Research Project
London, September, 2008
Introduction
Sound, although not a visual media, is often combined in visual exhibitions – as part of events, live bands playing or simply as background sounds to enhance the visual atmosphere, or anything else that the environment explores about.
Sound and music are parts of culture, of social folklore, of our daily lives, and of artistic creation. Sound can be "curated" as visual works do. The DJ can be called a ‘musical’ curator himself, as he is selecting the pieces that combine with the venue, moment, atmosphere and people circulating in the area. He must know the effects that each musical track will bring on people, and play it on the moment that is adequate. Sound exists in time and space only, and this must be in mind of whoever will be selecting such works. A visitor can walk by a sound work, and possibly, 10 seconds afterwards - another visitor who will walk by the same work will be exposed to a different part of the piece. Is not like a still image, or sculpture, where the work does not change. Sound is ‘alive’, and unless is a minimal repetitive sound, who keeps recreating itself on the same format through space - it will be a volatile work who endlessly keeps changing and that must be taking into account when ‘displaying’ it on such conditions, through space and time.
According to the Oxford dictionary, the curation concept (within an artistic context) is: “to select, organize, and look after the items in (a collection or exhibition): both exhibitions are curated by the museum's director”. Or it can simply be a relationship between things.
Curation can be an ambiguous term itself. Some choices are made so randomly, that the curation is almost… non-existent. Perhaps the terms ‘selecting’ or ‘listing’ can be used instead, depending of the circumstances. The word curation is carried with so many philosophical values, related to career PhDs and high-rank gallery roles, that to use it while there are no curatorial criteria being used - it can lose its meaning – totally.
In contemporary art, a curation happens when art pieces are put together. They can follow a theme, a chronological order, or any other sort of criteria. The museum space, as the Oxford dictionary says, is a ‘building in which objects of historical, scientific, artistic, or cultural interest are stored and exhibited.’
Objects. Not sounds or smells, but ‘things’ that are concrete and palpable, even if most of the times we are not allowed to touch heritage objects, due to its value and fragility. So we only look at them. Hence, another reason why most cultural venues dedicated to solely to visual media: no sound or any other type of interaction that can interfere with the contemplation of the piece with another visitor; therefore everybody can share the same display venue but having an individual experience.
'Giving the public what it wants' was a consequence of the reforming left and right in politics, targeting populism and economical survival. This highly influenced how museums in general would be shaped through the decades, especially the 20th century.
There are basically two ways of displaying or exhibiting music; one is through the traditional museology academy where you have items and the sound carefully inserted to not interfere with the usual quiet exhibition experience; and when you have the actual performance in the venue, where in many cases, has the visual gallery space turned as a background scenario, as it can become second in importance.
Curation of sound can also involve music events in general, such as Glastonbury festival or Meltdown festival at the Southbank. The Meltdown has a different ‘curator’ invited each year, usually a worldwide known musician – and in the Glastonbury festival, the original organizer, Michael Eavis, usually selects the acts. In most cases, the main criteria would be, albeit music or sound style – the actual ‘emerging’ artists or hidden talents, and many of these events tend, with time, to shape its selection year by year into a more commercial route.
Curating sound in a positive note
Sound is becoming each time more often found in visual art shows. This means that a way to catch the attention not only to the eye, but also when works have their main media as sound, has been explored each time more. Yet the selection and displaying of those are still very experimental (like much of the art style itself) and changing rapidly. In many cases, the sound is not displayed or played at its best and the curation of it can still be a bit confusing. We are witnessing, still the early stages of sound curation, where a hit-and-miss attitude is constantly tried, reviewed and repeated.
In London, UK, several venues usually match visual with sound exhibitions and events, amongst them venues such as the Whitechapel Gallery, Tate Gallery, Victoria & Albert Museum, Barbican Art Gallery, Handel House Museum and the ICA (Institute of Contemporary Arts).
The Whitechapel Gallery hosts diverse and new independent bands usually once a week, which is every Thursday evening, but they usually do not relate to the exhibition content that is been held at the same time. The bands normally perform in the café area, separate from the exhibition space.
The Tate Gallery holds, between many diverse events, the regular Late at Tate, (normally the first Friday of the month) for a whole multimedia event with bands sometimes performing in galleries such as between Turner’s and Constable’s paintings, and usually they are not related to the visual content exhibited within the rooms either.
The Victoria & Albert Museum also follows a similar event style as the Tate. Several happenings and performances (DJs sometimes included) are running simultaneously, and normally they do not relate with the exhibition, however they can relate to each other by a theme specifically chosen for that particular night.
The Barbican Art Gallery is part of the Barbican Centre, where there are also sites for theatre plays, music performance and cinema rooms. The diversity of medias included in the same cultural space do not let the subject scatter; many of these events are related to each other. For example, in the Tropicalia exhibition in 2006, there were theatre plays, films and music concerts related to same theme on their season program.
