Overview

Listening on Display provides an empirical investigation of the historically, culturally, and socially contingent ways in which artists, curators, and visitors relate to sounds in contemporary art exhibitions. Since the 1960s, sounding artworks regularly appear in exhibitions of contemporary art. However, scholars of art history, musicology, sound studies, and museum studies lament the experiential difficulties of this development. They describe how sounds challenge the sensory hierarchy of the museum, how they disrupt the venerable silence of the white cube, or how they drown in the overall noise level of the galleries. This book examines the listening experiences of artists, visitors, curators, and technicians in more than twenty exhibitions that have taken place at contemporary art museums, alternative art spaces, and other venues in Germany and the US since the 1960s. Through archival research, visitor book analysis, interviews, and observations drawing on sensory ethnography, the book brings together their ideas and ideals about aesthetic ambitions, sensory abilities, cultural conventions, and technological standards.

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9798765136232

Table of Contents

Reviews

Sound exhibited in art galleries demands scholarly attention. Linnea Semmerling listens to others' listening—interviewing curators and observing visitors across twenty exhibitions since the 1960s. This approach transforms our understanding of sound in art galleries, making a vital scholarly contribution. * Caleb Kelly, Associate Professor of Media Art Theory, UNSW School of Art & Design, Australia * Sounds are ephemeral, energetic and resistant to containment. How is it possible to exhibit them? This book explores the burgeoning role of listening in exhibitions at contemporary art museums since the 1960s, the ingenious techniques used by artists and curators to stage sounding artworks, and the response of visitors – some very attuned and others who tune out. Linnea Semmerling is a brilliant archival researcher and sensory ethnographer, hence the perfect guide for this auditory odyssey. Listening on Display is a soundmark contribution to the sensory studies and multisensory museology literature. * David Howes, author of The Sensory Studies Manifesto (2022) *

Author Information

Linnea Semmerling is Assistant Professor in Sound Studies and Sound Art at Leiden University, Netherlands and Director of the Düsseldorf Inter Media Art Institute, Germany. She worked as associate editor on Sound Art: Sound as a Medium of Art (2019) and recently co-edited books about punk media history (2023) and electronic composer Conrad Schnitzler (2023).

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