11 Essential Sound Artworks, from Reviled Noise Orchestras to Protest-Minded Installations

In 1979, the Museum of Modern Art in New York presented a modest exhibition called “Sound Art.” The museum’s small media art gallery could only accommodate one artwork at a time, so the three works in the show, by Maggi Payne, Connie Beckley, and Julia Heyward, took turns on display. “‘Sound art’ pieces are more closely allied to art than to music, and are usually presented in the museum, gallery, or alternative space,” the exhibition’s curato