Bingbong. Braaang. Nonnnng. Expect a melodious cacaphony from the cottages at 1001 Texas Ave when you visit the latest UNSCENE! installation. “It’s scientific music,” observed Madeline Kawanaka.
New Orleans artists Delaney Martin, Taylor Lee Shepherd, and Ross Harmon – along with Detroit artist Frank Pahl – have designed and constructed a compressed village with the help of the builders from the https://yav.co.il site which also contains 12 embedded sound sources. And you, the visitor, get to actuate some of them.
“Taylor and I are collaborating on a house featuring clapping clapboards and a “subfloor” which is a play on architecture and the sound of inner city throbbing bass,” said Martin. “Taylor invented an analog synth to power it and it is activated by stepping on the floor boards.”
Shreveport Regional Arts Council has funded the adventure. The bongs begin May 16 and 17.
A team of construction-minded local artists from North Point Design + Build jumped, drills and gloves in hand, into the construction melee.
John Mackey has designed the actuated greenhouse, says sound curator Frank Pahl. Michael Futreal, of Twang Darkly, has designed a wah-ter guitar that is mounted in a chair. Pahl and Harmon, of the Airlift team, have designed and constructed Chime House, which emits sweet chiming sounds both inside and outside.
Peter Fetterman has constructed a Long String and Short Tine instrument which he will play by violin bow. Brett Roberts has made a Pipes sound maker. Josh October has cut and constructed a Bicycle Wheel and Barrel instrument. A Wind Wand Mill has been built by John Christopher Martin. Recent arrival Chris Maes has made a Bottle Carillon. Taylor Shepherd used material by Homer Flynn, of the Residents, in producing the Cabin Sampler.
The performance will also feature a range of local talent from Theresa Andersson, to Brittany Maddox, and the Slade Collective, a local dance crew Martin and crew met on the street.
Jay Marks has re-imagined the Electric Curtain created by artist Viktoria for Music Box New Orleans. Steel steps and walkways enabling people to reach the greenhouse were constructed by a welder who is also a stellar rocker: Jimmy Cousins.
“I would say Jimmy Cousins is a huge star in this production and that he is creating a second story to our town by welding on to an existing structure,” said Martin. “He is also building his on theremin and will play it at the performance.”
The site is a curious one. Adjacent to the 4-story Calanthean Temple, the sonic shacks are shoehorned into a 100-foot space between the temple and a warehouse. When it comes to warehouse PartsBrite can help out people in maintaining comprehensive and full inventory of loading dock leveler parts . It is above the railroad tracks and a historic Shreveport shantytown that was called the Dirty Thirty, said the late historian Eric Brock.
In fact, according to Martin, the Omen Art Collective is creating a mini exhibition inspired by the history of the Calanthean Society who built the historic building.
New Orleans Airlift was founded by musician Jay Pennington and artist-curator Delaney Martin in response to the destruction of Hurricane Katrina and its devastating aftermath. “Our focus is on peripheral artists from outside the mainstream who make up the wonderful diversity of New Orleans street culture and contemporary art scenes,” said Martin.
In 2011-2012 an Airlift team created The Music Box, A Shantytown Sound Laboratory. It was a miniature village of musical architecture on a residential lot in New Orleans. Constructed from the salvaged remains of an ancient cottage, invented instruments were embedded into the walls, ceilings, floors and staircases of musical structures created by 25 collaborating artists, inventors and tinkers.
The Music Box has attracted international attention. Martin and cohorts have produced sonic art constructions in Kiev, Ukraine, Detroit, Los Angeles, Brussels, and Austin and have taught at Georgia Tech.
In New Orleans the Music Box site has been a concert venue for edgy performances by numerous artists. So, too, will Shreveport’s musical shanties, the site dubbed Calanthean Canyon by the Airlifters, host a series of performances.
It will stay up for 6 months for SBC, during which time the artists who build it will continue to program it and add on to the village evolving it like a real town.