Pulse Field, an exhibition that draws energy from the music and art schools of Georgia State University, will explore contemporary and historic forms of sound art. The title describes the terrain and the process of exploration that will be tied to the exploration of this inventive art form. In the School of Art & Design Galleries, a spectrum of works by international artists will be featured in two sound art environments, a surround soundscape and an archive designed as a bibliotheque/café intended as a center to inform and educate the audience. Concurrent with the GSU show, the nonprofit artspace Eyedrum Music and Art Gallery will present L’Objet Sonore, an interactive display of sound art objects.

The heart of this project will be the three-week residency of a French sound art collective. The group Ouïe Dire has been selected to produce a sound art postcard of Atlanta, assisted by our students. In this effort, two cultural and artistic geographies (France and Georgia) will intersect in the creation of a site-specific CD aimed at defining the city of Atlanta through sound.

A CD-ROM catalogue will be produced to document Pulse Field. Douglas Kahn, MIT Press author of Noise, Water, Meat: A History of Sound in the Arts and Wireless Imagination: Sound, Radio and the Avant Garde will collaborate in curating the archive. Kahn will write the centerpiece catalogue essay and lecture during the exhibition.

Pulse Field will contribute to both the exposure and documentation of sound art. It will approach the genre from both scientific and creative angles, featuring work that ranges from free-form to refined, from purely abstract to more musical compositions. An environmental and experiential show, Pulse Field will strengthen and develop the potential for future experimentation and innovation.