Rapporti tra opera e fruitore nelle origini dell’installazione sonora (1900–1966)

One feature that defines sound installation as a genre is the participation of the user. Upon entering the space of a work, the user assumes an active role. Thereby the work takes on a theatrical and formative dimension: an art initially defined through space reveals its temporality. This essay analyzes the theatrical dimension, that is, the “modal structure,” of works up to 1967, the first period of the sound installation genre. Both interactive and non-interactive works are considered. The analysis shows various models of theatricality for the first years of the genre, during which a diversity of origins and genealogy is reflected. What is common to these experiments is that they seek to involve the viewers, a strategy whose roots lie in the aesthetics and experiments of the first half of the twentieth century, but which since 1955 has become conspicuous.