Moving beyond John Cage's influential focus on "sound-as-sound," this study explores how installation and media artists reveal the material realities hidden within sonic experience. Sound emerges from material contestation-there can be no sound without the shifting of matter. Yet in our fractured relationship with materials, we have often forgotten these physical origins. Caleb Kelly argues that by listening to the edges of the sonic, where sound is not always aesthetic, we can think differently about both media and matter.Spanning two pivotal periods in art history, Material Sound traces the shift from the dematerialisation of art objects in the mid-20th century to contemporary practices that make tangible our material realities. The book examines artists who are well known for their sound-based practices, including Len Lye, Max Neuhaus and Laurie Anderson, alongside others not typically associated with sound, such as Robert Rauschenberg, Vito Acconci and Nancy Holt. The book also focuses on contemporary artists from the Asia-Pacific region, expanding the critical context for sound studies beyond Western perspectives.Drawing on extensive archival research and critical attention to artworks from both internationally renowned and under-recognized artists, Material Sound offers transformative insights into how mediated art experiences can deepen our understanding of ecological realities by listening to materials.
Format: Paperback / softback
CONTRIBUTORS: Caleb Kelly
EAN: 9781915983633
COUNTRY: United Kingdom
PAGES: 248
WEIGHT:
HEIGHT: 229 mm
PUBLISHED BY: Goldsmiths, University of London
DATE PUBLISHED: 2026-11-17
CITY:
GENRE: ART / Art & Politics, MUSIC / Philosophy & Social Aspects
WIDTH: 152 mm
SPINE:
Book Themes:
Theory of music and musicology
Caleb Kelly is an academic, curator, and event director specializing in sound arts. He is Associate Professor of Media Art Theory at UNSW Art & Design and the author of Gallery Sound (2017) and Cracked Media (2009). Caleb also edited Sound (2011), part of the Documents of Contemporary Art series. As a curator, Caleb's recent projects include "Material Sound" (2018) for MAMA in Albury, which toured Australia's east coast from 2020-2022, and "Materials, Sounds and the Black Mountain College" at the Black Mountain College Museum in Asheville. His work bridges theoretical inquiry and curatorial practice in the expanding field of sound art. He lives in Australia.