SFMOMA “Art of Noise”

Music is amplified by great design, from the concert posters that paper bedroom walls to the Sony Walkmans and Apple iPods once carried in our pockets. Through over 800 works, “Art of Noise” explores this essential relationship and the ground-breaking designs that enrich our collective memory, touching all our lives and giving form and color to sound. 

SFMOMA’s “Art of Noise” exhibition is a multi-sensory ode to how design has changed the way we’ve experienced music over the past 100 years.

Featuring over 400 San Francisco psychedelic rock posters, including legendary bands like the Grateful Dead and icons of graphic design by Milton Glaser among others. Mid-century modern album covers, as well as hip-hop, punk, and rave flyers complete this expansive display of incredible color and creativity.

Represented is over a century of sound in over 100 objects, from early phonographs to the Music: Not Impossible “Haptic Suit,” which translates sound onto the skin through vibration and experimental music devices.

The exhibit also includes a seating landscape that invites others to connect through music. Teenage Engineering is the Swedish music-tech company that applied their unconventional design mindset to the exhibition experience, from this plush, sound installation to the look and feel of the gallery spaces.

Finally, high fidelity music will be piped in through custom-built speakers by audiophile Devon Turnbull, whose coveted audio systems can be found in Supreme stores and the homes of celebrity music producers. Turnbull and his friends will take turns curating music in this meditative 50-person space.

“Art of Noise” runs from May 4th to August 18th at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Tickets are available now on their website.

Posted by: TAWD on May 10, 2024