Noise or silence: who decides?

[french frank]

I could equally say that a few years ago my experience of the first night of the Proms was spoilt by what came after "Panic" (it was, BUT that's what happens when you go outside and let other people curate things)

Do you mean you enjoyed the music but not the reception it got? Or that the Berio Ritirata Notturna spoiled your experience of the First - or Last Night? In either case there is no real 'equally' when it comes to ambient music at an art exhibition,

[MrGongGong]

Do you mean you enjoyed the music but not the reception it got? Or that the Berio Ritirata Notturna spoiled your experience of the First - or Last Night? In either case there is no real 'equally' when it comes to ambient music at an art exhibition,

Sound is part of art
ALL exhibitions have a sonic component
NOT having a designed sonic component is as much a decision as commissioning a composer to create something specific
OR choosing "music" or other sonic elements to accompany
(again) people who curate visual art exhibitions do consider what people will hear as well as see (and sometimes they include what people smell, what the temperature is etc etc)

So the answer to the "who decides" question is still the person curating the event or experience.

[french frank]

Why didn't you just answer the questions - the ones you quoted? I was asking you to expand on what you meant about the Prom with Panic and what exactly 'spoilt the experience' for you afterwards.

Sound is part of art
ALL exhibitions have a sonic component
NOT having a designed sonic component is as much a decision as commissioning a composer to create something specific
OR choosing "music" or other sonic elements to accompany
(again) people who curate visual art exhibitions do consider what people will hear as well as see (and sometimes they include what people smell, what the temperature is etc etc)

So the answer to the "who decides" question is still the person curating the event or experience.

[Quarky]

I thought of this when I was going round the Celts exhibition at the British Museum the other day. For the first time in my experience, here was an exhibition accompanied by an unremitting soundtrack - an awful repetitive dirge on some kind of primitive flute. Someone's idea of a generic 'Celtic' music, as far as I know unconnected with any actual Celtic music we know anything about. I found it intrusive and maddening.

I've complained, and asked for a reply. I'll let you know what they say.

There was a quote on an early music programme the other day, was it Holborne? :: Music is the decoration of silence.

It appears to follow that if there is no silence, there cannot be music.

[jean]

...So the answer to the "who decides" question is still the person curating the event or experience.

But really, it ought not to be.

I'm rather sorry that Mr GG's views have so dominated this thread, an in the absence of other opinions (has anyone else seen the exhibition I wonder?) I quote from the Guardian review:

But this exhibition patronises with Indiana Jones-style nonsense. A film and photographs, eerie lighting and obtrusive sound effects crank up the volume.

The Evening Standard liked the exhibition better, but still thought

Sunken Cities is partly an immersive environmental installation evoking the wonderment of underwater discovery. It’s not entirely un-childish on this level, but elements of kitsch such as New Age abstract music interwoven with gentle bubbling noises generated electronically, plus light effects to evoke being under water, accompanying every object you encounter, are forgivable. (You forget about them and the effect isn’t even really all that annoying.)

What if you can't forget them, though? As I think I said above, if you're used to listening to music rather than using it as a background you're barely aware of, that's not so easy.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

What if you can't forget them, though? As I think I said above, if you're used to listening to music rather than using it as a background you're barely aware of, that's not so easy.

Precisely. Although some people can block out sounds, many cannot, and the result is an irritating distraction.
Forcing so-called "ambient sounds" on the public is presumptuous and selfish. It's also a waste of money and an insult to the artists.

[french frank]

If the Standard said you could 'forget them', the Guardian called them 'obtrusive' . However, given the description as 'New Age abstract music interwoven with gentle bubbling noises generated electronically', MrGG will definitely be going now - just for the music

What if you can't forget them, though? As I think I said above, if you're used to listening to music rather than using it as a background you're barely aware of, that's not so easy.

[MrGongGong]

But really, it ought not to be.
.

???

curate2
kjʊ(ə)ˈreɪt/
verb
gerund or present participle: curating
select, organize, and look after the items in (a collection or exhibition).
"both exhibitions are curated by the Centre's director"
select the performers or performances that will feature in (an arts event or programme).
"in past years the festival has been curated by the likes of David Bowie"
select, organize, and present (online content, merchandise, information, etc.), typically using professional or expert knowledge.

I've not been to this exhibition but it does sound a bit naff, maybe they could have got someone better to do the sound design ?

[Cockney Sparrow]

To correct myself (upthread) - yes Jean you are correct, no sound at the Sicily exhibition. Mrs CS and myself went again, having had our trip to Sicily, yesterday, before we went on to RAH and Boris G.

It was a recurrent sound at the Celts exhibition in January (which then moved on to Edinburgh I think). Difficult to describe - my best attempt is that it was like feedback, but in itself more stable and palateable, and somehow "slowed down" and smoothed out. Could, I suppose have been a doctored sound from a small hand held bell (thinking Tibetan (or some such)). Probably for most it didn't irritate, but we looked thoroughly at the exhibits and by the end it was irritating. I wonder, if there had been breaks between the sound of say, 5 minutes, it might have been tolerable, but it could be heard from most places in the exhibition.

We'll be doing the sunken cities exhibition, and from the descriptions above, it seems more towards an experience (was going to say installation but I'm not competent in these matters) - maybe a way of economising on the actual content but with the aim of leaving their paying public satisfied they have had return on their time and money? I'll consider complaining if it seems deleterious. Unless there is a complaint, registered, then the organisers can say most most must be happy with it.

What is the campaigning group on this (sorry if its been mentioned already - I've got to leave the computer now....). Gillian Weir must be a patron - (#12):

http://www.for3.org/forums/showthread.php?661-Piped-music/page2&highlight=Piped+Music

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I've not been to this exhibition but it does sound a bit naff, maybe they could have got someone better to do the sound design ?

Someone with a pair of wire clippers, perhaps?

[Serial_Apologist]

Thanks for the warning that one can expect music and/or sounds at exhibitions of painting and sculpture, etc; I shall probably be taking ear plugs in future, although the appearance of them might be off-putting to others in attendance one might otherwise like to exchange a few comments or pleasantries with, as is my wont (being the friendly chap I generally am), generating an air of aloofness.

One solution might be to go round the exhibition once, with earplugs in, so as to experience as nearly as possible the exhibits without the sounds which the artists (presumably) wouldn't have heard or been listening to when they were making the works in question. But one would have to make sure of that first!

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

. . . in fact, I feel so strongly about this that I've changed my avatar.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Perhaps, to make the point, industrial ear defenders might be better.

[MrGongGong]

Perhaps, to make the point, industrial ear defenders might be better.

I'd keep them for the Elgar myself

I do find it extraordinary that (some) folks seem to completely misunderstand how exhibitions and installations are conceived.
To decide that somehow sound is something that should be always left to chance seems to be assuming that the audience is in the position of making the decisions about what is primary. Many curators (that's CURATORS!) consider very closely how audiences will experience what they are assembling and creating. Some people might not like it (by the sound of it I probably wouldn't like the current BM show) but that's always the case (as with the Proms!).
It reminds me of the folks who rant about music in drama productions on the radio, if you don't like it read the book.
Again, whether it's done well or not is another matter entirely.

[ahinton]

I'd keep them for the Elgar myself

But surely mainly for the DoG and not for the First Symphony?...

By the way, speaking of exhibitions and music, did you know that one of the first performances outside England of that "pictures at an exhibition" piece the Enigma Variations was conducted by Busoni?