In the Blink of an Ear: Toward a Non-cochlear Sonic Art

"Eyes in Ears: Art in Music / Music in Art since 1948" traces the interactions and mutual influences of art and music over the past sixty years. It presents a narrative of late-Modern/Postmodern artistic practice, connecting familiar events, figures and works to less-familiar precedents and antecedents from within their own fields and from across the aisle. What do Pierre Schaeffer's initial experiments in musique concrete, John Cage's first proposal for a 'silent' piece ("Silent Prayer"), and what many music historians consider to be the first rock and roll song: the Orioles' "It's Too Soon to Know" all have in common? A year of pivotal importance - 1948. "Eyes in Ears: Art in Music / Music in Art since 1948" traces the interactions and mutual influences of art and music over the past sixty years. It presents a narrative of late-Modern/Postmodern artistic practice, connecting familiar events, figures and works to less-familiar precedents and antecedents from within their own fields and from across the aisle. Surprisingly, there is no extant book which covers the confluence of the art and music world. "Eyes in Ears" will both document the ways in which music and the gallery arts have infiltrated each others' domains and will theorize the implications of these incursions. Finally, based on the interactions of art and music over the past sixty years, the book will provide an account of the birth of sound art as a distinct practice.