UC San Diego UC San Diego Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title Sound art and spatial practices : situating sound installation art since 1958 Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/4d50k2fp Author Ouzounian, Gascia Publication Date 2008 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN DIEGO Sound Art and Spatial Practices: Situating Sound Installation Art Since 1958 A Dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in Music by Gascia Ouzounian Committee in charge: Professor Anthony Davis, Co-Chair Professor Jann Pasler, Co-Chair Professor Adriene Jenik Professor George Lewis Professor Lev Manovich 2008 Copyright Gascia Ouzounian, 2008 All rights reserved. The Dissertation of Gascia Ouzounian is approved, and it is acceptable in quality and form for publication on microfilm: __________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________ Co-Chair __________________________________________________________ Co-Chair University of California, San Diego 2008 iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Signature Page…………………………………………………………………..…iii Table of Contents……………………………………………………………….…iv List of Figures………………………………………………………………………..vii Acknowledgments………………………………………………………………....x Vita………………………………………………………………………………......xiii Abstract………………………………………………………….…………………xix Chapter One SITUATED SPACES 1.1 Traces………………………………………………………………….....1 1.2 Spatial Practices………………………………………………………..9 1.3 Situated Knowledges…………………………………………..……11 1.4 Roots……………………………………………………………..……...14 1.5 Spatial Productions…………………………………………….…….17 1.6 Sound and the Production of Place……………………….……..19 1.7 Situated Sonic Practices………………………………………….…23 1.8 Space and Place: Definitions………………………………………27 1.9 Sonic Arts Discourses………………………………………………....32 1.10 Chapters Outline…………………………………………………....37 1.11 Conclusion………………………………………………………..….44 Chapter Two ACOUSTIC SPACES+VISUAL SPACES 2.1 Introduction: Taking Possession of Space………………………..46 2.2 Postwar Music and the Spatial Imagination……………….……53 2.3 Sound Projected into Space……………………………………….58 2.4 The Philips Pavilion: An “espace acoustique”…………………..63 2.5 To All Mankind…………………………………………………….…..69 2.6 “Poème électronique”………………………………………………79 2.7 Conclusion……………………………………………………………..86 Chapter Three EVERYDAY SPACES +SOCIAL SPACES 3.1 Introduction: A Situationist Intervention………………………….90 3.2 Western Art, Music, and the Everyday………………………...…95 3.3 LISTEN………………………………………………………………..…109 3.4 “Sound Installation Art”: An Everyday Poetics………………...112 3.5 LISTEN: Contemporary Resonances……………………………..122 iv 3.6 Conclusion……………………………………………………………126 Chapter Four CONCEPTUAL SPACES 4.1Introduction: Disappearing Art…………………………………...129 4.2 Toward Events……………………………………………………….139 4.3 Little Enlightenments……………………………………..………...147 4.4 From Event Score to Action Music……………………………....149 4.5 Disappearing Music…………………………………………….…..153 4.6 Action Music as Fluxus Performance……………………………157 4.7 From Action Music to Performance Sculpture………….……..167 4.8 Conclusion……………………………………………………………176 Chapter Five EMBODIED SPACES 5.1 Introduction: Embodied Listening……………………….……….179 5.2 HEADSCAPES…………………………………………………………185 5.3 Listening Technologies and Rituals of Listening……………….192 5.4 Alien Acts: Making the Third Ear………………………………….197 5.5 Conclusion……………………………………………………………202 Chapter Six CONTESTED SPACES 6.1 Introduction…………………………………………………………..204 6.2 PART ONE: Anna Friz Radio, Place, and Non-Places…..….…211 6.3 Anna Friz, Modern Day Feminist Techno-Pirate……………….216 6.4 Clandestine Transmissions…………………………………………219 6.5 Vacant Cities: Supermodernity and Displacement………….224 6.6 Toward a Critical Utopia…………………………………………..228 6.7 The Lure of the Local……………………………………………….232 6.8 PART TWO: Kara Lynch Key………………………………….…… 234 6.9 Zones of Cultural Haunting………………………………………..240 6.10 Zone 1: Polyvalent Media………………………………………..250 6.11 Zone 2: Water………………………………………………………258 6.12 Zone 3: Blood……………………………………………………….265 6.13 Zone 4: Bodies……………………………………………………...270 6.14 The Boundary of the Map………………………………………..276 Chapter Seven CONCLUSION ………………..……………………………...279 Appendix A SELECTED SPATIAL SOUND WORKS+TECHNOLOGIES……...294 Appendix B SELECTED SOUND ART EXHIBITS…………………………….…..332 v Appendix C INTERVIEWS WITH ANNA FRIZ…………………………………..345 REFERENCES………………………………………………………………………359 vi LIST OF FIGURES Figure 2.1: The Philips Pavilion under construction in 1958. Photographer: Hans de Boer……………………………………………...……64 Figure 2.2: Near the entrance to the Philips Pavilion in 1958. Photographer: Hans de Boer…………………………………………………...65 Figure 2.3: Le Corbusier, Notre-Dame du Haut Ronchamp (1950- 54).…………………………………………………………….