bill fontana

his website

"Musical Sculpture:
sounds lasting and leaving
forming and sounding
a sculpture that lasts."
Marcel Duchamp

Western Bridge is located in the Duwamish Industrial area of Seattle. The ambient soundscape that envelops the exterior of the building is rich with the frequently occurring sounds of train whistles from the nearby railroad crossings, and low flying aircraft going to Seatac and Boeing Field. As a building, it is designed to be an exhibition space, it is also designed to keep these sounds outside. This sound sculpture will bring these sounds into the building, turing its architecture into sound.

Eight steel and glass objects that were purchased from a nearby industrial surplus yard are setup in a room that resembles a recording studio. Microphones placed on the roof of Western Bridge bring in the live outside sounds to this studio where they are played from loudspeakers. Each of the eight objects has either a small microphone or sensitive vibration sensor (accelerometer) mounted within or on it that registers how these objects are acoustically excited by the outside sounds and become resonant harmonic filters. Ten loudspeakers are distributed throughout the gallery spaces of Western Bridge. The live outside sounds passing through these objects move in different permutations through the empty building, translating architecture into sound. This studio of resounding objects is visible through a large window as a kind of ensemble of musicians or a sonic still life.