While I don’t imagine sound art is a part of many school art programs, it is gaining increasing acceptance in contemporary art circles. Given it’s interdisciplinary nature, sound art seems a fertile area for classroom exploration and building connections between school subjects and with contemporary culture. Still, I’m curious how art teachers, especially those teaching digital media, view sound art? Is it something you teach? If not, what challenges do you see in trying to introduce sound art in a school art program?
Bicycle Samba (2007) was produced and directed by Sophie Clements, a London-based visual artist, working specifically in relation to sound and music. Sound design by John Hendicott.
My county’s curriculum does include both a fourth grade and a fifth grade lesson on interpreting sound through art. One is supposed to result in a painting and the other a print. When I have taught the lesson I have had the students do digital images with Pixie. I never feel confident, however, that I am doing the lesson justice. I just feel as though I do not understand the topic well enough to teach it. This year I had other lessons left over at the end of the year that I could use, and just avoided the sound lessons altogether. jan
[...] few days ago, The Art Teacher’s Guide to the Internet made a post about Sound Art. A friend passed on the following clip to me (thanks Brian D). I love [...]
Appreciate the comments. Great video, Frank!
I’ve been interested in sound art for years. In college, I created a series of experimental instruments, including the cutchtar: a crutch/6 string guitar hybrid. Last year I found myself teaching a 1 semester Art and Music Appreciation class. As we all know, the best way to appreciate something is to create it, so my class designed, and built experimental found object based instruments. They then had to write and perform a composition for the class. It was a challenging but rewarding and successful project. A google search for “experimental instruments” will bring up a wealth of resources. http://www.windworld.com/links.htm has links to incredible resources. Ken Butler, a brooklyn artist has been doing this for years. His hybrid guitars and violins are inspiring for students.
Great project idea, Robb: Build your own instrument from a found object. Thanks for sharing your experience, ideas, and the Web resource.
As music opens up to art through issues of space and installation, so does art to music in regards to time and video. Artists I like to look at/listen to when talking about Sound Art are John Cage, very quickly becoming as important to art history as to music, Harry Partch (instrument builder), then of course Kandinsky and Klee for historical precedents. Eric Carle is into incorporating sound into his children’s books, which is fun for kids to start to relate the two mediums together. We did a simple sound sculpture for ages 4-12 in a camp once where artists used materials for both their visual and aural properties. Another one I love is the Futurist Marinetti and his noise “scores”.
[...] in June, I asked whether “Sound Art” was being taught in K-12 art programs and suggested it was [...]