Playing the Building
On May 31, Playing the Building, a 9,000-square-foot, interactive sound installation created by lead singer David Byrne of The Talking Heads opens to the public free of charge in The Battery Maritime Building. Originally a ferry terminal built in 1909, it is now the last one standing on the East River from an era when 17 ferry lines traveled between Manhattan and Brooklyn. True to character, unconventional Byrne has now transformed the second story interior of this Art Deco landmark, known as Great Hall, into a massive instrument that visitors can sit down and play. The keys of a retrofitted antique organ, sitting in the center of this cavernous gallery, will be connected to devices attached to the building’s metal beams, plumbing, electrical conduits, and heating and water pipes producing different sounds, all without microphones or speakers. When visitors hit the keys on this piano, they will be vibrating large exposed steel girders creating different tones, blowing across pipes yielding a chorus of flute-like sounds, and rapping on metal columns producing various pings or clangs. All these combined will form some unique and finely tuned intonations ranging in pitch and volume depending on who is sitting at the keyboard. Keep in mind that no musical training is required to play this free-form instrumental kaleidoscope.
Open May 31 through Aug. 10 on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays from noon to 6 p.m., The Battery Maritime Building is located at the southern tip of Manhattan next to the Whitehall Ferry Terminal. Take the 4 subway line to Whitehall St. or the 5 to Bowling Green and walk to 10 South St. between the Staten Island and Governors Island ferry terminals.
More information on PlanetEye: Battery Maritime Building
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