Huge Warehouse Can Be Played Like an Organ

Wed, Jun 11, 2008

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In the first part of our “playable buildings” series, Environmental Graffiti reporter Jammie Nicholas, explores the BATTERY MARITIME BUILDING, NY

image (c) Creative Time

In the cavernous, 9,000 square foot Great Hall of the former lower Manhattan ferry terminal, sits the man who once sang about *Burning down the House.* David Byrne, who from behind a retrofitted, antique organ that acts as the control station for the musical instrument, is no longer speaking in tongues. He is politely inviting visitors to instead *Play the Building*.

warehouse organ
image (c) Creative Time

Instead of using wind forced through pipes, each of the organ’s keys are connected by a multitude of tubes, pipes and wires to every conceivable facet of the building. Playing the organ causes various devices to hammer on water pipes, vibrate motors against the ceiling girders, magnetically beat against the building’s roof columns or blow air through pipes. The 99 year old previously disused space is converted into a cast-iron orchestra, conducted by Byrne or any other person who wishes to play.

image (c) Creative Time

This site-specific installation, which was previously installed in Sweden, reflects the orchestral cacophony of the streets of New York. It is one of a number of pieces concerned with the overlooked aspects of the city space, including the Turner Prize winning British artist and now Camera d’Or winning director Steve Mcqueen, who rolled a reclaimed oil barrel through 14 blocks of upper Manhattan, recording video and sound throughout his journey.

The building can be played until August 10th but as Byrne has said, “Nobody is going to be able to play Bach on it.”

image (c) Creative Time

Sources: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6,

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cities, environment, instrument, organ, spaces, urban renewal, urbanism, warehouse

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Chris - who has written 598 posts on Environmental Graffiti.

Chris (50% English, 50% Italian) is the evil overlord and creator of Environmental Graffiti. When he's not battling those pesky Jedi Knights, he can be found blogging about weird and wonderful environmental news. It's sort of becoming a full time job...he is quite surprised!

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todaystoptrend Says:
June 11th, 2008 at 10:41 pm
Lame. Send a bunch of kids thru the building with hammers for same effect.
holly Says:
June 12th, 2008 at 1:06 pm
Lame. Send a bunch of kids thru the building with hammers for same effect.

Great article!
Jon Says:
June 12th, 2008 at 8:10 pm
My dad was a church organist. This is totally cool.
ross Says:
June 12th, 2008 at 8:15 pm
Lame. Send a bunch of kids thru the building with hammers for same effect.

And yet so much interesting and intelligent than sitting at a keyboard spewing vitriol.
duh Says:
June 12th, 2008 at 8:54 pm
Why did he relabel the keys instead of just rewiring to the correct key?
John Thoams Says:
June 12th, 2008 at 9:33 pm
Wow, now THAT is some cool stuff!

JT
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Wendy Says:
June 12th, 2008 at 10:10 pm
Reminds me of an installation I saw at Mass MoCA in North Adams, MA. It was called “Ueber Organ” and involved using using huge plastic bags as “bladders” which played music based on an organ machine. It was in a huge industrial space and reminded me of humpbacked whales. I still regret not buying the CD available in the gift shop.
Suction Testicle Man Says:
June 13th, 2008 at 12:55 am
Like humans doooo
Chaos Motor Says:
June 13th, 2008 at 2:35 am
“Send a bunch of kids thru the building with hammers for same effect.”

Oh, yeah, sure, those kids would know exactly how to pound the building with hammers to create specific notes and tones, you dumbass.
Ohnoyoudidn't Says:
June 13th, 2008 at 4:10 am
Which one is David Byrne
Marce Says:
June 13th, 2008 at 10:01 am
Amazing! How many miles of cable in that ‘artwork’? Certainly has the wow factor – nice brain David Byrne!
Jeremy G. Says:
June 16th, 2008 at 2:45 pm
Had potential, but a ten minute youtube video?! If I’m going to invest 10 minutes of my life, it better be earthshatteringly creamy.

1 Trackbacks For This Post

r3tr0.net Says:
June 12th, 2008 at 5:32 pm
[...] A giant warehouse that can be played like an organ. David Bryne is your go-to-guy if you want a shot at testing it out. It’ll be in New York until August 10th. [...]

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