Increasingly, sound is deliberately placed into art exhibitions from video art to installation, from performance to sound art. Sound is also incidentally present in the architectural environment, in the ambience of the space and the noise generated by the audience. To date there has been minimal scholarship directed towards the intricacies of sound within the bounds of the purportedly visual art gallery. The book aims to address this gap in knowledge through the examination of historical and contemporary sound in gallery environments. This will include the deliberate inclusion of sound in...

Sound is an integral part of contemporary art. Once understood to be a marginal practice, increasingly we encounter sound in art exhibitions through an array of sound making works in various art forms, at times played to very high audio levels. However, works of art are far from the only thing one might hear: music performances, floor talks, exhibition openings and the noisy background sounds that emanate from the gallery cafe fill contemporary exhibition environments. Far from being hallowed spaces of quiet reflection, what this means is that galleries have swiftly become very noisy...