Over this year, Seismograf Magazine has published two special issues entirely dedicated to women in sound, called “Focus Sounding Women’s Work”, in which they aim “to put sound to the professional minority of artists who identify as women, […] to create horizons, show the versatility and the artistic weight that is often forgotten or more less unconsciously deselected in history writing, teaching, research, museum exhibitions, shows and festivals.”
With this Focus, we will shed light on what gender and gendered expectations mean for artists who identify as women. The contributions, which can be read here, are a rare opportunity to enter the engine room and learn about the artists’ different conditions, practices, technologies, motivations, starting points, political motivations and aesthetic strategies.
There are plenty of numbers today that show us that composers, musicians and sound artists who identify as women are in the minority when it comes to representation on stages, festivals, museums, in academic research and music education. But even though there is an increased focus on gender and representation in the sound art and music industry, the experience of gendered expectations, and how these permeate everything from work practices to infrastructures in the sound art and music life, is still an under-illuminated field.
Read: