Sound, Uprising, and Cultural Transmission: Examining the Intersection of Sound Art, Arab Spring, and MENA Art Dissemination in North America
Brett Goran Ojdanic
Art Market Studies
About this Item
- Title
- Sound, Uprising, and Cultural Transmission: Examining the Intersection of Sound Art, Arab Spring, and MENA Art Dissemination in North America
- Contributor Names
-
Ojdanic, Brett Goran (Author)
-
Fashion Institute of Technology, State University of New York. Art Market Studies (Degree granting institution)
-
Skurvida, Sandra (Thesis advisor)
-
Melton, Paul (Thesis advisor)
- Date
- 2026
- Degree Information
- MA Fashion Institute of Technology, State University of New York 2026
- Department: Art Market Studies
- Advisors: Sandra Skurvida; Paul Melton
- Abstract
- This paper investigates how sound art operated as a politically charged medium during the Arab Spring and traces the following reception and absorption of Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) sound artists within North American institutional and commercial frameworks. While sound art has long existed on the periphery of the global art market, the Arab Spring stressed its role as a tool for political expression and collective mobilization. The paper argues that the heightened visibility of MENA sound practices in this period catalyzed a shift in how North American museums, galleries, and art fairs engaged with the medium, transforming politically urgent and regional works into exhibitions of curatorial display and market circulation. Utilizing artist Tarek Atoui as a case study and other less extensive examples by situating their trajectories within broader patterns of post-9/11 orientalism, migration, and cultural diplomacy, this research interrogates the tensions between political intent and institutional appropriation. In doing so, it reframes the narrative of sound art not as a universal avant-garde, but as a transnational medium channeled by geopolitical conflict, diaspora, and the infrastructures of the art market.
- Rights
- In Copyright
- The copyright for this work is held by its author/creator(s). Usage of this material beyond what is permitted by copyright law must first be cleared with the rights-holder(s). This work has been made available online by the Fashion Institute of Technology Gladys Marcus Library strictly for research and educational purposes. If you are the copyright holder for this work and have any objections to this work being made available online, please notify us immediately at [email protected].
- This item must not be sold to any third party vendors.
- Identifier
- FIT Repository ID: etd_001046
- Submission ID: 10475
- URN: ISBN:9798273331068
- Related Materials
- Also available from ProQuest
- Source: Masters Abstracts International, Volume: 87-07
- Masters Abstracts International
- Language
- English
- Publisher
- Ann Arbor : ProQuest Dissertations & Theses,
Citation
Ojdanic, B. G. (2026). Sound, Uprising, and Cultural Transmission: Examining the Intersection of Sound Art, Arab Spring, and MENA Art Dissemination in North America [Master's thesis, Fashion Institute of Technology, State University of New York]. FIT Institutional Repository. https://institutionalrepository.fitnyc.edu/item/669394
Ojdanic, Brett Goran. Sound, Uprising, and Cultural Transmission: Examining the Intersection of Sound Art, Arab Spring, and MENA Art Dissemination in North America. 2026. Fashion Institute of Technology, State University of New York, Master's thesis. FIT Digital Repository, https://institutionalrepository.fitnyc.edu/item/669394
Ojdanic, Brett Goran. "Sound, Uprising, and Cultural Transmission: Examining the Intersection of Sound Art, Arab Spring, and MENA Art Dissemination in North America." Master's thesis, Fashion Institute of Technology, State University of New York, 2026. https://institutionalrepository.fitnyc.edu/item/669394