I’ve never been to a symphony before. I imagine a large auditorium and myself to be a small speck in the dark of the audience. I imagine a grand stage and the singular back of a conductor. I imagine an even grander performance with a loud echoing linger of sounds in my eras. I think that would have been how Yves Klein wanted his “Monotone-Silence Symphony” to be.
In the symphony, an orchestra and a chorus plays the D major chord and stops for 20 minutes of silence. Klein claims that the stillness, a joint effort between the performers and the spectators, as the D major echoes is his real “symphony and not the sounds during its performance.”
So the question here is, is silence art? I think it is. Roland Dahinden, the conductor of this piece, claims that in the silence, “you start to hear some melodies and some fragments of melodies, and yet nobody is playing them.” The definition of art is subjective; I define it as anything that has something to be taken from. And in the silence that Klein envisioned, it invoked a response in the audience.
The power of silence is strong because we are left to own devices. We become aware of our own heartbeats, the breath of the person sitting next to us, and the sounds in the air. We hear something, whether externally or internally, and come to realize that “silence is not a nothing,” as pointed out by Daniel Moquay, the overseer of Klein archive.
But then, if we hear things, is that really silence? Isn’t silence where not even the slightest sound is audible? So in life, are we ever really in silence if we can hear our own thoughts? Silence is art; equally, noise is art.
Kennedy, Randy. “A Sound, Then Silence (Try Not to Breathe).” The New York Times. The New York Times Company, 17 Sept. 2013. Web. 20 Sept. 2013.
Thats a intriguing concept, is silence art? I was not convinced until you said “We become aware of our own heartbeats, the breath of the person sitting next to us, and the sounds in the air. ” And it lead me to believe that an auditorium full of people would probably be very loud, even without music. We could reflect on the world around us, with no outside forces making us feel any which way. I also believe that there is a room somewhere, I think Australia that is considered the quietest room in the world. The room absorbs the sounds inside of it instead of reflect them and people begin to hear their heartbeat and other processes, and it is so intense the longest anybody has ever stayed in it is 45 minutes. Very cool article and point of view.
This is very interesting. I went on YouTube to watch a clip of this symphony. There was the D major chord and then the long silence. It seemed very awkward to me. I couldn’t stay for the entire 10 minute video. I just couldn’t see the significance in it. But I believe I would see it differently if I were actually in the audience. Anyway, this is very unique and eye-opening.
This article made me wonder how I would feel if I were sitting in the audience. The truth is, I am not really sure. I am stuck between two extremes. I would either think that the silence was completely absurd and is not art in the slightest way, or i would feel what the symphony is trying to accomplish and absolutely love it.
Additionally, I think that the reaction of the people in the audience would have an effect my perspective. Their expressions and reactions would help me interpret the moment, and therefore I think to experience silence in the symphony as an art, I would have to see it first hand. I cannot grasp the concept of silence being an art unless I were to experience it.
The famous adage says, “Silence is golden”, of course that bit of wisdom is to teach us the value of listening to others. Silence being art is a whole new concept, one I agree with. Complete, or close to complete silence is very eerie and can definitely bring about a response. You defined art as “anything that has something to be taken from” and a 20 minute silence certainly fulfills that prerequisite. The fact that a symphony imposed a 20 minute silence into a piece of music is quite extraordinary, I would have thought to view silence as art one would have to go to a quiet place, surely not a concert.
I thought this article was a very good choice not only because of the interesting content, but any topic that leads us back to the conversation of “what is art” is always fun to discuss.
When I heard about this symphony my first thought was that if doing nothing is art why doesn’t everyone become a composer? I firmly believe that art is subjective but this is a bit too much for me. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t believe that ‘art’ only refers to paintings or classical operas, but I do believe that it should require a certain level of talent.
I’ve heard some weird music and watched some bizarre movies, and while I might not have been a fan of some pieces I could still concede that they were ‘art.’ However the idea of a symphony sitting there in silence seems to me an excuse to advertise something as unique and contemporary. Art comes in all shapes and sizes but that is the point; for something to be innovative it has to actually exist. From my perspective this symphony is not art for the same reason a blank piece of paper is not art. Regardless of how deep and meaningful you try to make it, nothing is still nothing.
Maybe this is close-minded or I am being to literal but I know that if I paid money for nothing I would be a little upset. Why wouldn’t I just stay at home, play a D-major chord on Youtube, and then sit in silence for 20 minutes for free?
I agree with your definition of art, most art that I see allows me to think and relate other subjects to the art. So with silence, I believe it could be considered art. When I try to be silent i can hear all the other sounds around me. I remember in a writing class my teacher asked the class to be silent and write about the sounds that we cold hear and use that as a jumping point for a story. I sometimes use silence to help me focus on school work, it can be a great trigger for the mind.
Noise could also be art. I have heard of symphonies consisting of just feedback bouncing back and forth from microphones and amps. It can be hard to listen to because people prefer sounds to be more agreeable, but sometimes you have to look deeper to understand true art.
I think it’s incredible that we live in a city where it is an option to attend something like a “silent orchestra”. The idea itself is amazing and the fact that it’s being put into action says a lot about the world in which we live in. On the other hand, I don’t know if I actually would want to see this. I feel like I would get impatient, considering my short attention span. Because art is constantly pushing the limits of traditional values, the art of silence is definitely a modern concept, but nonetheless I believe it should be considered art. It may be enjoyable for some people more than others, like I previously stated, I don’t find it desirable to sit through that, but that just makes it more of an art in a way. People always have preferences and we all like to watch different kinds of performances. It’s interesting even the amount of interest the symphony has grabbed, resulting in a sold out show. But it’s great to see an artist’s vision come alive decades later, after Klein’s death.