The Handel House Museum is dedicated to the musician of the same name, George Frideric Handel (1685 – 1759), and this makes the whole exhibition as music themed. When music performances are hosted, usually will be related to the permanent subject of the venue, which is Handel, altogether with objects of a similar nature.
The ICA can has a varied season programme. This venue has cinema rooms, an art gallery, performance space and a highly socialized café and restaurant area. Many events can be related within different medias, but not all of them.
The places above mentioned are the most known and established venues in London where you can find such kind of activity on place. There are also many other cultural and more alternative sites where many underground exhibitions and performances occurs all over the year; such as the Synergy Project, usually a ‘rave’ party where all sorts of performances are held with art shows, and the Behind Bars project, where all sorts of ‘art bands’ and art performers join for a night of avant-garde exhibitionism and sensationalism, where the artist is the work itself and the music performance is the unique and ephemeral act of art, making the whole night become only one artwork, happening, or performance. They all follow such a similar line of experimentalism that curation is not even needed, but a natural selection and understanding happens on its own.
The most common way of finding sound displayed in an art venue, is with a video sound installations by artists like Bill Viola, where the sound is a complement to the image, the technological devices are readily available for such work, and as the visual piece will have an individual room like a cinema show, it will also help the sound to be understood as whole, without interferences from other rooms and visitors also can share equally what they are all listening at the same time. In these and in many other ways, multimedia can help the public to interact and learn better about the content of an exhibition.
When both media applies for the same piece, in many cases, is to complement each other and stimulate information sent to the brain in a more broad form. In a concert, although we go mainly to listen to the musicians, (which is something that we can also do through listening to live radio, and actually have access to a better sound quality) but the fact that we are actually there, in the same physical space (or area) that the music is being produced, and looking at them while they play, makes the whole experience of listening stronger, as the brain is stimulated together with other parts of the body in different ways. A similar experience happens through music videos. To look at the actual ideas and images connected to a song, is a complete different stimuli that happens within the mind.
A research carried out by the British Audio Visual Society showed that whilst we only remember 10 per cent of what we read, we remember 90 per cent of what we do and say. This can justify, amongst other reasons, the constant increase of interactive devices used and explored by museum and cultural places.
Some contemporary examples as how sound can be found ‘exhibited’ in a museum space:
- When the sound artist or a musician is performing at an exhibition opening or party. This brings more ‘life’ to the artworks, especially if the artist is there is person manipulating them. Brings the audience closer to the artwork and definitely with the artist.
- Collaborations of the artist and/or musician in an exhibition, such as creating sound works that will ‘complement’ the exhibit as a whole.
- Performances involving sound that are arranged individually. These have specific times and programmes. Examples such as Serpentine Gallery's recent sound events, 'Late at Tate' series at Tate Britain or Whitechapel's 'Adventures in Music'.
- When there is actually a ‘concert’ within the visual display. Some examples could be the MOMA PS1's exhibition Music Is A Better Noise (2006) and the Museum Of Modern Art Chicago exhibition Sympathy for the Devil: Art and Rock and Roll Since 1967 curated by Dominic Molon.
- Visual artists that are also working with sound (as a musician or sound artist) and include these works and performances with the visual show. Some examples could be artists such as Rodney Graham, Martin Creed, Christian Marclay, Janet Cardiff and several others.
- Show that actually are focused in sound art. One example could be the exhibition Frequencies [Hz] (2002) held at Frankfurt's Schirn Kunsthalle, Sono Ambiente Berlin (2006), and an UK music festival, featuring sounds underwater, called Wet Sounds (2008).
- Displays about the interaction between the senses and sound are explored with other sensorial stimulations. Some examples could be What Sound Does A Colour Make, which explored the fusion of vision and sound in electronic media - a travelling exhibition organized by the Independent Curators International (iCI), New York, Visual Music (Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., and The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles.), Son Et Lumieres at the Pompidou Centre in Paris, 2004-2005.
- Commissions for venues and galleries – although those do not happen as often as it does with visual media. Such works can include Tate Modern's Turbine Hall installation Raw Materials (2004) by Bruce Nauman followed by Bill Fontana's Harmonic Bridge (2006).
The Massachusetts Museum Of Modern Art in North Adams, MA, US (MaSS MOCA) commissioned several sound works and have them on permanent display, each one with its unique curation and purpose, taking much into account the interaction with the space. Some of them are:
- Harmonic Bridge, from Bruce Odland & Sam Auinger. This is a work that plays constantly from 8am to 10pm in the southeast corner of the museum’s main parking lot. The visitor therefore experiments how changeable the sound exhibit can be as he or she drives through this specific space, and the traffic and the architecture of the site will also affect the soundwork. Therefore, it is a permanent sound work, but never still or the same; it changes everyday, for you never have the exact same environment sounds every day.