……………….…….68 Figure 2.4: Stills from segment 1, “Genesis,” in the luminous poem: the bull and toreador, the Greek statue, and “Eve”………………………73 Figure 2.5: Stills from segment 2, “Matter and Harmony,” in the luminous poem: technological man and primitive woman…………..….75 Figure 2.6: Stills from segment 7, “To All Mankind,” in the luminous poem: the Modular Man, and modular forms…………………………..….76 Figure 2.7: Stills from segment 7, “To All Mankind,” in the luminous poem: one tribe, the new humanity……………………………………….…78 Figure 3.1: La Monte Young and Marian Zazeela, Dream House (1963-ongoing). Photographer: Marian Zazeela (1993)………………....102 Figure 3.2: Max Neuhaus, Drive-In Music (1967). Drawing by Max Neuhaus…………………………………………………………………………...114 Figure 3.3: Max Neuhaus, Times Square (1977-92; 2002-present). Drawing by Max Neuhaus………………………………………………...…...118 Figure 3.4: Heidi Fast, Lullaby Action (2006). Photographer: Pekka Mäkinen. Courtesy of Heidi Fast………………………………………………124 Figure 4.1: Tom Marioni, “One Second Sculpture” (1969). Photo: Tom Marioni.………………………………………………………………..….…131 Figure 4.2: Terry Fox, “Action for a Tower Room” (1972). Photo: Terry Fox………………………………………………………………………..….132 vii Figure 4.3: Terry Fox “Suono Interno” (1979). Photographer: Gery Wolf…………………………………………………………………………………134 Figure 4.4: Charles Shore, “Kinds of Art that Vanish As They’re Being Done,” Oakland Tribune, 13 January 1980………………………………...135 Figure 4.5: George Brecht, “The Case”……………………………………..141 Figure 4.6: George Brecht, Motor Vehicle Sundown (Event) (1960). Performance score……………………………………………………………...142 Figure 4.7: George Brecht, “Three Aqueous Events” (1961). Performance score……………………………………………………..…….…146 Figure 4.8: George Brecht performing “Three Aqueous Events”………146 Figure 4.9: La Monte Young, “Composition 1960 #3” (14 May 1960)…152 Figure 4.10: Shigeko Kubota performing “Vagina Painting” (4 July 1965). Photographer: George Maciunas….…………………..…..165 Figure 4.11: Terry Fox and Joseph Beuys, “Isolation Unit” (1970). Photographer: Ute Klophaus………………………………………………….172 Figure 4.12: Paul Kos, “The Sound of Ice Melting” (1970), Museum of Conceptual Art. Photographer: Paul Kos.…………………………...….176 Figure 5.1: Laurie Anderson, Handphone Table (1978). Photographer: Laurie Anderson………………………………..…………….181 Figure 5.2: Bernhard Leitner, Sound Tube (1973)…………………………..187 Figure 6.1: Rebecca Belmore, Ayum-ee-aawach Oomam a-mowan (1991). Photographer: Don Lee…………………...…206 Figure 6.2: Santiago Sierra, 2 Maraca Players (2002). Photo: Santiago Sierra………………………………………………………………...…207 Figure 6.3: Mendi+Keith Obadike, 4-1-9 (2005). Internet, gallery installation, and live performance. Photo: Mendi+Keith Obadike…….208 Figure 6.4: The barefoot corpse of Laura Nelson. May 25, 1911, viii Okemah, Oklahoma. Photographer: G. H. Farnum,1911……….…….…236 Figure 6.5: The lynching of Laura Nelson and her son, L.W., with several dozen onlookers. May 25, 1911, Okemah, Oklahoma. Photographer: G.H. Farnum, 1911………………………………………..….236 Figure 6.6: Invitation to Invisible, “Episode 03. Here And Now: Meet Me in Okemah, OK Circa 1911,” front. Design: Chris Ferreria. Courtesy of Kara Lynch…………………………………………………….…..238 Figure 6.7: Invitation to Invisible, “Episode 03. Here And Now: Meet Me in Okemah, OK Circa 1911,” back. Design: Chris Ferreria. Courtesy of Kara Lynch…………………………………………………….…..238 Figure 6.8: “Episode 03” from Invisible. Department of Visual Art, University of California, San Diego. 1-7 December 2003. Photographer: Kara Lynch. Courtesy of Kara Lynch…………………......246 Figure 6.9: “Episode 03” from Invisible. Installed at the Visual Art Department, University of California, San Diego, 1-7 December 2003. Photographer: Kara Lynch. Courtesy of Kara Lynch………….…..247 Figure 6.10: Kara Lynch’s setting of “Strange Fruit” and “Miss Otis Regrets” in “strangemissotis.” Adapted from Kara Lynch, 2005. Courtesy of Kara Lynch………………………………………………………...269 ix ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I am deeply grateful for the support of my committee, who provided invaluable guidance at every stage of this work. Jann Pasler, Anthony Davis, George Lewis, Adriene Jenik, and Lev Manovich inspired me to think and write critically; without their advice, encouragement, and good humor this work would have been far less rewarding. Jann Pasler helped create an environment at UCSD that fostered serious debate, collaboration, and interdisciplinarity; her vision for a critical studies program fueled my work in countless ways. Anthony Davis consistently encouraged me with imaginative and sensitive advice; I am grateful for our conversations and collaborations throughout the years. Like many of