Art history traditionally concentrates on the visual. Sound has either been ignored or has been appreciated in a highly selective manner within a different discipline: music. This book is about recent attempts by artists trained in (West) Germany to provoke listening experiences to awaken the senses. Their work is revolutionary in artistic terms and in what it reveals about human relations, especially concerning issues of gender.
‘A very eloquent and necessary intervention into the male-dominated canon of sound art.’ — Salomé Voegelin, University of the Arts London
‘Gerda Nettesheim’s stainless steel kitchen sink with piano pedals, transformed to a sound box … ! Noy’s feminist reading of German-based women sound artists is an interdisciplinary wake-up call and superbly well-written: a visually and aurally powerful book.’ — Sarah Wilson, Courtauld Institute of Art
‘A highly original, informative and enlightening study.’ — Rolf Gehlhaar, Professor Emeritus, Coventry University
‘Noy successfully uncovers an untested area in research that traverses art history, music, German history and feminist theory. This publication effectively situates sound and listening at the core of twentieth-century “visual culture”.’ — Professor Wulf Herzogenrath, Director of Visual Arts at the Akademie der Künste, Berlin
All are warmly invited to attend the launch of this book. The event will include short contributions from Professor Simon Shaw-Miller (University of Bristol), Astrid Schmetterling (Goldsmiths), Frances Carey (The Marie-Louise von Motesiczky Charitable Trust) and the author.
Irene Noy was the 2015/16 Sackler Research Forum Fellow. She conducted the research project and network ‘What Sense is There in Art? The Politics of (Multisensory) Experiences’. Noy is the author of Emergency Noises: Sound Art and Gender (Oxford: Peter Lang, 2017). It proposes a gendered reading of the unity between the visual and the aural in works from the 1960s to the ‘80s. Her other publications deal with sensory perception in works created in Britain and Germany. She also co-organised events such as the lecture and workshop series The Listening Art Historian (2012-2013), The Noises of Art conference (2013) and Sound Art Curating conference (2014). Noy gained her PhD from the Courtauld (generously funded by the Marie-Louise von Motesiczky Charitable Trust) and completed an M.A. at the University of Bonn.
Free and open to all, with advance booking required.