- Music for a Quarry, from Walter Fändrich. In this ongoing piece, ten speakers are set in a natural rock landscape, equally spaced, for fifteen minutes every evening. These notes are based on the latitude and longitude of the site, and the playing times with the seasons and astronomical settings.
- Clocktower Project, from Christina Kubisch. After restoring an old Clocktower that was originally from 1895 but stopped since 1996, Cristina installed a complex setting of solar panels and computerized devices that would complement her playing the tower bells like a musical instrument. The pre-recorded bell sounds also interact wit weather conditions, changing constantly and not playing in the evenings.
Although still new in our society, to work with sound is also to work with social themes, like in any other art form. To ‘listen’ and ‘shape’ sounds within the space in mind and placing the visitor where the artist wants the sound to be heard, can be compared to a movie director that chooses which frame of the film is supposed to be seen.
Still considered very avant-garde and most times poorly installed, sound can be, with the proper care, appreciated as much as visual works. As there is visual culture, there is also audio culture, which involves not only all we can hear around us, but also all the music industry, radio and anything that can literally reach our ears; therefore, as sound invades space as light (obviously not as fast as, but can reach almost as much as) and be digitally streamed through virtual memory as visual information can be. The access for sound art is easier that imagined at first, but yet, not widely explored.
To exhibit the unseen, is vital to have available the most precious non-commodities of the current super fast and compressed ages: physical time, and physical space. The exhibition Sono Ambiente Berlin 2006 for example, assigned thirteen participants amongst artists, composers, architects, producers and musicians, to create soundworks related to different and individual spaces. At the end, each work is equipped with its own loudspeaker from which the individual piece is amplified and can relatively interact with each other in space and time, depending on their distance between the works, as the visitor walks by from one piece to another.
Visual media had been reproduced, stored and possible to be actually transported since the beginning of humanity. The same did not happen with sound. It is possible that in the future, with more experience on "exhibiting" sound, and definitely with the technology improvements getting faster each day, that a sound – or even a multi-sensorial experience in a museum - will be very different from now.
Today, there is a wide "internet audience", where people can hear soundworks wherever they are connected online, or even ‘download’ the files so they can be stored and shared. Sound exhibitions can be very viable through this media – as many listeners would have they own headphones in case there is any interference from the environment where the sound is being played. Or, if is the case, to "display" the sound through all the venue that surrounds the equipment where the connection comes from – so the sound can exist in real time, and in virtual space; can be stored in a minimum virtual size and sent on real time via the internet, live or not.
The radio DJs can be considered curators, although their audience is the unknown public who is constantly listening; and online radios are another way of curating and displaying sound and exhibition space. Programs are saved within the radio’s website’s Internet servers and can be chosen to be played at any time that the listener wants. This is becoming very popular nowadays, and on several websites the artist can register at a very low fee or on many cases for free – and ‘upload’ soundworks to be shared online. The artists can select and ‘curate’ as they wish and the website can function as an online gallery. For soundworks, where usually the space and time are paramount but often unobtainable, the online streaming is very useful to distribute the content of the work and reach wider audiences all over the world.
In many exhibitions where there is some sort of music related, it is now a common trait to have a CD available at the gift shop for buying after the visit has ended. Examples can include: the exhibition soundtrack of Back to Black – Art, Cinema and the Racial Imaginary, (2005) in the Whitechapel Gallery; Gabriela Fridriksdottir’s installation at the Venice Biennale of 2005 in the Iceland pavilion had a joint creation with the musician Bjork, and limited copies of the CD which had recorded the final product of most sounds from the installation, were available for sale at the exit of the site; and in the Museum of Modern Art of San Francisco, the online exhibition Open Space / Collection Rotation: Scott Hewicker & Cliff Hengst, have selected music works curated together with visual pieces, on the intention of the visitor to experience them together. And doing so through the internet, where actually the visitor brings the "exhibition" for his/her space, where he/she can look and hear independently of a museum or gallery physical venue, again, brings a different experience, perhaps even more intimate, allowing more concepts to be developed within, as exhibitions are where a venue meets an audience, and where a public display is actually happening.
The Jorvik Viking Centre in York, UK, has multi-media devices that are able to literally take people back to the past – which is a strong point for a museum. The advertisement says: “Visit the Jorvik Viking Centre, step aboard a time car and be whisked back through the centuries to real-life Viking Britain… Now a bustling market, dark, smoky houses and a busy wharf have all been recreated in accurate detail so that you can experience in sight, sound and smell exactly what was like to live and work in Viking-age Jorvik…"
Also the Imperial War Museum in London, UK, displays similar multi-sensorial exhibits, such as The Trench Experience from the First World War Galleries which has a narrow, dark and restricted trench labyrinth, where recorded sounds similar to the ones radio broadcasted from the years of the wars, with a strange smell coming from the moulding walls and where objects are displayed. The Natural History Museum also in London, UK, has the Earthquake Room, where an earthquake is simulated, involving demolition sounds, shaking floors, and a screen monitor showing related scenes. Both these galleries bring a multi-sensorial stimuli aimed for the purpose of bringing a more realistic experience.