I really enjoyed reading your opinions on this article. I’ve always been intrigued by the question, “is silence really silence?” It sounds strange, but like you said even when there is no physical sound, we are always left with our own thoughts to interrupt us. So when you brought up the question of never truly having silence I had to agree.
On another note, when you asked can silence be considered art, I have to say yes. Over here the silence you were referring to is not really silence since they are hearing the echo of the previous sounds. However, regardless I think that the ability to create a sound that is able to echo for such a long time is truly incredible and is most definitely a form of art.
This blog post just blew my mind. As I began reading it, I was very hesitant and almost stopped after the first paragraph – no offense to you at all. However, I continued and I’m very happy I did. At first, I thought to myself, “paying money to sit in silence?!” But then I realized, why not? Being able to sit in complete silence like that is really a rarity. Even when you’re home alone there’s always something: a ticking clock, traffic outside, loud neighbors. I think being able to have this silence is definitely an art. I really like how you mentioned what you start becoming aware of when everything’s silent. As a kid, having moments of silence for things like 9/11 seemed pointless to me. But as I got older, I realized how much you can think about when things are silent, and I think that applies to this too. This is really cool!
I really appreciate the ability for Samantha to take this idea of deciding whether silence is art, and changing the discussion into a deeper, philosophical discussion about the definition of art in itself. I agreed with her interpretation that the entire idea of art is subjective and is all about something invoking a response regardless of if it is positive or negative, big or small.
To get more specific, Sam’s discussion on silence is also interesting because in truth hearing your thoughts does break the definition of silence. I guess the closest thing to actual silence than would be meditation where even thoughts aren’t being heard. Even still though I really think silence is synonymous with death or the lack of life. To really be in silence is to be dead, without thought or hearing so there is truly nothing evoking sound.
It is a very interesting philosophical discussion to dive deeper into, but for now I will leave it at that.
I really liked Jake’s view on what silence actually. What Jake says sounds like a true nightmare because it’s only in death where we are unaware of any sound coming from inside or around us. Even deaf people hear something. They may not understand any of the words, but they can hear something. This makes me wonder than what are the origins of silence? Was it used to state moments of obscurity in speech? I feel as if the word silence came about when sound was inexplicably loud and then quickly reduced to nothing. In these moments other sounds probably became more clear because we were searching for that thunderous sound.
This concept was mind blowing. We defined art as something to do with our senses, whether its looking at something, hearing something, touching or feeling something, I guess even tasting something. This article raises the question, is silence sound? Is nothing a sound. If you don’t hear anything, that means you hear nothing. So technically you are hearing something- nothing. Maybe it’s overly complicated to think about it like that though. I think the most intriguing part was that, “you start to hear some melodies and some fragments of melodies, and yet nobody is playing them.” I think we experience this sometimes, when we think we hear music that’s playing but it isn’t, but usually it’s a random phenomena. In this performance, Mr. Klein, manipulates our hearing to make us believe that we might be hearing the instruments playing. The general our comment thread is that silence can be art- which I totally agree with. I’d like to add though, that I don’t think this performance is absolute silence. I think absolute silence is complete auditory silence, as well as silence from our own thoughts- a scenario traditionally associated with death.
This concept was mind blowing. We defined art as something to do with our senses, whether its looking at something, hearing something, touching or feeling something, I guess even tasting something. This article raises the question, is silence sound? Is nothing a sound. If you don’t hear anything, that means you hear nothing. So technically you are hearing something- nothing. Maybe it’s overly complicated to think about it like that though. I think the most intriguing part was that, “you start to hear some melodies and some fragments of melodies, and yet nobody is playing them.” I think we experience this sometimes, when we think we hear music that’s playing but it isn’t, but usually it’s a random phenomena. In this performance, Mr. Klein, manipulates our hearing to make us believe that we might be hearing the instruments playing. The general consensus in our comment thread is that silence can be art- which I totally agree with. I’d like to add though, that I don’t think this performance is absolute silence. I think absolute silence is complete auditory silence, as well as silence from our own thoughts- a scenario traditionally associated with death.
First, I want to apologize because I feel like whenever I comment on these, I bring up something else the article reminds me of and it usually has absolutely nothing to do with the article. Anyways, I’m about to do it again.
There was an exhibit by Marina Abramović at the MoMA a few years back in which she would invite others to sit face-to-face with her in silence. Here is a video that shows a few of her interactions, including one with a fellow artist, Ulay, who she was romantically involved for several years: http://youtu.be/OS0Tg0IjCp4
(And now getting even farther off track… the two ended their relationship by hiking from opposite ends of the Great Wall of China until they met in the middle, where they shared their final embrace and agreed to never see each other again. How cool is that?)
But back to the exhibit… sitting in silence with Abramović actually triggered various emotional responses, even bringing some people to tears. So is silence art? Or is silence an art medium that brings out our inner monologues and makes that art? I’m not really sure but it’s definitely one of the two.
I think this is a very important point when it comes to discussing what is art. When we talked about it in class, we debated as to what can be considered art, but we hadn’t considered that “nothing” could be art. I think silence in our time is very valuable and have never noticed that it can be an art form. However, many people say that silence is golden and that we should try and think about what we say. I think what Yves Klein was trying to get out from the viewer is that silence can actually have an impact on the viewer.
When people sit in silence for twenty minutes in a performance that people aren’t used to have silence in, it can have a huge impact. I think it can change a way a person considers what silence is, especially when the music is put back in.