Public Play

Dallas-Fort Worth Airport sculpture, Circling

Jazz musician and architect Christopher Janney combines sound and sculpture to make public artworks that anyone can interact with to create music. He calls them Urban Musical Instruments, and they call on the passerby to play. In various ways, depending on the sculpture, they can trigger musical notes or recordings of sounds from nature. Or other sounds -- Parking in Color in Fort Worth even has the sound of Willie Nelson singing.

The building below, which is in Charlotte, NC, will chime when you touch its pink panels. There's a riddle posted, too. If you solve it by touching the panels in the right order, you will be rewarded with a sound and light show.

Harmonic Runway By Christopher Janney (Miami International Airport, 1995)

A video about Janney's "Sonic Forest"


An interview with Christopher Janney
by Scott Simon

Janney reminds me of the quote I posted yesterday -- his blossoms of the extraordinary certainly burst through the ordinary (such as a parking garages and airports).

Links:
Christopher Janney on Twitter
Hear Color, See Sound, an article about Janney in Metropolis Magazine
Subway Art Guide

Other Public Music Art:
The Wave Organ
The Fun Theory's Piano Stairs
Lelavision's Rumitone