Museums specialized in sounds are slowly increasing in number, such as the Chicago Sound Museum, in the U.S.; the Haus Der Musik in Germany, and the Cite de la Musique in Paris, France. There is a museum of smells also in Paris, the Osmotheque and two other perfume museums in Cologne and in Munich, Germany. In Italy, a food museum is called Museo del Gusto (or Museum of Taste).
For touching, there are often special sections in galleries for visually impaired visitors to "experience" the work through touching, or in between other interactive activities. The Please Touch Museum in the United States focuses especially on children as their main audience, as they are the ones who crave more for an interactive learning.
All these specialized extra-sensorial museums are rare exceptions, as today; there are still not enough possibilities to make most art available for all the human senses. This evolution as social species walks together hand in hand. Vision, where not such an intimate contact is necessary, became the most practical and straightforward way of communication. Even sound was repressed, as it could be a to the neighbour. Touch or smell something, even more rarely allowed. Too intimate, too close. And the sense of taste, the most restricted of all. The visual society structure is predominant, where sight is the main and most effective communication.
Audio guides, audio tours and lectures are perhaps the most widely known and commonly found sound experience found in a gallery or museum. They are all extremely educational and very useful on didactic projects; again, for most visitors, the action of listening an historic comment whilst observing the related piece, triggers more stimulation for the mind, and makes learning a much more interesting experience.
The Museum of Work in Norrkoping, Sweden, had an inaugural exhibition called Sixth Sense (1991-1994), where the different senses of sound, sight, touch; taste and smell could be explored. Eva Persson produced this exhibition and there were many objects to hear, see, touch and smell but few words or texts.
Story telling and the oral tradition remain of immense importance in societies where most people do not regularly read and write. The accuracy of this method obviously is dubious, as we are aware that is part of the human nature to re-tell a story always slightly different at least, and when a story that has been told nineteen times finally gets to its twentieth listener, it is for sure that the latest version is quite different from the first one. This way, it get ‘updated’ and ‘re-edited’ each time it is told.
Tape recorders, in between many other things, allowed this tradition to be revived and this time with more accuracy. It is also extremely helpful in the whole procedure of education in museums that is related to sound or music registering and studying.
How it can be a challenge
Many ‘music museums’ have historical instruments, music sheets, scores and sound objects on visual display like any other type of museum - but surprisingly enough, many of these displays do not have music actual playing inside the ‘music museum’. The music gallery in the Horniman Museum has specific sound stations where you can hear a selected instrument. In many venues the sound would not be played solely in a room. Frances Palmer, keeper of Musical Instruments at the Horniman Museum, mentions the importance of the quiet space in the Gallery Guide. According to him, 'the design of the music room takes account of the need for quiet concentration... the floor is carpeted and the sound examples are available through headphones so it should be possible to study in peace.'
It can ‘sound’ contradictory, or at the very least confusing, to go to a ‘music museum’ and ‘see’ many objects related to music, but hear nothing.
Sound is built with time and space, and a ‘sound art piece’ to be able to exist within an exhibition, needs to have the time necessary and compatible for its execution, regardless how long the reproduction or execution lasts. It is not a still and physical piece of art that will sit there permanently. It exists only through a specific period of time, and that is crucial to be taken into account when the art works are being selected, and their devices or musicians specified. Sight can be controlled more easily than can hearing.
Many museums would argue that a sound reproduction is not the primary source, therefore not interesting or maybe as ‘valuable’ as an original painting.
Sometimes not only the musicians but also ethnic groups or specific artists will be brought into the museum space for a performance, creating live sound and action to the venue directly to the visitors, and therefore they become a primary source. This can be a key element on simulating the past experiences, like in an open-air museum. An example of this could be the aboriginal dancers at the opening ceremonies of the Commonwealth Games, Brisbane, Australia, 1982.
The amount of visual pieces usually can easily surpass the sound works number; of over 65,000 works, less than half a dozen of sound based works in the Tate Collections, although its mission statement reads: 'As the national collection of British art from 1500 and of international modern and contemporary art from 1900, Tate's art collection embraces all media, from painting, sculpture, drawing, and prints to photography, film, video, installations and performance.' But sound based practice falls within installation or performance, and the few sound based works that the Tate has acquired are situated as installations or performances, such as Janet Cardiff's 'Forty Part Motet' (2001), Angus Fairhurst's 'Gallery Connections' (1991-1996) and Trisha Donnelly's 'Untitled' (2003).
