“Sets, Series, Sounds” brings the noise in new Perlman exhibit
Professor Jay Beck calls his assignment “acoustic archaeology.” So it’s no surprise that listeners will unearth plenty of audio gems while “hearing” Carleton’s art collection for the first time.

An airplane doesn’t appear in Christina Seely’s “Metropolis 33° 26’ N 112° 1’ W (Phoenix).” You also won’t find a ticket counter, a luggage carousel, or a stream of taxis waiting to transport passengers to the illuminated cityscape in the Carleton alum’s photograph.
But the airport is there. Your ears just have to reveal it.
Seely’s snapshot is one of several works pulled from Carleton’s art collection for a new collaborative exhibit with Jay Beck’s Sound Design (CAMS 265) class. By adding their own three-minute audio interpretations to the handpicked artwork displayed in “Sets, Series, Sounds” at the Perlman Teaching Museum, Beck’s 17 students attempted to create a dialogue “inside and outside the frame” with each evocative image. It plays out in real time as visitors are encouraged to grab an iPod and set of headphones, then play the corresponding track while viewing each piece of art.
“I called the assignment ‘acoustic archaeology’ because what I’m really asking them to do is think about how soundscapes have changed,” Beck says. “It was an interesting experiment that allowed students to think about sound in relation to time, in relation to history, and in relation to the images presented in front of them. And sometimes, they worked in concordance with the image, sometimes they’re doing things that are not evoked within the image, and sometimes they’re a complete counterpoint to the image.”
The soundscapes are meant to “sonorize” each image by capitalizing on “keynote sounds,” a concept developed by historian and theorist R. Murray Schafer. His examples emphasize sounds tied to a particular place or time, essentially guiding the listener to discover important—perhaps hidden or overlooked—details through an aural narrative. In the case of a photo from Great Britain in the 1800s, that might mean capturing the sound of cobblestone streets or a blacksmith, or in a historical context, examining how church bells began to fundamentally change society’s understanding of sound and distance.
While researching Seely’s photo, Kayla Becich ’16 (Pittsburgh) typed the latitude and longitude coordinates into Google Maps and discovered an unexpected location: Phoenix’s airport. Inspired by Seely’s depiction of light pollution, Becich crafted a complementary narrative centered on noise pollution that begins with familiar airport sounds before transporting the listener to the quieter suburbs. If you look closely at the photo, you can also see streaks in the sky.
“I was attracted to the balance between light pollution as something beautiful and something destructive,” Becich says. “The airport isn’t implicit when you look at the picture, but I thought it would be interesting to take the information from the coordinates and play with terminal noises before transitioning to what you see in the photo.”
The driving force for “Sets, Series, Sounds” was two-fold, Beck says. For students, it was a chance to connect new works of art—in this case, three-minute sound files—to preexisting works. Knowing that visuals often dominate our senses (after all, how many of us take the time to stop and listen to our surroundings for three minutes?), the goal was to “reverse the assumption that whenever we’re talking about the relationship between sound and image, that image always comes first,” Beck says.
Best of all, Beck and Laurel Bradley, director and curator of the Perlman, were able to use collection pieces to facilitate an inventive academic partnership.
“I am always looking for opportunities to showcase the art collection, and to get students involved,” Bradley says. “This is the heart of the teaching museum idea: using real art objects to embody and to stimulate discourse around the many ideas and projects that constitute a liberal arts education.”
Students constructed their three-minute files by using Carleton’s sound archives, mimicking existing noises, or recording what they needed from their surroundings. For Sarah Abdel-Jelil ’16 (Switzerland), the barren industrial scene found in her chosen artwork, “Mike Lynch: Untitled (Study for 29th and Harriet),” led her down a familiar path of frigid contemplation.
“I don’t often like to stop and stand around in winter because it’s so cold, so usually I’m walking very quickly. But on the few occasions that I do, I pay attention to softer sounds,” Abdel-Jelil says. “That’s what I wanted to capture in the painting. Not a lot of human voices, not as many cars. I wanted the listener to notice how quiet winter was, and reflect that in the sound design.”
Elsa Cristofaro ’16 (Washington, D.C.) took the opposite tack. Then again, she had to depict the clanging swords and charging soldiers of the Sino-Japanese War.
A math and statistics major, Cristofaro says she takes Cinema and Media Studies classes like Sound Design because it pushes her to explore an untapped creative side. Similarly, Becich chose to be a CAMS major because projects like “Sets, Series, Sounds” allow her space to “work intuitively” and “go with the flow.”
The Carleton trio hopes a similar motivation will drive visitors to spend more time observing and listening in the gallery. Perhaps they’ll take a newfound awareness for sound with them into the not-so-quiet world.
“Thanks to this class, I know that I’ve started to pay more attention to how a door creaks, or what water actually sounds like. I’ll think, ‘If I record this, will it sound like water? Or do I have to rub jeans together to make it sound like that?’” Abdel-Jelil says. “I feel like I didn’t notice all the details that go into sound design before, but now I think creatively about everything around me.”
LISTEN UP!
“Sets, Series, Sounds” runs through June 12 inside the Kaemmer Family Gallery, Perlman Teaching Museum. If you’re unable to make it in person, you can also view the artwork and listen to each soundslide through the Perlman website.