the singing building (2002)


The spiritualists who attempt to record the voices of the dead are not entirely foolish, insofar as they are attemptig to recuperate history. A sound, once made, never entirely dissipates -- it continues to reverbate in the space in which it was made. Its energy approaches but never entirely reaches zero, and it ultimately becomes just another part of the room's natural tone. The singing building is an attempt to excavate some of these sounds which lurk beneath and within the walls of the Eldridge Street Synagogue, a long-neglected shul on New York's Lower East Side. All of the sound materials used in the piece are ones which could have been heard there a century ago, when it was a vibrant and active synagogue. The sounds have been processed using techniques entirely based on the acoustics of the building itself, a kind of aural erosion, as if the sounds had been rubbing against the walls of the building for a hundred years.
the singing building is an audio installation at the Eldridge Street Project in New York City, and was open to the public from October 2002 to February 2003.
the singing building was featured on 'The Next Big Thing', on WNYC radio. Listen (RealAudio) ==