Creative Time presents Playing the building, a sound installation in which the infrastructure, the physical plant of the building, is converted into a giant musical instrument. 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. 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.
For some reason when I was in New York this summer-I regret not checking out this site specific installation. I did know about it, but failed in life and let not only myself down-but David Byrne as well. Just yesterday I caught a video clip on this installation. The video itself moved me so I can only imagine how I would had emulsified in front of this art work. But what's the best thing about this art work is that it only function as a participatory work. You can look at it sure, but you have to use your hands to press on those organ keys, and your ears ready to listen to the direction where the sound traveled. All the little trinkets that help produce the sound makes this building an instrument.
I'm sure this experience can only be compared to falling into a black hole.
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