The unreliable mediator

Within the array of sounding devices that have been deployed in the making of sound art, the speaker has a special status. Although not ubiquitous, the extent of the speaker’s influence on sound art cannot be underestimated, and yet for many artists the speaker remains an obstinate, unyielding thing, acknowledged for its function but not embraced for its form. Sound art has frequently positioned itself within the discourse of contemporary sculpture and installation art and, as such, both the affordances of sound itself and the materials of its technical apparatus need to be understood as different dimensions of what constitutes its medium. This brief survey of the uses of speakers in sound art uses Lucier’s Music on a Long Thin Wire as a case study in which the speaker is utilized not just for its ability to convey sonic meaning generated elsewhere but also as a thing in its own right.

Une figure sculptée de saint Aré conservée au Bayerisches Nationalmuseum de Munich : Michel Colombe et la sculpture tourangelle hors les murs ?*

In the rooms of the Bayerisches Nationalmuseum in Munich, the astonishing sculpture of Saint Are stands out. The sixth-century bishop of Nevers is depicted lying dead on the bottom of the small boat that miraculously sailed up the Loire as far as the village of Decize. It is for the church of this locality that this sculpture was made, probably after depredations committed to the treasure of the sanctuary in 1484. A stylistic analysis reveals the close links of this work with contemporary sculpture in Touraine, particularly with the anonymous figure of a bishop now kept in Saint-Saturnin at Limeray (Indre-et- Loire). The same hand of an artist who seems to have worked in the entourage of Michel Colombe must be recognized in both works. The documented presence of the great sculptor in Moulins in 1484 further supports this presumption.

Precarious, fragile and temporary interactions between the public sculpture collection of Santo Tirso and its non-specialized audience

The following article depicts ongoing research from the project Quiet Dialogues, part of a Ph.D. thesis in artistic education in the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Porto. Quiet Dialogues is a project that aims to map, explore and materialize the interactions that occur between the passer-by audience of the city and the International Museum of Contemporary Sculpture of Santo Tirso. The project’s resulting map will be in a public online archive showcasing all the interactions collected during the research. As the museum displays its artworks in the public space, this research explores three behavioural categories the audience may react towards the artwork. They are as follows: a mental relationship (a stand-off with the memory), a physical relationship (using the sculpture as shelter or support) and a playful interaction (using the sculpture as a game or in a ludic approach).