cc licensed ( BY ) flickr photo shared by cogdogblog
If you get to hang around Grant Potter on a mission of discovery, then you are in for a good day. Today we ventured down to the Montreal water front to find this project he came across called the Silophone:
Silophone is a project by [The User] which combines sound, architecture, and communication technologies to transform a significant landmark in the industrial cityscape of Montréal.
Silophone makes use of the incredible acoustics of Silo #5 by introducing sounds, collected from around the world using various communication technologies, into a physical space to create an instrument which blurs the boundaries between music, architecture and net art. Sounds arrive inside Silo #5 by telephone or internet. They are then broadcast into the vast concrete grain storage chambers inside the Silo. They are transformed, reverberated, and coloured by the remarkable acoustics of the structure, yielding a stunningly beautiful echo. This sound is captured by microphones and rebroadcast back to its sender, to other listeners and to a sound installation outside the building. Anyone may contribute material of their own, filling the instrument with increasingly varied sounds.
This project takes cues from transformations of similarly imposing industrial sites in Europe such as La Fonderie in Brussels, Belgium and Emscher Park in Germany’s Ruhr, both of which reactivate abandoned sites by appropriating the mandates of existing cultural programs in their surrounding communities. The Silophone project aims to raise popular awareness of the building and to catalyse activity that will eventually result in the discovery of an appropriate new function for the abandoned elevator.
We envisioned finding our way inside silo #5 to do a live broadcast on #ds106 radio, perhaps even having people call to link in to generate the sounds as described. Well the access was restricted…
cc licensed ( BY ) flickr photo shared by cogdogblog
And Brian Lamb reported no luck with uploaded sounds or using the telephone number. But Grant and I did easily locate the sonic observatory (its on the boardwalk) where you can speak in and get booming echoes back from the Silo
cc licensed ( BY ) flickr photo shared by cogdogblog
We made a bunch of noise for the radio, could be some bumper material in there:
Not quite ready to give up, we ventured to the office address for the project, only to find it did not even exist anymore, much less be occupied.
So that’s about all of our Silophone adventure, having not quite been able to get inside it, or locate [The User] dude who made it (the web site functionality seems MIA), we opted for a refreshing cold drink.
UPDATE (June 21, 2012): Grant located more project info at http://www.undefine.ca/en/projects/silophone/ including this image of the microphone placement inside the silo:
A great day out exploring the Silophone project – on the 2012 Summer Solstice, no less.
Very cool, I would have loved to experience the Silophone. An art school professor of mine worked with recordings of the sounds in and around grain silo’s in the midwest some time ago. She was a really awesome instructor, getting visual artists to create ‘music’ from just about any sound recorded or found. This was one of the whacky pieces I made forever ago for Lauren Weinger who was truly ds106 at heart.
Do you know about the 70′ x 30′ abandoned water tank in Rangely, CO? Amazing reverb.
That’s amazing Mary-Ann thanks for sharing, I just dropped some pesos into the kick starter and will spread the word. Is the tank accessible? I might be driving through Colorado in the fall..
I used to call in to the Silophone.