This December, Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum will present “Art of Noise,” an exhibition celebrating the groundbreaking designs that have shaped how people experience music over the past century. 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, the exhibition will be on view at Cooper Hewitt Dec. 12 through July 19, 2026.
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. On view across the museum’s entire third-floor gallery, the exhibition will feature more than 300 artworks drawn largely from the collections of Cooper Hewitt and SFMOMA, as well as unique sound environments designed by Stockholm-based studio teenage engineering and multi-disciplinary artist Devon Turnbull.
“Music is the soundtrack to our lives, and design is at the center of how we experience it,” said Maria Nicanor, director of Cooper Hewitt. “Through iconic works that many will be able to trace back to their own memories, ‘Art of Noise’ underscores how design shapes the very emotions of our auditory encounters. We are grateful for our collaboration with SFMOMA and curator Joseph Becker to bring this exciting exhibition to the East Coast. From teenage engineering’s unique choir installation to Devon Turnbull’s immersive listening room, audiophiles will mark ‘Art of Noise’ as the not-to-be-missed sonic event of the season.”
“This exhibition invites visitors to reflect on our collective experience of music and the ways we connect with it through dynamic, evocative and often cutting-edge design,” said Joseph Becker, curator of architecture and design at SFMOMA. “Building on its widely attended presentation at SFMOMA, we’re thrilled to bring ‘Art of Noise’ to the East Coast and introduce new elements that capture influential moments from New York’s music scenes.”
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.
“Art of Noise” features music posters by designers such as Milton Glaser, Victor Moscoso, Bonnie MacLean and Takenobu Igarashi, alongside album covers that range from the 1950s mid-century modern style to the 1980s post-modern era.
Dozens of psychedelic rock posters from the 1960s and 1970s will also be on display. These posters became iconic symbols of their time and reflect the music and ideas of San Francisco’s counterculture—a movement that spread coast-to-coast and beyond.
For Cooper Hewitt’s presentation, the exhibition also includes printed and graphic materials from New York’s folk, rock, disco, salsa, punk, new wave and hip-hop scenes that have become embedded in the collective memory of countless listeners.
The exhibition will highlight album covers that capture the energy and emotion of three distinct New York designers and genres: Reid Miles for Blue Note Records, whose bold graphic style defined 1950s and 1960s jazz album art; Izzy Sanabria, whose vibrant designs visually shaped the sound of salsa, including musicians Willie Colón and Ray Barretto; and Tibor Kalman and Maira Kalman of M&Co., who created striking covers for new wave artists such as the Talking Heads and David Byrne.
Music Technology and Innovative Product Design
At home and on the go, people’s relationship to music has grown and deepened through modern and contemporary music players—including boomboxes, stereos, record players and portable devices—whose varying forms have paralleled advancements in technology and evolving design aesthetics.
The exhibition will feature devices for listening to music, dating from the early 1900s to 2023, including a jukebox, radios, hi-fi systems, speakers and headphones that enhance the enjoyment of music through their design.
Museumgoers will follow the evolution of playback, from early phonographs and transistor radios to iconic hi-fi stereos by designers such as Dieter Rams and Achille Castiglioni, who helped shape what the modern experience of listening to music looks and feels like. “Art of Noise” also encompasses examples of engineering milestones that have radically transformed how, where and when people can listen to music, such as the Sony Walkman, the Apple iPod and the Music: Not Impossible Haptic Suit that translates sound into tactile sensation. Other unique and experimental works challenge or play with ideas of portability and functionality, such as Ron Arad’s deconstructed Concrete Stereo and Mathieu Lehanneur’s golden flame-shaped music player, Power of Love. The exhibition will also feature teenage engineering’s choir, a set of sonic sculptures with their own names and musical personalities programmed to sing together as a choral group, each with a different vocal range.
Listening Room by Devon Turnbull
Central to the exhibition’s experience and located on the first floor of Cooper Hewitt will be an installation of a large scale, handmade, audio system by multi-disciplinary artist Devon Turnbull. Known under his creative pseudonym OJAS, Turnbull handcrafts high-fidelity audio systems designed to envelop the listener in sound that is as rich in texture as it is in emotion. His work is the result of two decades of experimentation, engineering and explorations in the audio underground. On display for the first time in the museum’s Carnegie Library, Turnbull’s “HiFi Pursuit Listening Room Dream No. 3”is a major step forward in the “HiFi Listening Room Dream” series. The listening room will be activated throughout the run of the exhibition with sonic experiences curated by noted music collectors, archivists, audiophiles and musicians from the New York area and beyond.
Exhibition Design by Teenage Engineering
The exhibition environment is designed in collaboration with teenage engineering, whose groundbreaking speakers and synthesizers have garnered an international following. Based in Stockholm, teenage engineering’s multi-disciplinary team of software, electrical and mechanical engineers and industrial designers develop their products from start to finish, with the mindset of creating enduring technologies. From reimagining music-making with the OP-1 portable synthesizer and growing the synth population with the affordable pocket operator series, to rethinking listening with the OD-11 ortho directional speaker and the OB–4 magic radio, the studio integrates creativity into the everyday.
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, focused on New York’s incredible range of sounds.
Accessibility
Cooper Hewitt is committed to the accessibility of its spaces and materials. 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. More information about accessibility at Cooper Hewitt is available on the museum’s website.
Acknowledgments
“Art of Noise” is organized by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.
The exhibition is curated by Joseph Becker, curator of architecture and design, SFMOMA, with assistance from Divya Saraf, former curatorial assistant in architecture and design, SFMOMA. The New York presentation of “Art of Noise” is curated by Becker with assistance from Cynthia Trope, associate curator of product design and decorative arts, Cooper Hewitt.
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.
About Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum
Cooper Hewitt is America’s design museum. Inclusive, innovative and experimental, the museum’s dynamic exhibitions, education programs, master’s program, publications and online resources inspire, educate and empower people through design. An integral part of the Smithsonian Institution—the world’s largest museum, education and research complex—Cooper Hewitt is located on New York City’s Museum Mile in the landmarked Carnegie Mansion. Steward of one of the world’s most diverse and comprehensive design collections—over 215,000 objects that range from an ancient Egyptian faience cup dating to about 1100 BC to contemporary 3D-printed objects and digital code—Cooper Hewitt welcomes everyone to discover the importance of design and its power to change the world.
For more information, visit www.cooperhewitt.org or follow @cooperhewitt on Instagram, Facebook and YouTube.
About the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art is one of the largest museums of modern and contemporary art in the United States and a thriving cultural center for the Bay Area. The museum’s remarkable collection of painting, sculpture, photography, architecture, design and media arts is housed in a LEED Gold-certified building designed by the global architects Snøhetta and Mario Botta. In addition to seven gallery floors, SFMOMA now offers over 45,000 square feet of free, art-filled public space open to all.
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