Creative Time presents
Playing the Building, a 9,000-square-foot, interactive, site-specific installation by renowned artist David Byrne. The artist transforms the interior of the landmark Battery Maritime Building in Lower Manhattan into a massive sound sculpture that all visitors are invited to sit and “play.” The project consists of a retrofitted antique organ, placed in the center of the building's cavernous second-floor gallery, that controls a series of devices attached to its structural features—metal beams, plumbing, electrical conduits, and heating and water pipes. These machines vibrate, strike, and blow across the building’s elements, triggering unique harmonics and producing finely tuned sounds.
Click here to read an interview between
David Byrne and Anne Pasternak
Playing the Building was originally comissioned in 2005 by
Färgfabriken, Stockholm.
Special thanks to the New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC), The Governors Island Preservation and Education Corporation, and The Lower Manhattan Cultural Council.
