I think the way in which sound arts exist in time / the fourth dimension as well as space is a notable part of what sound arts are. Sound exists differently in this fourth dimension, it is intangible and silky. A piece of sound art exists over a certain duration of time – and like a film it can also loop; but it can also sound different to the listener depending on where they are in the room relative to the speaker output, whether that speaker output is stereo or mono or spatial, and can change depending on the architecture of a space.
I also think of Hiroshi Yoshimura, who wrote in the liner notes for his environmental music album ‘Surround’: “If Surround can be listened to as music that’s as close to air itself, allowing us to enter each listener’s sound scenery, or as something that exists within a new perspective, expanding the middle ground between sound and music, and transforming it into a comfortable space, it would be much appreciated.” [Yoshimura, 1986] (My italics).
The way that sound exists in space and time, whether to be experienced through Pauline Oliveros’ practice of ‘deep listening’, or to be a part of the background of one’s life as Yoshimura intended is one of the primary attentions of sound artists. The way in which we listen to everyday sounds and how we relate to this “middle ground between sound and music” is a large and notable part of what sound art is.
References:
Wong, M.-S. (2013). Sound Art. [online] Available at: https://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/display/document/obo-9780199757824/obo-9780199757824-0106.xml [Accessed 1 Oct. 2025].
Yoshimura, H. (1986). Surround. Available at: https://hiroshi-yoshimura.bandcamp.com/album/surround
Addendum:
Mandy-Suzanne Wong writes: “Often sound artists explore the relationships between sound and space or environment; sound and technology; sound and listening”. My current practice as a sound artist centres on the relationship between sound and words. My current practice includes “soundscape compositions”, “field recording”, “ambient music”, “soundwalks”, “sound design” [Wong, 2013] and songwriting.
Privileging the act of listening over seeing can feel disruptive to Western culture and sound arts also has the ability to disrupt these notions through the ways that it restructures our relationship to experiencing art. When we watch a theatre show for instance, the audience’s instinct is to pay attention to the actors on stage rather than listen to the work of the sound designer. Since time is such a large part of theatre, and since sound exists in time/the fourth dimension differently to bodies in a space – sound can be read as a disruption to colonialist and capitalist stories about time. [Wilson, 2025] I mention this to address the function of sound arts to “comment on the way sound functions in various cultural arenas” [Wong, 2013].
Wilson, M. (2025) ‘Melanie Wilson: Artist’s Talk’. School of Sound.