playing the building.

playing the building sound installation by david byrne. the installation will be in the battery maritime building in new york until august 10th. click here for a video. [via today and tomorrow.]

playing the building is 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.