David Byrne - Playing the Building

I forgot to post this earlier, but I ended up checking out David Byrne's grand installation, Playing the Building, at The Battery Maritime Building.

"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."

I went with my friend Jonah and we ended up seeing Byrne just hanging out in the corner of the room! The installation itself was pretty neat. It was a bit frustrating trying to play some sort of rhythmic arrangement since the actual sounds produced by striking the keys were delayed a second or two. And since there was a line to sit down and try the instrument, I felt rushed. Probably only played it for 45 seconds or so.

I suggest that you go see it though if you're in NYC. It's open until August 24th.