Playing the Building

I like old American industrial architecture. If I have chance never pass an opportunity to explore and snap a few pictures. These wonderful buildings disappearing fast. Often is very difficult or too expensive to utilize cavernous spaces for todays needs and they left to crumble or torn down. New York's Public Art organization Creative Time known for utilizing most impressive NYC spaces for art projects before theu gone. This year Battery Maritime Building in lower Manhattan become temporary home and integral part of an installation by David Byrne named Playing the Building. It's relatively low tech analog project what makes it even more unique in digital age. Mechanical devices are attached to the building structure — to the metal beams and pillars, the heating pipes, the water pipes — and are used to make these things produce sound. Old church organ keys are used to trigger motors, mallets and air compressors. The activations are of three types: wind, vibration, striking. The devices do not produce sound themselves, but they cause the building elements to vibrate, resonate and oscillate so that the building itself becomes a very large musical instrument.