Stop. Look. Listen. Sound Art today.

Aaron Zimm (a field recording artist) described sound art as using sound to strive for a higher level of meaning and provide more than just the level of comfort that comes from familiar sounds and universal musical structures in film. Stop. Look. Listen. The exhibit that is currently showing at the Haggerty Museum is a compilation of video works from some of today's top artists in the field of sound art. The exhibit is made up of many different kinds of works that use the power of sound to amplify and bring further meaning into the video. Sound art is different from the other “normal” forms of sound in film/video. Sure, there has been sound in films since the early 20^th century now, but these artists use it in very precise ways to stimulate different responses from the viewer. The sound, or lack of, is that is used in conjunction with images in the pieces by Johanna Billing and Patty Chang work in ways that force the viewer to think of what meaning the artist is attempting to portray.

In Patty Chang's “The Fountain”, she uses sound to amplify the feeling of claustrophobia that seems to be very apparent in the piece. Patty’s “The Fountain” was created by laying a mirror covered with a thin layer of water on the floor. Chang then positioned herself over it and began to sort of peck and slurp at the pool. The frame shows only her shoulders, part of the mirror, and her face and head. The camera is immobile throughout the piece. The only audio in the piece is the sounds that Chang makes; this includes the pecking, smacking of lips, and the gulping of the water. There is no music or ambient to make it seem like a more “normal” situation to the viewer. This use of sound buffs the feeling of claustrophobia found in this video. This sort of sound use also forces the viewer to concentrate hard on the form of the work, and not much else, once again returning to Marcel Duchamp’s idea that the viewer finishes the artwork. Another interesting this about this piece is that the viewer gets their own set of headphones. The headphones also add to the claustrophobia by completely blocking out all sounds that are going on around the viewer.

In Aaron Zimm’s article, he mentions that music can draw in an audience and lead them to discover other more complex aspects. Johanna Billing in her work entitled “Magical World” uses the song with the same title as an entry, into her piece. In the video the song is being sung and preformed by a group of children in Croatia. They are singing in English, which is not the children's first language, which gives it an interesting sound. Listening to this American pop song sung by small children from a different country who probably don’t even know English makes the viewer think more deeply about the song and identify themselves with these children. As with Chang's works, the sounds we hear in the piece are natural, but they are musical. Once the viewer is pulled in by this song, they will begin to think deeper into the meaning of the video. This normal American pop song has been subtly changed, but it has also been transformed. Having these distant voices sing it brings a whole new line of thought to the listener that wouldn’t normally be there if it was some pop star singing it. Billing's ability to change the feeling and meaning that this familiar song brings moves her work from simple sound or video into sound/video art.

When defining what sound, art, and music mean to him, Aaron Zimm touched on what it means to make a higher level of art; art that appreciated by a certain “well versed” audience. When looking at the way Zimm outlines his theories it seems apparent why these works by Patty Chang and Johanna Billing were chosen to be displayed in a museum, which is traditionally a more high art arena. Both The Fountain and Magical World are working on complex levels that engage the viewer raising thoughtful and physical reactions These works do this not mainly through their images, but through the use of sound as an huge part in their creation and underlying meanings.