Art of Noise shows how design shapes the way we experience music—how and where we listen to it, how it’s communicated visually, and what we choose to hear. For many people, these design choices feel like a part of the music itself; they become a key part of how we remember and understand sound in a multisensory way—through our ears, our eyes, and our sense of touch.  

Organized by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) and adapted to the history of the New York music scene for its East Coast presentation, Art of Noise presents hundreds of works that have shaped our relationship to music over the past century. From concert posters to record albums, phonographs to digital music players, handheld radios to sound systems, the exhibition demonstrates how our experiences are built by both the sounds we hear and the objects that help illustrate or activate them, whether through color and composition or through form, material, and mechanics. 

AMPLIFYING MUSIC THROUGH GROUNDBREAKING GRAPHIC DESIGN

Unforgettable album covers, flamboyant posters, and eye-catching flyers demonstrate graphic design’s ability to provide a visual accompaniment to auditory experiences. These visual outputs are so correlated with the sound that genres of music are often associated with specific typographic styles, color palettes, and even production techniques—from hand-drawn to photocopied to digitally manipulated. 

MUSIC TECHNOLOGY AND INNOVATIVE PRODUCT DESIGN

The look and feel of music players—including radios, stereos, boomboxes, turntables, and portable devices—has developed alongside advancements in technology and evolving cultural aesthetics. Art of Noise maps these expressive styles and iconic product designs, from the mechanical and analog playback devices of a hundred years ago to the modern tools that deliver nearly infinite access to digital streaming.  

LISTENING ROOM BY DEVON TURNBULL

Central to the exhibition’s experience and located on the first floor of Cooper Hewitt is HiFi Pursuit Listening Room Dream No. 3, a large-scale, handmade, audio system by multi-disciplinary artist Devon Turnbull. The listening room is programmed daily and activated throughout the run of the exhibition with either special live operator appearances or genre specific playlists. 

EXHIBITION DESIGN BY TEENAGE ENGINEERING

The exhibition environment is designed in collaboration with Stockholm-based teenage engineering, whose groundbreaking speakers and synthesizers have garnered an international following. Museum visitors will encounter a new interactive seating environment designed by teenage engineering with a custom-designed device for audio playback that allows visitors to interact and discover new music. The device contains curated playlists that span genres and eras, with songs focused on the incredible range of music created or augmented in New York.  

EXHIBITION HIGHLIGHTS

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 ACCESSIBILITY

Various resources are available to support your visit to Art of Noise. All in-gallery videos will have sound descriptions. Image descriptions will be available on the exhibition’s accessibility webpage. Large print labels, sound dampening over-ear headphones, and other sensory materials will be available for use in the galleries. Visit the In-Gallery Resources page to learn more. More information about accessibility at Cooper Hewitt is available on the museum’s website.    

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Art of Noise is organized by SFMOMA and curated by Joseph Becker, Curator of Architecture and Design, SFMOMA, with support from Divya Saraf, former Curatorial Assistant in Architecture and Design, SFMOMA. The presentation at Cooper Hewitt is curated by Joseph Becker with support from Cynthia Trope, Associate Curator of Product Design and Decorative Arts. 

Exhibition design by teenage engineering. Architect of Record, and fabrication by Pink Sparrow. Exhibition graphic design by Associate.  

SUPPORT

This exhibition is made possible by the August Heckscher Exhibition Fund, the Ehrenkranz Fund, the Barbara and Morton Mandel Design Gallery Endowment Fund, the Fisher Arts Impact Fund, and Jonathan Schroeder and Janet Borgerson.