My internet is out and I am sitting at a local Starbucks to get WiFi. Blasted by their version of (Musak)jazz while trying to think back to the subtle sounds of Reverberations: Art and Sound, an exhibit I recently saw, is irritatingly difficult.

And it is made harder by the fact that I, despite some musical training, really have to scramble for words to describe what sound art is all about. In case you are curious, here is an essay that does know what it’s talking about, explaining sound art as shown in NYC.

http://www.3quarksdaily.com/3quarksdaily/2015/05/on-the-sight-of-sound.html

One thing is clear, it is NOT about music. Rather artists create installations that use sound to represent. Representations cover anything from noise and silence of urban landscapes, reflections on history, politics, to language as a code. The acoustic element is the focus – silence can be added through visual representations, but it is all about what you hear.

Here is a short blurb on the show I saw – http://www.aptglobal.org/en/Exhibition/56842/Reverberations-Art-and-Sound-in-the-MUAC-collections, 

It was a group of some 30 artists exhibiting over 60 pieces of varying degree of interest and/or appeal. They were all a challenge to someone like me who is a visual artist, trying to understand a new form of art that in some ways is singularly apt for our age of chatter and installations.

It was fun, though, to see cleverness – a whole rack of machetes, for example, that sounded like peaceful, soothing wind chimes – quite a substantive contrast. And it was a good intellectual exercise to photograph in ways that tried to match the singularity of sound I experienced.

I will certainly be on the look-out for shows like this when coming East. Much to learn.

And now I have to flee Starbucks, although, much to the consternation of my tribe, I actually like their coffee.