ART OF NOISE

A century of design for sound—from concert posters and album covers to radios, turntables, and digital music players—exploring how design shapes our relationship to music.

Why go

The exhibition spans graphic design's visual accompaniment to music (album covers, concert posters) alongside iconic product design from mechanical phonographs to streaming devices, adapted for New York's music history. A centerpiece is Devon Turnbull's handmade HiFi Pursuit Listening Room, activated daily with live operators or curated playlists,

What to expect

Hundreds of works spanning concert posters, record albums, radios, stereos, boomboxes, turntables, and portable devices, alongside graphic design that correlates genres with typographic styles and color palettes. The first floor features Devon Turnbull's large-scale listening room; teenage engineering's interactive seating environment allows visito

Things to know

• Organized by SFMOMA and adapted for New York's music scene by curators Joseph Becker and Cynthia Trope.
• Exhibition design by teenage engineering, the Stockholm-based studio known for groundbreaking speakers and synthesizers.
• Devon Turnbull's HiFi Pursuit Listening Room Dream No. 3 is programmed daily with live operator appearances or genre-specific playlists.
• Includes iconic designs by Dieter Rams, Mario Bellini, Verner Panton, Jonathan Ive, and the Castiglioni brothers.
• Features graphic design by Milton Glaser, Peter Saville, and Victor Moscoso alongside product design spanning 100 years.
• Sound descriptions for all in-gallery videos; large print labels and sound-dampening headphones available.

Plan your visit

Large print labels, sound dampening over-ear headphones, and sensory materials are available for use in the galleries. Image descriptions and additional accessibility resources are available on the exhibition's dedicated webpage. Bloomberg Connects app offers free digital guide content.

From the venue

Organized by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Art of Noise celebrates groundbreaking design that enhances and visualizes our musical experiences. From concert posters to record albums, phonographs to digital music players, handheld radios to sound systems, Art of Noise takes visitors on an exploration of how design has transformed people's relationship to music over the past 100 years. The exhibition features more than 300 artworks drawn largely from the collections of Cooper Hewitt and SFMOMA, as well as teenage engineering's unique choir installation and Devon Turnbull's immersive listening room.