Commonly found in museums, audio-visual techniques are installed without proper planning and discussion on why they are being used. Regardless of the social and economic situation, usually audio-visual techniques are expensive to install and maintain, plus time-consuming to run. It is indeed another option for the visitor to understand the museum, but the museum must be prepared for its usage and maintenance.
With visual artworks, space can be a problem if the scale of pieces is an issue; the same does not happen with sound. But sound needs a space also to spread through vibration and be perceived solely; therefore, the space given to the sound to be heard is of paramount importance, including the technical conditions on how that will be listened. Is like a good light installation for a painting to be properly appreciated.
The human mind is constantly seeking extra stimulation. Touching has always been extremely encouraged in current times, after so many centuries where touch was often forbidden, today, we try to touch almost everything we see. The sense of smell also started to be explored in artworks, and other physical or body sensations such as equilibrium, taste, concentration and focus. As the television era is crossed with the Internet era, each time more the image is combined with some sort of sound or interaction. Many new media artworks have sound displayed as part of the work – if they will not have a screening room for that piece on its own already, it will possibly have a separate screen with individual headphones set up – so the visitor can watch and listen at the same time. Still, the headphones experience can be quite isolating for the visitor, who might prefer something more interactive and easier to share with the space or with other visitors nearby.
Technicalities
Slide-tape programmes have been used for a long time as an introduction to help the visitor in interpreting and understanding the displays, and video is quickly replacing the slide-tape. They can also be available on individual headphones, depending on the accessibility of the venue. This is an effective and cheap option. Tape and CD recordings can be used in the same way and in others in a museum.
In interactive spaces and displays, demonstration or performance, special acoustic treatments, multimedia video screens, microphone jacks, video recording or other specialized sound and light systems.
Suspended ceilings at a sufficient height and fabric cover panels can absorb sound. The choice of the absorbent materials will influence the noise that will travel over the partitions from the public. Also other equipment that belongs to the building’s architecture already that have their own noise input to the environment, such as lifts, toilets, workshops, children’s playing areas and mechanical rooms, need to have their sound minimize to not interfere with whatever sound works in place. For that, some acoustic buffering and control materials can be used. To reflect and amplify sound, exposed structure ceiling of concrete and steel, ceramic tiles, stonewalls, concrete walls, plaster walls and ceiling (as long as is not used on uninsulated inner surfaces of exterior wall structure) can be used.
An exhibition can be curated indeed with all soundworks having their own individual rooms and therefore experienced more fully, however that needs a fair high budget available for expenses – as good sound engineers and soundproof rooms are much more expensive and take longer to build than to simply plug a pair of headphones – plus requires more space.
Another option is to have speaker inbuilt with the object related to – (if there is no object, simply speaker wholes from the wall – and this can even ironically have a frame on the wall) in a considerate low volume. The visitor hears a hassle and guesses that there is something there to be seen, or heard. As the visitor approaches, and puts the ear near the wall or surface where the sound comes from, is able to listen to it. This way, you can have several sound pieces sharing the same space, with no headphones in between. Yes, they will slightly affect the other, but really very little.
A painting can also, visually, ‘disturb’ another image, if they are sharing the same room; they are all visual information and that’s where curation plays a key role – on combining and spacing them properly, for our eyes can be more affected by the artworks surrounding it than actually the piece we are observing itself.
When sound is played on a handset instead of headphones, can drastically change the perception and interpretation of the work. As more than one person can listen to it at the same time, it is possible for both people to discuss while listening to the piece – it does not isolate the visitor from the rest of the environment or the other visitors – however is still not the same as having an actual room only for that specific sound piece.
First Venue: Handel House Museum
This venue was chosen because music is the main predominant theme.
Claire Parker, from the Handel House Museum in London, curates concerts and is also responsible for the educational projects from the museum. She is the Learning and Events Officer. According to her, events for the museum are selected in two ways: people who come to offer concerts, through demos, websites information, or even a previous rehearsal in the museum itself; or when the museum approaches a musician to perform. This can happen through recommendations, and can become an invitation for a rehearsal or a concert.
The museum team tries to separate the events brochure thematically. An example: for the exhibition Handel and the Divas, several singers will be lined up for concerts in conjunction with the show, during the 6 months that lasts the exhibit.
When an artist performs in this venue, he or she is encouraged to speak to the audience before the performance starts. The actual performance space is what used to be Handel’s living room, and its capacity is of only 28 people. Because this is such an intimate show, for the artists and the audience to feel more confident and comfortable with each other, the short speech on the part of the musician to introduce the piece can be useful. This little museum is totally different from other venues that bring live music, or any type of music being played or "exhibited" on site. Such action brings people back to Handel’s time, where no music could be recorded or reproductions could be played. Only live music could be heard. And, especially in the baroque period, this touch of intimacy of having a small and selected crowd in the musician’s living room, closely listening and watching to such a precious moment. In this sense, the museum function to "bring back in time" the authenticity and experience of the piece can be valid and appreciated, as this happening is an exclusivity from the Handel museum.
