Sexing Sound: Feminist Episodes in Music Cultures, Audio Practice and Contemporary Art [in progress]
Edited by Valerie Tevere and Siona Wilson
Organized as a visually rich volume of critical essays and archival documents, Sexing Sound: Feminist Episodes in Music Cultures, Audio Practices and Contemporary Art offers a range of feminist approaches to experimental rock, pop and audio practices as they intersect at particularly significant moments with the art world. With an opening section that addresses innovative feminist methodologies for sound and music, the arc of the book follows a series of historically rich thematic “episodes.” These include the late 1960s-1970s move out of the concert halls (e.g., Charlotte Moorman, Pauline Oliveros, and Annea Lockwood), the complexities of race/class/gender/sexuality in punk, the no-wave moment in New York, women in electronic music, and the watershed moment of Riot Grrrl and beyond (including Pussy Riot).
Our approach is an intersectional one, with feminism providing a critical methodology for addressing the complexities of other kinds of difference such as sexuality, gender, and race/ethnicity. By including historically important (and visually engaging) documents, such as feminist scores and the songbook for the experimental feminist rock band, Disband, together with critical essays, the book is aimed at a broad popular readership interested (as non-specialists and specialists alike) in art and music. Additionally, we see it as potentially serving as a textbook for a growing number of sound art classes offered in studio art, art history and music programs.
