =

that the audience could not hear the butterflies did diminish the =

conceptual sound that the participants were imagining. The Fluxus artist =

played with technological and personal artifacts, but not in an attempt to =

produce sound, rather to create meaning through a kind of poetic =

juxtaposition. As Yoko Ono said "I think of my music more as a practice =

(gyo) than a music. The only sound that exists to me is the sound of the =

mind. My works are only to induce music of the mind in people".

We can see that this ExperimentalMusic is involved less in realm of sounds =

and more engaged in constructing a process which posibly generates sound. =

This idea of ProcessBasedArt is a rich space, which maps directly to =

concepts in other fields such as GenerativeGrammers (or Rule/Limit based =

Systems) and Fractals.

This ProcessBasedArt work, emphasizes the moment - the perfomance - the =

action - a celebration of the now. The artifacts present are not the art. =

The sound art like sound itself is ephemeral, ubiqutous and fleeting. But =

strangely artifacts have emmerged which do capture this same nature. Sound =

arts embraced ElectronicMachines and DigitalMachines which allowed them to =

encode their process into a device. This work questions the boundaries of =

the compositional process and the performance process. Is the =

"construction of the device" the composition or is the more traditional =

"working out of the process which will involves the device(s)" the =

composition? It also brings into question the "liveness" of the =

performance. If the process is fully encoded into the device can the =

performer really claim to be performing the peice? Or is she just pressing =

the play button? Electronic and digital work involving encoded or canned =

music have blured these lines so successfully that these questions are =

largely mute. Turntables are live instruments to disk jockeys and =

laptop musicians construct autonomous improvisational partners1 to =

performing live along side traditional musicians. And artist can largely =

choose which artifacts of their practice become the 'product'.

ProcesBasedArt has been extended by incorporating chance or =

indeterminacy into the process. Again Max Neuhaus' "Listen" project, =

is a good example, were the chaotic environment is given full control of =

the performance, and the artist plays a very limited curatorial role. =

The Fluxus artists excelled in embracing of indeterminacy, complementing =

the 'in the moment' nature of ProcessBasedArt with an infusement of =

potential. They advertised themselves as "unskilled" and focus on =

gatherings and "happenings", rather than more formal performances.

The distinction between live and 'canned' sound has been eroded to the =

point that popular sample based music, akin conceptualy to Cage's tape =

loop compositions, are widely accepted. We can look forward to a future of =

encoded generative popular music. As Brain Eno said "In the future, you =

won't buy artists' works; you'll buy software that makes original pieces =

of 'their' works" 2. Here too is a boundary that sound seems well =

equipped to break -- originality. Originality has been brought into =

question by the works of Max Neuhaus' "Listen" project and the more =

recently (and more directly) by the Anti-Copyright right writings of =

[Donal McGraith].

Reflections

If we contrasts the above developments of sound art against say visual art =

(not that they could be actually seperated), we can get a sence of how the =

nature of sound functions in an artistic context. Sound's ephemeral, =

unbiqutous and fleeting nature is well suited for expressing the poetic, =

conceptual and abstract. It naturally allows the to listener be active in =

the generation of meaning, akin to the active imagination of reading. It's =

conceptual bent, has been succesfull utilized to express the philosophical =

questions of the day. For example both John Cage and Jackson Pollock =

refer to their work as be influenced by SandPaintings, linking their =

work to the concepts of impermanence and indeterminacy of the real. The =

'in the moment' nature of sound work maps well to these concepts, while =

Pollocks work is reduced to a performance, and his drip paintings seem =

like awkward leftovers.

Another useful correspondence sound artist may employ is sound's =

similarity to information, and the virtual. John Perry Barrlows' =

taxonomy of information, in ["The Economy of =

Ideas"|http://www.eff.org/~barlow/EconomyOfIdeas.html], can be read well =

for sound too -- indeed one could argue that encoded sound is a subset of =

information. This correspondence can be clearly seen in the synergy =

between the Anti-Copyright and the open source movements.

References:

=09# Leonardo Music Journal; "Southern Cones" - Volume 10 (2000); pg 43, =

'Brontologik"

=09# Abstracting Craft; Malcolm McCullough; pg 231