From the beginning on, sonification / listening up was a challenging endeavor. The I.M. Pei designed Building 54 on campus is Cambridge’s tallest building and subject to notorious wind loads that result from the building’s location on the banks of the Charles River where massive winds that stem from the Atlantic Ocean return to the ground level after they have streamed above the high rises of Downtown Boston.
The proposed 35 speaker units could only be attached temporarily on the concrete facade, and their temporary presence on the facade could not leave permanent marks. Custom speaker brackets carried the speakers and were clamped around the vertical building columns using four attachment points. The clamps’ attachment pads were locked in place by a secondary locking system, and in addition, each unit was secured by a steel cable attached to the roof platform of the building. This way, a triple redundant attachment mechanism was achieved.
The speaker bracket design underwent 3 design phases to arrive at the final design, which was repeatedly tested in a close-ground condition to be finally test-hung at the 3rd floor of the Green Building in an altitude of 54 ft for the period of one week before the hanging of the entire installation was approved.
process/realization
process/proposal stages
process/people
process/thesis show
The completion of sonification / listening up was originally scheduled to coincide with Bodle’s master’s thesis review and the Visual Arts Program Open House, Friday May 13-Sunday May 15, 2005. In the course of modifying the installation plan, Bodle decided to re-schedule the hanging due to technical revisions that were necessary to temporarily attach the speaker units across the facade of the 296 ft Building 54. Sonification was on display of the Visual Arts Program’s Open House in abbreviated form, as a 35-channel speaker arrangement on the ground.
The installment of the speakers on the southeast facade of Building 54 began on Saturday, September 3, 2005. Installation took four days and was completed on September 6, 2005.
A number of people were essential to the project from conception to realization.
process/exhibition
The project was audible between Friday, September 9 and the following Friday, September 16 for an hour between 12 noon and 1 pm. The sound installation was switched off with a sound-off closing event on the evening of September 16, 2005.
