aeblog

it's not all about dead people

I recently found out that I have been selected to participate in the 2006 Contemporary Art Exhibit at the Forest Hills Cemetery in Boston. This year's exhibit theme is "Dwelling: Memory, Architecture and Place". Over the past four years of these exhibits, they have traditionally contained site-specific sculpture installed somewhere on the 250 acres of beautiful land that the cemetery occupies. "But you are not a sculptor!", one might protest, and you would be right, but the jurors seemed to be feeling adventurous when they selected my project, which will exist entirely in time, not space, as it will be a piece of music.

I will be interviewing people who are related to the cemetery in some way - work there, are related to someone buried there, like to take walks there etc - and will use these voices in a new piece of music designed to capture and convey the feeling that this beautiful outdoor expanse creates in different people. People dwell in the cemetery permanently (in the ground), temporarily (on a walk) as well as in the contemplative sense of the word (dwelling on a feeling), and I hope to collect some interesting perspectives from people.

I will set up a VOIP system (thank you Marco!) so that visitors can call a phone number on their cell phones and listen to the piece while walking around the grounds. I will podcast the piece as well so that the millions of you with iPods will be able to listen at a higher fidelity. I hope to develop functionality in the phone system which would enable listeners to give their own spoken feedback over the phone as well which could then be incorporated into the piece on an ongoing basis. Technology is a pretty incredible thing.

Over the next month or so, I will be looking for people to participate in this project, so if anyone feels like visiting a beautiful spot on the outskirts of downtown Boston, let me know. I can use your voice, and I promise you won't be disappointed by your surroundings.