Claire says that the main function of this venue is to preserve Handel’s music. Handel was part of the baroque movement, so the team try to bring in as many baroque performers as possible, but do not restrict to this genre only. Sometimes an exception can be made for a more modern or contemporary style, when there is something acoustic, or subtle enough to fit the scene. The harpsichord and piano naturally have the right volumes for small places – but string instruments can be too loud for this venue. A different musician in residence is appointed every year, and after that is concluded, he or she will curate a month of events for the museum. This is also part of the idea of ‘bringing the composition process to life’. The composer in residence also writes commissions for the venue, host’s regular events, leads composition workshops, offer advice and help to composition students.
The visual here, is the house itself. Handel lived and composed there. It is possible to create a Handel museum somewhere else where the space wasn’t so limited. But then, the ‘museum’ value could fall tremendously. And still, the charm of this little house remains in the fact that you can enjoy an intimate concert at this composer’s living room, like in his time. So there is the sacrifice of having more physical space, for the memory, the historical and the performance value. The house is ‘decorated’ like a set scene, and again inspired on the baroque style. Some original and reproduced paintings related to Handel hang there. The furniture is not what used to belong to him – but there is an attempt of keeping the furniture that at least belongs to the same period.
No background music during the exhibitions – unless there is a rehearsal going on, so the visitors can ‘overhear’ the musicians practicing. Since the museum started in November 2001, the board decided that no background music would be played there. Only live performances. Hence, since the museum begun, there has been a slight modification; two years ago, there were headphones with listening stations installed for a specific exhibition – Handel and the Castrati, they, for the first time, complemented some music sheets with a CD player and a separate headphone – so visitors, and musicians, can follow the notes while they listen to the music. Through the guest book, they found out that this experiment was so successful and highly suggested to keep the same procedure for all the other future exhibitions – and that was kept since then.
Claire says that her own experience with headphones when she is the visitor herself is not always the best. She does not mind them; however, they can be quite isolating, especially when she is visiting the exhibition with someone else and is not really able to share a conversation with both listening to it at the same time. Even when there is more than one headphone for the work – headphones isolate external sounds, and only after removing them there is a chance of exchanging some ideas about it.
The events held by Handel Museum are focused on all ages, but draws specifically the attention of other musicians. These events can be concerts, recitals, lectures, combination of lectures-recitals, guided tours (and these sometimes can be combined to Jimi Hendrix’s previous abode, thus therefore reinforce the music; jamming sessions where children are allowed to participate; and other special events organized in partnership with other venues, such as the Wallace Collection, the Italian Cultural Institute. Now there is also a composition area where visitors can try to compose and record some music using the Sibelius and Garageband software. This venue is never limited with themes for new shows, as they keep re-exploring Handel’s music within the 18th century extensively.
Another venue that has a similar structure but in a much bigger – and wider - scale, is The Cite de la Musique in Paris – where there are permanent collections such as instruments from all over the world with musicians rehearsing in the venue at the same time, and one of the main attractions is to give the chance for most visitors to meet a musician playing whilst they come to see the exhibit.
Second Venue – Tate Modern - Late at Tate
This venue was chosen due to be a highly established art venue where music is an extra art piece exposed to a mainly visual media environment.
Late at Tate is the name of this event that usually runs every first Friday of the month, at the Tate Gallery, London, UK. The number of events and the exact locations and rooms for them change every time, through the museum area.
Martin Creed was the curator of Late at Tate for the 5th of September of this year. He says that this activity was something simply very casual for him. He does not follow themes, as he thinks that a theme brings restriction and a certain meaning. Even when a meaning or specific focus is given to a show, visitors can always relate them to outer subjects originally unrelated to the concept of the exhibit. This way, even if the display does not have a theme, it is possible to relate anything you want – to a theme. The task is left for the visitor. But then, the curator role has not been concluded – after all, that’s why the curator was appointed – to connect art works on a public display.
He selected the performances on a very loose way, and no criteria were used at all. Listing the acts in a safe and straightforward way, he simply chose some artists he knew, or some others that he liked the sound. He says that a gallery is a theatre for looking at things, and not really listening to things. According to him, the acoustics in galleries usually are very bad. For him, there are two types of sound performances: one is to play in an art gallery, and the other one is to play in a more usual and prepared sound venue (such as in pubs, clubs, music festivals, etc).
