..Sound Art
Sound art is a loosely associated group of art practices that concern sound and listening as their focus. From the Western art historical tradition early examples include Luigi Russolo's Intonarumori or noise machines, and subsequent experiments by Dadaists, Surrealists, the Situationist International, and in Fluxus happenings. Because of the diversity of sound art, there is often debate about whether sound art falls inside and/or outside of both the visual art and experimental music categories.
Like many genres of contemporary art, sound art is often very interdisciplinary, commonly engaging in acoustics and psychoacoustics, audio technologies (both analog and digital), found or environmental sound, exploration of the human body, in conjunction with the standard set of visual issues found in contemporary art.
Other artistic lineages from which sound art emerges are sound poetry, spoken word, avant garde poetry, and experimental theater. Early practitioners include Tristan Tzara, Kurt Schwitters, Tomasso Marinetti, William S. Burroughs, Hugo Ball, and Henri-Martin Barzun.
Controversy
There is heated debate among artists and theorists concerning the definition and history of Sound Art, which gives rise to other contentious issues. Here is a partial list of some of the current arguments:
* Is "sound installation" the only true form of Sound Art? (This relates to the possible origin of the term "Sound Art" as a translation of German "Klangkunst.") * Which genres fit into the category of Sound Art? * Which artists qualify as Sound Artists? * Is music a subcategory of Sound Art? * Should Sound Art be taught in art schools? * Should Sound Art be taught in music schools? * Where should Sound Art be taught and how? * Is Sound Art exclusively an electronic medium, or can it also exist without the loudspeaker (i.e., acoustic sound, thought, physical movement)? * Does Sound Art grow entirely out of the Industrial Revolution and the Electronic Revolution, or can it be traced to other roots as well? * Was John Cage a Sound Artist? (This relates to statements by Cage that refer to his work as music.)
Source
http://en.wikipedia.org/
