Soundings: A Contemporary Score

Soundings: A Contemporary Score investigates the ways in which some of the most innovative contemporary artists are working with sound today. These artists approach sound from a variety of disciplines--visual arts, architecture, performance, computer programming and music--yet they share an interest in working with, rather than against or independent of, a given situation or environment. Their responses include architectural interventions, visualizations of inaudible sound, explorations of sound ricocheting within a gallery, and a range of field recordings--of bats, abandoned buildings in Chernobyl, bells in New York City and a factory in Taiwan. Published in conjunction with MoMA’s first major exhibition of sound art, Soundings presents an overview essay by Barbara London, Associate Curator in MoMA’s Department of Media and Performance Art; a recent history of sonic art by writer Anne Hilde Neset; and a section on each of the featured artists, featuring a brief interview and illustrated with installation shots, field photographs and documentation of performances. The diversity of these works echoes the complexities of the contested field of sound art, but together they posit something specific: that sound can elicit--from both the maker and the audience--modes of active, focused listening and a heightened relationship between interior and exterior space. The artists included here are Tristan Perich, Carsten Nicolai, Richard Garet, Haroon Mirza, Sergei Tcherepnin, Camille Normet, Jana Winderen, Hong-Kai Wang, Susan Philipsz, Toshiya Tsunoda, Luke Fowler, Jacob Kirkegaard, Christine Sun Kim, Florian Hecker, Marco Fusinato and Stephen Vitiello.