Entgrenzung des Ästhetischen seit dem 20. Jahrhundert

In the 20th century, the boundaries of the arts began to shift. Music left the concert hall; the sounds and noises of everyday life became artistic material; and performances transformed into open-ended situations. Space, technology, and social interaction came to stand alongside the self-contained work of art—and the audience evolved from passive observers into active participants in the event.

Sabine Sanio traces this development from Futurism, Dada, and Surrealism, through John Cage and musique concrète, to sound art, media art, and site-specific installations. At the heart of this is the idea of a situational aesthetic: art is no longer understood solely as an object, but as a relational process in which perception, material, place, time, artists, and audience interact. This brings listening and seeing themselves to the forefront—as active, self-reflexive forms of aesthetic experience.

In four parts, this volume explores the idea of aesthetic experience, the expansion of the musical performance context, the blurring of musical boundaries, and the relationship between music and language. Drawing on numerous artistic approaches—including those of John Cage, Pierre Schaeffer, Alvin Lucier, Arnold Dreyblatt, and Peter Ablinger—Sanio demonstrates how everyday sounds, technical media, archives, public spaces, writing, the voice, and the body become elements of artistic practice.

The Blurring of Aesthetic Boundaries Since the 20th Century brings together music aesthetics, art theory, and the history of the avant-garde into a comprehensive study of modernist music and art. This volume is intended for musicians, artists, scholars, and students, as well as anyone who wishes to understand how fundamentally the avant-garde has transformed our perception of art, music, and reality.

The book will be released on October 31 and is already available for pre-order.