When sound becomes art: the world of sound art 

Sound art is a special art form that stimulates the senses in a different way than visual art or theater. Focused not on the eye, but on the ear, it invites a different way of perceiving. By playing with space, time and sound, sound art challenges our thinking and opens new perspectives on our environment. An art discipline that is inspiring more and more artists and audiences. 

Sound art: art for listening 

Sound art is an art form in which sound plays the leading role. Not music in the traditional sense, but sounds from everyday life; natural and urban sounds, sounds from objects and electronically generated sounds are used as material for installations and multimedia artworks. As in the Nxt Museum (Amsterdam), Sonic Acts (Amsterdam) or the Uncloud Festival (Utrecht), where large-scale immersive works bring disciplines together. Makers such as Mariska de Groot, Heleen Blanken and Ji Youn Kang combine spatial installations and sound into experiences that make space audible and visible.

Pioneers such as R. Murray Schafer, Michael Asher, Joseph Beuys, Max Neuhaus and Alan Lamb explored the power of sound art early on. They were followed by Janet Cardiff, Christina Kubisch, Ryoji Ikeda, Maryanne Amacher and Susan Philipsz, among others, who each demonstrated in their own way that sound can be not only audible, but also spatial. For example, these artists use spatial audio, a system that places sound three-dimensionally in the room with eight, sixteen or more speakers, maximizing the effect.

Radio and sound art

Worldwide, several radio stations and platforms (mostly online) pay structural attention to sound art: Ö1 Arts Radio (ORF, Austria) and Deutschlandfunk Kultur - Klangkunst (Germany) have been setting the tone for decades; in the U.K. do Resonance FM and Soundart Radio that with 24/7 arts radio. In North America, profiling Wave Farm/WGXC (USA) and NAISA Radio (Canada) are establishing themselves as hubs for transmission and sound art, while in Latin America Radio Tsonami (Chile) is a reference.

Noise Radio

Because no specific broad platform for sound art existed in the Netherlands, Wijnand Bredewold founded in early 2023 noise-radio.com up, an online platform and 24/7 radio station for sound art and experimental music. The archive grows continuously with field recordings, soundscapes, experimental compositions and generative audio from creators worldwide. Everything is free to listen to, live and on-demand. The mission: non-profit, open to national and international creators.

Dutch context

The Netherlands has a modest but significant tradition in sound art: in the 1980s and 1990s, the Apollohuis (Eindhoven, led by Paul Panhuysen) pioneered sound installations, sound sculptures and improvisation, while STEIM (Amsterdam) developed tools and supported artists with residencies, workshops and performances, until it closes in 2020 after losing funding.

Today, attention is spread across festivals, media and platforms, often regionally: BUG Radio provides space for innovative audio works and organizes with, among others. Radio Tonka and the Institute of Sonology the festival On Air - On Site (The Hague), and Sonic Acts (Amsterdam, since 1994) serves as a leading interdisciplinary hub at the intersection of sound, technology, science and art. In addition, it programs Zone2Source (Amsterdam) sound art.

In the broader festival field, Amsterdam Dance Event (ADE) made the capital the center of electronic music for a week; Rewire (The Hague) balances between concert, performance and sound art; in Utrecht, it gives Le Guess Who? curators takes the reigns and launches Gaudeamus young creators and new music; on the islands mix Oerol (Terschelling) and Into The Great Wide Open (Vlieland) nature and sound; and STRP (Eindhoven) connects art and tech. Together they show the breadth of the Dutch sound landscape. In the Netherlands, artists are each renewing the medium in their own way. Marieke van de Ven shows in her installation Sand how material and listening experience come together, while Justin Bennett in Shotgun Architecture translates urban field recordings into spatial compositions. Edwin van der Heide in Pneumatic Sound Field explores the physical experience of air and sound waves, putting the audience in the middle of a constantly changing soundscape.

International context

Internationally, various festivals and platforms take center stage: Sónar (Barcelona) connects electronic music and technology; Mutek (Montreal) focuses on digital creativity and audiovisual performance. In Vienna presents TONSPUR outdoor installations; Transmedial (Berlin) explores sound within digital art and media. Unsound (Krakow) explores ambient and noise; Festival Futura (France) focuses on electro-acoustic music.
Also notable are Tsonami (Chile; field recordings and acoustic ecology), Audiograft (Oxford; small-scale experimental) and the Make Sound Residency (Nantes) for research and presentations of works.

Sound art is also constantly broadening and deepening internationally. Hildegard Westerkamp connects listening with landscape, and Jana Winderen is known for its underwater recordings of invisible ecosystems. Jacob Kirkegaard examines acoustic phenomena such as resonances in abandoned spaces, while Anna Friz works with radio as an artistic medium. KMRU, hailing from Nairobi, creates poetic field recordings and soundscapes merging tradition and contemporary electronica.