Fwd: Natural Car Alarms

June 23, 2002

Type: discussion

>X-Sender: [email protected] (Unverified)
>Date: Fri, 21 Jun 2002 02:14:38 -0400
>To: [email protected]
>From: Nina Katchadourian <[email protected]>
>Subject: Natural Car Alarms
>
>"Natural Car Alarms"
>A public project by Nina Katchadourian for SculptureCenter
>Premieres June 29, 2002 across from the new MoMA QNS (33rd St and Queens
>Blvd),
>coinciding with the public opening of MoMA QNS from10 am-10pm.
>For directions to MoMA QNS, please visit www.moma.org/momaqns/directions.html
>
>
> * * * *
>
>SculptureCenter announces "Natural Car Alarms," a migrating public art
>project by Nina Katchadourian, on view throughout Long Island City on
>intermittent dates from June 29 through November 30, 2002.
>
>Last summer, Katchadourian was on a residency at CCA7 in Trinidad. While
>hiking in a remote part of the island, she heard a bird that she thought
>she recognized. Eventually she realized that the birdcall was familiar
>because it was strikingly similar to a particular segment of a multi-tone
>car alarm heard regularly on the streets of New York. Pleased by this
>misunderstanding, she decided to create "Natural Car Alarms."
>
>"Natural Car Alarms" consists of a fleet of three cars, each outfitted
>with a unique alarm made of bird calls that mimics the typical six-tone
>siren sound it replaces. To create the alarms, Katchadourian worked with
>researchers at the Macauley Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab
>of Ornithology to find birds whose calls closely matched the car sirens.
>The birds used are a mixture of local and exotic, common and extinct.
>
>"Natural Car Alarms" will debut on Saturday, June 29th from 10 am to 10 pm
>at Queens Boulevard and 33rd Street, across from MoMA QNS, coinciding with
>the public opening of the new museum. The next day, the project will move
>to Jackson and 46th Aves, next to PS1, from 12-6.
>
>The project will several to various New York sites through November 2002.
>Confirmed dates are listed below; check the SculptureCenter website at
>www.sculpture-center.org for additional dates and locations.
>
>The project will be shown for the last time when the flock alights at the
>opening of SculptureCenter's new home on Purves Street in November.
>
>
> * * * *
>
>"Natural Car Alarms" can be seen and heard in the following places:
>
>June 29, 10am-10pm at 33rd Street and Queens Blvd. near MoMA QNS
>June 30, 12pm-6pm at Jackson and 46th Aves near PS1; also
>July 20, 12 pm-6pm at Jackson and 46th Aves near PS1
>September 22, 12 pm-6pm at Broadway and Vernon Boulevard near Socrates
>Sculpture Park.
>
>Additional dates and locations to be announced. Check the SculptureCenter
>website at www.sculpture-center.org for additional dates and locations.
>
> * * * *
>
>Special thanks to James Powderly, technical consultant, programmer, and
>engineer, and Carol Bloomgarden at the Macauley Library of Natural
>Sounds/Cornell Lab of Ornithology for archival research and assistance.