Sound Is a Creative Material for Children’s Play

Ever since Frederick Froebel created the first kindergarten in 1837 Germany, playing with materials has been a huge part of early-years learning. As children make, play, and experiment with materials such as blocks, paint, clay, sand, cardboard, paper, and light, these interactions open up new and divergent learning processes. It’s also key in helping to develop children’s fine and gross motor skills, imaginative thinking, and ability to engage in the world. As children creatively play with different materials, they can experiment, engage, and express themselves in expansive ways including through rhythm, dance, color, and movement.

Like young children, artists also play with materials and express themselves in multisensory ways. Sound, in particular, is a creative material that has captured the imagination of many artists since the beginning of the 20th century. In comparison to music, sound art is more focused on experimentation, and improvisation, and often intersects with other art forms such as performance, sculpture, and installation. Susan Philipsz, a Scottish sound artist, once said: “Sound is materially invisible but very visceral and emotive. It can define a space at the same time as it triggers a memory.”

Sound artworks can take different forms such as a sculpture, installation, soundscape, graphic score, or an experimental performance such as John Cage’s 4’33” (1952/1953). Artists who have explored sound as a creative material include Brian Eno, Benjamin Patterson, Guadalupe Maravilla, and Janet Cardiff, and has a long history at MoMA.

Sound art is all about using sound as a creative material to connect with the world. You can explore sound in the new Art Lab: Sound space in The Samuel and Ronnie Heyman Family Art Lab at MoMA. Visitors of all ages can construct sound sculptures, create wearable art, and play with color and sound on interactive digital displays. Below are a few artists that helped inspire certain aspects of the activities you’ll find in that space, along with some creative prompts with sound that you can do at home with readily available materials.

One of the inspirations for MoMA’s new Art Lab: Sound, is David Tudor’s Rainforest IV. In 1973, Tudor created a large-scale immersive sound installation that transformed everyday objects such as cans, pots, plastic pipes, balls, and speakers into sculptural forms that chimed, rang, croaked, and echoed throughout the room, creating a soundscape that Tudor thought resembled a rainforest. The piece was groundbreaking as it invited visitors, including children, to experience sound as a material that can be interacted with rather than something to just listen to. You can experience a 360-degree immersive experience of the piece when it was on view at MoMA in 2019.

David Tudor. Rainforest IV (1973). Performed at Akademie der Künste, Berlin, 1980. Photo © 1980 Phil Edelstein

Introduce children to sound as a creative material

Our world is full of sounds. Something special about sound art is that it encourages us to attend to sounds in new ways, which can help children develop aural awareness (such as how different sounds have different qualities) and the vocabulary to describe these differences. Creating art with sound also encourages children to engage in deep and active listening. By doing this, children are able to interact with the world in a multi-sensory way.

Draw a Sound Map

Artist Lawrence Abu Hamdan talks about the idea of “ear witnessing,” which is when listening is used as a form of evidence. This Sound Map activity, which is inspired by a similar activity featured in Keri Smith’s wonderful book How to Be an Explorer of the World, is based on the understanding that sounds are all around us and if we pay close attention to them, we can connect more deeply with our surroundings and our body's relationship to them. Set children the challenge of sitting in one spot for five minutes with a blank piece of paper and some markers. Ask them to write down all the sounds they can hear and the times they hear them. Then ask them to draw a map and mark the location of the sounds on it.

Rita Evan’s sonic sculpture at the Audiograft Festival 2023, at Ovada Gallery. Photo by Tom Thistlethwaite.

Build a Sound Sculpture

Artists such as the Baschet brothers, Otobong Nkanga, and Rita Evans, all make sound-producing sculptures. Similarly, children can use recycled and repurposed materials to make 3D structures that make different sounds. Start with a base like a cardboard box, bucket, or colander. Then attach different sound-making objects such as kitchen utensils, natural materials, paper towels, and tin foil. Children can perform their sound sculptures.

Create a Sound Score

A score is a set of instructions for a musical composition that illustrates what instruments should play. Fluxus artist Benjamin Patterson created written instructions (also called sound scores) such as Paper Piece (1960) for his sound art performances. Similarly, John Cage drew graphic sound scores that visualized musical compositions, such as his Fontana Mix (1958). Children can also write or draw their own Sound Scores that others can perform. They could create an illustrated diagram that features different symbols for a graphic score. For example:

The symbol “+” means to clap,
The symbol “?” means to stomp,
The symbol “<>” means to crumple paper.

Toshi Ichiyanagi. Music for Electric Metronome. 1960

Perform a 1-minute Soundscape

A soundscape is created from different sounds being made or played, producing a particular feeling or mood. You could start by collecting a handful of different sound-making objects you have around home, such as spoons, tin foil, newspaper, and pebbles in a bottle. Start by letting children explore making sounds with these objects before asking them what sort of soundscape they would like to create. Some examples of soundscape themes could include:

A stormy day at the beach
A city street on garbage collection day
Animals having a party in a jungle

When children are ready, start a 1-minute timer and have them create sounds in response to the theme. They could perform their soundscape to others or record it to share at a later date.

Dr. Louisa Penfold is a Lecturer and Co-Chair of Arts and Learning at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.