Sensory Modalities Of The Sonic Frame

In this paper I discuss the framing of artworks: the artwork’s own framing and my act of framing when perceiving the artwork. As well as the physical and spatial framing of content, I will discuss how the timeframe we spend engaging with an artwork allows us the time to feel, identify and negotiate different sensory modalities. Informed by philosophers Henri Bergson and Giles Deleuze, I hope to show how artwork framings can include sonic frames. I will discuss what these are and how they assist in creating what has been called by atmosphere theorist, Gernot Böhme, “the shared reality of the perceiver and the perceived” (Böhme 23). I will also suggest how sound and its framing helps us translate the experiences of ambiance and atmosphere that we encounter in art experiences, as well as in the everyday. To elaborate on the sensory modalities of sonic framings, I will describe my encounters with several artworks, including Max Neuhaus’ Time Square (1977 to 1992, reinstated 2002), Gerhard Richter’s 6 Gray Mirrors (2003), and Robert Ryman’s Installation at Dia Beacon (2010).