It’s their versatility. I’ve always admired people who don’t hesitate, and have the talent, to move on from one field of art to another, people who know how to harness their creativity in manifold ways. There’s another reason for why sound artists might not be that eager in fixing their identity. To the question about the complex relationship of sound art and music, Emma offers an ingenious solution on her website: ”Sound art is what sound artists do” is not just a trivial tautology, as it might be in other fields of art.Īlso, for Emma, sound art is not an art form still in its early development stage (in the process of developing its own norms and demarcation lines) but something rather conventional even too conventional given that she says she could think of working with young people with no preconceptions and expectations.Įverybody does it, she says, and I do get the point. That answer, referring to a version of the so called institutional theory (let the institution determine), says nothing about the nature or the essence of sound art itself, but points to the fact that when it comes to sound art, answering such a question need not be the number one priority of the artist. If the sound art performance takes place in an art gallery, as they often do, it comes close to being part of fine art if the venue is a concert hall or similar, then it’s more like a musical performance. Nevertheless, classifying, which involves inventing new terms, concepts and distinctions, is the first step in critical thinking and self-reflection, so one can always make a try. It do know artists readily evade the issue by shrugging their shoulders and expressing their unwillingness to do pigeonholing. Just before Emma’s gig, it was our intention to briefly discuss Biblioteque Mdulair, the ”analogical-experimental” duo of Geneva-based Emma Souharce and Daniel Maszkowicz, with some 15 stacked analogue function generators “played” four-handed.īefore setting off I decide to pose Emma a quick but wider aesthetic question (ontology of a work of art), which I know bothers some sound art theorists: what is it that makes a piece of sound art a piece of sound art?