Beyond Borders
Susan Philipsz · Curator The Museum Journal · 2019
Abstract The paper argues that museums have focused on the separation of the senses, with galleries dedicated primarily to visual learning modalities, while performance spaces are more likely to preference listening as a dedicated task for the stationary listener. The author/artist argues that gallery architecture and auditorium acoustics can be so well designed that they exclude possibility. Secondarily, she argues that the designs may as likely ignore the auditory to the degree that experience in one space can overwhelm the purpose of adjacent space. This reflection on history, acoustics, and atmosphere are manipulated in three installations to illustrate how creating art in public spaces and museum settings can transform experience. The artist highlights how to manipulate the characteristics of sound, how sound travels, echoes and reverberates, in ways that can extend perception.