Sounding off on Sound Art

Sound art is a rather curious concept, as it is defined as neither sound nor art. Therefore is it a combination of atypical sound and art?

We are so used to sound we sometimes don't even notice it. It is extremely rare and perhaps even impossible for there to be complete and utter silence at any one given time. Even in what seems to be "silence" is a whole world of sound, vibrating and reverberating throughout our ears and bodies. I found it quite interesting to read about the "layering of sounds," because when we turn our music on in attempts to drown out other sounds, it's interesting to think how the sound we want to hear above all is still slightly altered due to the sounds underneathe.

The recognition of space altering sound is an attractive concept to me. Sound is relative to spacial construction, as the vibrations bounce off objects in space. As an extension of Einstein's theory of relativity, the string theory states that everything, from atoms to planets and beyond, is made up of oscillating lines or "strings." Could this be why "obstacles" in space don't stop the music, but add to it and become symphonic with it?

But I digress (slightly)...

Walter Ruttman created a "sound film without images," Weekend (1929), an eleven-minute, rapid montage of speech, noises, and music that he felt exemplified the "procedure of photographing audible phenomena in a nonstylized manner, with the inclusion of their specific spatial characteristics...Every audible in the the entire world becomes material." Sound art is in fact sound and art, but the standard perspectives and ideals of both change. As Rolf Julius writes,
"In divorcing sound from image, sound takes on a life of its own, and this is what makes the concept of sound art possible."

I recently downloaded two sound files. One was a five minute track of rain and the other a five minute track of birds chirping/leaves rustling ("sunny weather music"). I went outside in the rain and played the rain track. This added a new dimension to the reality, as the rain wasn't very heavy but the track portrayed intense rain fall. The actual rain felt wetter the sprinkles felt like dollops. During the "sunny weather" track, the rain felt much lighter and I could have sworn the sky looked bluer. Much of our our perceptions are reliant upon the sounds in our immediate environment. The facinating thing about sound art is that it allows us to magnify and/or change our immediate environment, in real time.