With Hidden Noise is an exploration of sound art that invites gallery and museum visitors to spend time listening with ears they may not know they have… Titled after Marcel Duchamp’s readymade of a ball of string containing a mysterious sound-making object hidden in its folds, this Exhibition in a Box brings together evocative sounds, some recognizable from traditional instruments and field recordings, and others masked through electronic processes.
Sound art has a long lineage that can be traced back to the Futurist manifesto and through to subsequent movements and genres, such as Fluxus, Conceptual art and performance art, and up to the most recent artistic uses of the latest developments in new technologies. Over the last 15 years a number of larger survey shows have tracked this history, but With Hidden Noise makes an understanding and experiencing of sound art accessible to a wider range of venues.
This self-contained sound art exhibition pares down the installation to a single set of surround-sound speakers (5 speakers plus a subwoofer) adaptable to a broad range of spaces, allowing for many presentation possibilities. Also included are a number of books and catalogues on contemporary sound art that may be distributed around the gallery for those who like to read as they listen. A further reading list, videography and programming suggestions are also provided, making this exhibition as adaptable and expandable as desired.
With Hidden Noise is part of ICI’s Exhibitions in a Box series. Produced by Independent Curators International (ICI), New York, this exhibition is curated by Stephen Vitiello. With Hidden Noise is made possible, in part, by a grant from the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts; the Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation; the Robert Sterling Clark Foundation; and the ICI Board of Trustees.