Creed played at Late at Tate in 2005 and remembers the acoustics being very bad. He also played around 1998, in a different event at the Tate Modern – where Late at Tate didn’t exist yet. There was a short briefing before the performance, regarding the security towards the artworks hanging on the galleries where the band would perform – such as Turner’s paintings – but no big fuss about that. For Creed, the gallery becomes a visual background/scenario for music display, as on that particular moment the sound will be the main focus. And for him, it is nice and enjoyable to appreciate music in a nice visual and artistic setting, without any concerns if the concept of any works change when they are mixed altogether – or not.
Often music events are "curated" or selected with the visual exhibition itself. The Barbican often follows the "theme" criteria for many of its programmes, as a similar inspirational point will be involved on the subject of the theatre plays, live music, film shows and art displays. Another example is the exhibition held in Sao Paulo, Brazil – Ordenacao e Vertigem, 2003 – about mental health patient’s art – where Arrigo Barnabe was commissioned to compose and perform an orchestra based on Arthur Bispo do Rosario artworks, the piece ended being called Missa In Memoriam Arthur Bispo do Rosário.
Themes can be restrictive. Is that necessary? Even museums themselves are divided into themes, categories, period of time and subject. The exhibitions themselves are sub-divisions of that specific collection. The theme and setting often used or explored within a gallery will specify its audience and bring regular visitors in.
Sometimes even the architecture or location will be chosen and designed specifically for re-enforcement of that theme. So how come the Late at Tate does not follow such criteria? The main reason why I wanted to choose this event is, I could never really understand why they didn’t seem to match. Of course is interesting at the end, any art form expressed must have some value to be appreciated, regardless of how confusing it can be – however once I interview a "curator" related to the event, the answer is plain and simple: "There is no curation. All is loose and informal. I simply chose some friends and bands I like." On another hand, if seen from a Taoist Zen point of view where the lack of action is action itself, maybe the ‘non-curation’ can also be categorized as curation itself.
They must, of course, change the meaning of the artworks, being transformed for a few hours in a scenario for music being played, without the right sound acoustics and feedbacks. The curation of music is still in its early stages of museology, and possibly with a few more centuries of recorded music in our history, we shall be able to display, appreciate and classify it as what it really is: an art piece, where the value can be historicized and set up in a museum.
Nowadays, only the visual display may not enough anymore. Maybe it never was, but is the past the options of stimulating other senses were very few, not only due to technological restrictions, but also behavioural towards society. Today, the more interactive the exhibit is, the more popular it can get; Hayward Gallery exhibition from Anthony Gormley in 2007, Blind Light was very interactive and such a success. Bruce Nauman’s installation for the Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall, for the Unilever Series, Raw Materials 2004-2005, was purely a sound work ‘displayed’ in the space through several speakers, symmetrically and largely spaced between each other. A surprise for the usual Tate visitor; not used to be exposed to art sound very often, especially in such institution (apart from Rebecca Horn’s piano falling (Concert for Anarchy – 1990) where the final cacophonic impact sound finalizes a piece than in mainly visual). And here, nothing to see; the hall is grey and naked, the speakers displayed out like bones that belong the building’s structure. Yet, it works; the visitor’s brain straight away recognizes it as not something exactly to be seen, so the command is to not pay such attention through the visual in that particular moment. And then, it happens an unusual stimulation; the visitor pays attention only to what is being shouted out from the particular speaker. Or before, the visitor could have sensed and explored the sensation of "feeling" the different sounds coming from all the speakers at once, as the visitor walks throughout the gallery.
The Late at Tate event makes the impression of simply bringing art music for the sake of it, as a jam session, and a way of socializing, as an extra bar is also set up in the main hall. Music as a concert, a social and drinkable event, strikes in high contrast with the usual taciturn, quiet, silenced and high secured that this venue are. The Victoria & Albert Museum opens until late every Friday, where there is a free classical musical concert in the evening, except for the last Friday of the month, where it will usually hold a special and unique event, usually multimedia displayed and related to fashion, technology or a specific social theme.
The event had a runner’s performance (a different runner each 30 seconds to cross the Rotunda/hall area) at the same time. This was Creed’s Duveen’s commission titled Work No. 850. Also on the auditorium was showing Creed’s The Sick Film Work No. 610 (2006), (Where several individuals step in a blank space and simply throw up, one after the other) and 5-minute interviews with actors mimicking the artists Andy Warhol, Joseph Beuys and Jackson Pollock took place, arranged by Katie Guggenheim, in different rooms. Live music was performed from several artists on the Manton Foyer (easily accessible from the side entrance of the venue) and in Room 9. The acoustics weren’t the best, as the technical arrangements in the foyer was a corner where the sound was or ‘shaped’ through the stairs, connected galleries and ceilings of varied levels; therefore the technical side of sound effects was confusing and inadequate. Perhaps on the attempt of bringing music as a live and temporary canvas, in a spot where people walk by frequently and will find the performers easily, the best acoustics available may be sacrificed. There is a local auditorium available with better acoustics, but then maybe not many people would actually go there to listen and see, or even the sound would not interact more profoundly with the venue itself. Also on show was a film by Oscar Carlson, called The Artist in Paris (2006), about an individual with multiple personalities struggling to live as and be an artist.
