MoMA's 2013 Soundings Exhibition Critiqued for Visual Bias, Highlights Winderen and Philipsz

The Museum of Modern Art's first dedicated sound art exhibition, Soundings: A Contemporary Score, ran from August 10 to November 3, 2013, at its New York City location. The show was criticized for prioritizing visual appraisal over sonic experience, limiting the expressive potential of the genre. Among the works, Jana Winderen's Ultrafield (2013) used pitched-down ultrasound recordings of bats, fish, and insects in a sixteen-channel installation. Susan Philipsz's Study for Strings (2012) drew from a 1943 composition by Pavel Haas, created in a concentration camp and later used in Nazi propaganda, focusing on viola and cello parts with abrupt silences. Jacob Kirkegaard's Aion (2006) featured layered video and audio from Chernobyl's derelict buildings, referencing Alvin Lucier's I Am Sitting in a Room. Carsten Nicolai's wellenwanne lfo (2012) translated inaudible sounds into visual patterns, while Richard Garet's Before Me assembled obsolete sound equipment with a rolling marble. Tristan Perich's Microtonal Wall (2011) allowed visitors to manipulate pitch changes via a grid of tiny speakers. The curation was noted for a scientific, mechanical approach that favored investigation over emotional affect.