What Really is Sound Art?

For Annea Lockwood, Max Neuhaus and Christian Marclay, sound art would refer to exploration of new forms of composition which use sound as a natural element or overlapping it with art and music. Despite the fact that we are constantly surrounded by sound, why is it so difficult for people to recognize and acknowledge that sound can be more than just music? Marclay said that "it is in sound's nature to be free and uncontrollable and to go through the cracks and to go places where it's not supposed to go" and yet, sound art is sometimes confined in the realm of music and not considered as as medium or art. If sounds can be used as a "musical material by composers", can't sounds, then, also can be used as a medium for art and not be labeled as "experimental music"? Some distinctions between music and sound art are clear: music is entertainment and based on consumer's demand while sound art is independent from the public's opinions and focuses on the nature of sound phenomenon.

The link between visual and aural information we receive everyday is strong and possibly inseparable. We often make correlations between sound and visual information. It simply makes sense that they go together hand in hand. However, the concept of sound art is possible when correlations between sound and image are severed. After this disjunction, can sound be appreciated and "take a life of its own." An example of how disjunction is possible is silent films. Silent films, as the name implies, are old films of pure acting, visual information. However, when the synchronous of sound and image were introduced, some complained that it "reduced cinema to little more than canned thearter." This is an example where sound interferes with the delivery of pure visual information. The same also applies when images are linked with sounds, in other words, visualizing the sounds. It is incredibly easy to connect visual and aural information but the idea of disjunction is also highly possible.