It can be considered a similar hypothesis if a visual art collection is brought in display at a venue usually more prepared for sound only; both dynamic are totally different and requires a complete setting totally apart from each other. Music brought in a space where the space is visually immaculate but unprepared for sound, can be wasted; and the same happens if images are brought in a venue where there are great acoustics but inappropriate visuals surrounding the image – it will be wasted and the target sense will not be reached correctly. If curators or directors want both senses to be reached properly, they should prepare the space adequately for supporting both.
The next Late at Tate events will be on the 3rd of October, this time in-house curatorship will be applied to select works based on Francis Bacon – and on the 7th of November, and this time the theme will be to enhance and bring to attention the galleries and artworks rarely visited by the public.
Nowadays, there are so many ways of exploring a theme in art, so many ways of reading, interpretation and receiving, as our capacity of analysis and philosophical concepts evolve within our society, that actually, we might be making a mistake if we do not narrow down the possibilities. That may be contradictory to procedures taken by contemporary art itself – to the creation to be whole on its idea. If the exhibition is erratic, chaotic and is not following criteria on purpose – then be so, and give that as a theme, and explore, stretch and reach the limits of such subject as much as possible. Then the exhibition would have served its purpose, and would have reached its audience in a better way. To curate a concert; there has to be a focus and direction within all the musical acts that succeed each other. To curate a visual gallery, the same applies. To bring random acts just to fill in space, it is a waste of time and resources, plus showing little care or consideration to the importance of the projects – and a high risk that few people will engage with the act.
Creed’s curation suggests that the ‘theme’ of the night was actually the artist itself; although he does not recognize an official theme specified, the fact that his well-known name as an artists is selected, and actually, ‘sub-curated’ for the gallery, makes him the curatorial subject of the night. He is part of the artistic selection, chooses acts from his acquaintances, taste and life story, where even some chosen artworks suggest an autobiographical identification with them; therefore, in this particular case, the curatorial theme was the artist, as a possible celebration of a successful living British artist.
After that has been established, the other side of curation that will take place would be the technical and selection of which specific room or space will match and suit best with the artwork – an example of this could be the fact that the runners were performing in the main hall where there is actually quite a long distance to cross from one end to another, making it the best spot in this venue for such work.
Conclusion
Music as an art form makes it easily to be found in several ways amongst any other form of creative gesture performed in art institutions such as a museum and galleries. However, these art venues usually keep its environments quiet, as libraries or other study places do. They usually do not have the right sound equipment or even its architecture often has not been developed with that purpose, and this can make performances involving sound poorly installed and appreciated. Sometimes, even in the most conservative and quiet art venue, depending on the curation of the exhibition, there is always the possibility of having some kind of abstract music - such as classical, played on a low volume - in the background of an art installation or show, as an attempt to help the visitor to engage beyond the visual. Or even, the artworks themselves, being videos programmed to play in loop or soundworks individually set up with separate headphones for each work – all carefully chosen to not disturb an inner meditative process of experiencing art for the visitor. Therefore, is easy to understand why there is not music performed in such places as often, because they normally can be an interruptive noise. Also in some cases, these performances become events to promote different art forms aside the traditional ones found in such venues or even to simply promote the venue. Musical events will be easily found in sites where you will often have multimedia art forms in place.
Museums can be a great opportunity to be used as learning centres for music, especially when combined with visual art. Many objects and paintings in museums relate to music in some way, like instruments, songs, history, and general social and cultural themes – and maybe have not yet been realized fully for their music education potential.
To consider sound in an exhibition, some key aspects would have to be set up first, such as: the importance of it related to the rest; and if it should be individualized, or manifested in the whole environment. Sound takes over the space. It takes over the room, and many times, beyond. If many are played at the same time, they will lose its uniqueness and the appropriate chance of being appreciated. Plus if it’s shown in a loop in a series of others – still depending on its length of duration might also disinterest visitors, as the session might be too long. The most sensible way of "displaying" sound is, indeed, if there is more than one to be exhibited, to isolate in rooms or through individual headphones.
The question of how the curator will handle the information on these devices, how it will interact with the rest of the exhibition and a view of its target audience still needs to be answered, and it will affect negatively the whole exhibition experience if these are not prepared appropriately. Once these multimedia devices are available to the public, as extra opportunities to learn more about the museum and the institution, there is also the curatorial control of information.
Probably, as exhibitions are constantly changing regardless of the media or sense approached, sound exhibits will evolve and dramatically change with time.
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