Sound Art – Klangkunst – Ljudkonst – different languages, different meanings?

Defined as an interdisciplinary genre, sound art derives from several artistic traditions. This is clearly mirrored by the theoretical discourse on sound art, where different approaches towards different artistic medias have been developed, and where different significations for the concept sound art in its different translations can be traced. The Swedish concept ljudkonst will be discussed in relation to the German Klangkunst and the Anglo-American sound art. The German musicology often stresses the Klangkunst as a genre where the spatiality is emphasized, and the sound is used as a material to investigate or articulate a certain location. The Anglo-American’s sound art on the other hand is often connected to a time based dramaturgy closely connected to John Cage and the expanded concept of music. In the text I will discuss this phenomenon related to the Swedish concept ljudkonst, and the lack of a Swedish discourse which focuses on spatial related forms of sound art, as the sound installation.