Noise Machine

There is direct correlation between the abandonment of the urban fabric and the location of the elevated rail stations. This abandonment is caused by the noise produced from the train as it slows to a stop and then regains speed, entering the exiting the stations. The structures next to the elevated rail are composed of retail stores at the ground level and dwellings above. The abandonment occurs on the second story of the structures, which is level with the elevated rail infrastructure. Some of the lower level retail stores are surviving because users are not spending long lengths of time there.

Noise - A sound, especially one that is loud or unpleasant or that causes disturbance
Sound - Sound produced by continuous and regular vibrations, as opposed to noise
Music - Vocal or instrumental sounds combined in such a way as to produce beauty of form, harmony and expression of emotion

This project takes advantage the abandon structures along North Front Street, in Philidelphia, allowing musical instruments to inhabit their street. These instruments will capture the noise from the rail and create music. This artistic installation improves the quality of life for the residents of this neighborhood by reducing the noise from the rail and by creating an ever changing experience for the community and the commuters. Engagement will occur between people and place through the manipulation of noise into music from their own neighborhood.

"Sound is intrinsically and unignorably relational: it emanates, propagates, communicates, vibrates, and agitates; it leaves a body and enters others; it binds and unhinges, harmonizes and traumatizes; it sends the body moving, the mind dreaming, the air oscillating. Sound teaches us that space is more than its apparent materiality, and that to produce and receive sound is to be involved in connections that make privacy intensely public and public experience distinctly personal."