Curated by Mendi and Keith Obadike
When invited to curate an exhibition from the Rhizome Artbase, we were delighted to comb through the archived projects. Over the years we have been surfing the Artbase, watching the evolution of Internet art. The styles of interactivity and narrative have changed from moment to moment. But as artists who make sound art and net.art, one thing that has always fascinated us is the intersection of what some might consider separate fields.
How we listen, when we listen, and where we listen are as important as what we hear in sound art. What effect does the web have on our experience of listening? In an essay called "What's Wrong with Sound Art" Ian Andrews implies that sound art is a craft still looking for its medium:
. . . [P]erformed in front of an audience [sound art] can too easily be perceived as music or theater. If sound art happens on radio it becomes radiphonics or, again, music. So sound art ends up in the heavily culturally coded environment of the art gallery. . . . [T]he pieces which attain the position of highest importance in the hierarchy usually have a strong visual presence . . .
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