Site-specific sound installations in Turkish contemporary art

This thesis is concerned with the similar trends shared by sound installations within contemporary art practices and the expressions that emerged in this context. Alternative auditory spaces created by the sound medium in the field of plastic arts which is based on the act of seeing, and the art practices of the artists working on the sound medium that discuss the sound as a form have formed the theme of the text. This thesis, which examines the transformations that sound medium has undergone in the historical process through pioneering works, presents a chronological view of the use of sound as a medium in the history of art. In the site-specific sound installations in Turkish contemporary art section, that constitutes the main line of the thesis, the forms and expressions created by the sound medium in the art environments based on the act of seeing are examined. The fact that the physical conditions of the art environments are not compatible with the sound medium, and the fact that such environments are built on the act of vision has forced the artists who install the sound installations to follow site-specific strategies and tactics. While the kind of strategies followed by these studies, where sound installations are examined through site-specific practices, are analyzed, new forms of expression brought to contemporary art by the utilization of sound are conceptually discussed as well. This study aims to foster discussion of the new forms of expression that sound as an artistic form will bring to contemporary art as well as encouraging debate on the auditory potential of art space based on the act of seeing.