Playing the Building

By almamater (Chief Contributor)
Tags: David Byrne, installation art, musical building, playing the building, NYC art, south street seaport

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<div align="center"><img src="http://www.collegeotr.com/images/blogs/3556c8ef64294204b60fd4e17a6c9c08.jpg" class="blog_img" alt="Playing the Building" /></div><div class="clear" style="height:10px"></div><p>Artist David Byrne must have felt threatened by Olafur Eliason’s w</p>... <b>[ <a href="http://www.collegeotr.com/columbia_university/playing_the_building_9920">READ THE FULL POST AT OTR »</a> ]</b>

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Created: 07/18/2008
09:16 AM

Artist David Byrne must have felt threatened by Olafur Eliason’s waterfalls in the East River. With city government funding, Byrne created a truly unique and even more interactive installation: a musical building.

After entering the rundown Maritime Building, signing a waiver, and walking up a creaky staircase, visitors enter a crumbling abandoned ballroom. The room is empty except for a small organ in the center and wires penetrating every part of the walls and ceiling. Some keys make pipes whistles; some correspond to motors in the walls; others create banging on columns. If they are willing to wait in line, viewers are even invited to play the building.

The “finely tuned sounds” of the organ actually sound dreadful, even when created by experienced pianists, but playing with the organ is just so cool and definitely worth the trip and the wait.