With the help of Kelly Kessler, I recorded
street noise from the car window as we drove
south on Western Avenue from the
northernmost point.
There had been an accident at the Dunkin Doughnuts up on Howard -the digitized voice is of a woman telling us about the car that somehow went into the building off of Western.
The sound scape was fascinating. From a guy whistling on the street to sirens to helicopters overhead to the surprisingly mellefluous sounds of a garbage truck lift to the eery moans that were the inspiration for Viaduct Ghosts , one of four compositions that looped during the installation.
Truck brake percussion, passing car radios and the infamous potholes all become valued instruments in my compositions.
All sounds used were sampled
street noises and barring the one highly digitized voice, all samples were used in their natural state
- no effects added.
Four compositions were looped and played from 4 groups of independent speakers embedded to look like potholes int he installations black ribbon of asphalt.
This was my first collaboration with architect Doug Garofalo. He wanted to create a portrait of Chicago's longest street, Western Avenue, through an installation that included video and sound interpretations.
