Sonic Forest: CFA

The Center for Architecture, in collaboration with Friends of LaGuardia and the NYC Department of Transportation’s Art Program, will present Sonic Forest: CFA, an interactive public art installation on LaGuardia Park by artist and composer Christopher Janney and his firm PhenomenArts, Inc. Janney’s “Urban Musical Instrument” will be on view from Friday, September 5 through Thursday, September 11, 2014, and will mark the end of the Center for Architecture’s summer exhibition, Open to the Public: Civic Space Now, which closes on Monday, September 8.

The installation is composed of sixteen eight-foot-tall “trees” placed in a site-specific pattern in LaGuardia Park, across the street from the Center for Architecture between Bleecker and West 3rd Streets. Each “tree” houses interactive photo-electric sensors, computer-controlled LED lights, and an audio speaker. Visitors will trigger the sensors by touch or movement, producing an ever-changing score of melodic tones and environmental sounds and turning the installation into a “communal musical instrument” enhanced by varying light effects. The score will change according to the time of day and the level of activity within the park, from flocks of frogs and crickets in the morning to marimbas, percussion, and swarms of fireflies passing overhead at night.

Sonic Forest: CFA is touring piece that has been featured at large music festivals and city plazas around the world, including the Three Rivers Festival in Pittsburgh, the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival in Tennessee, the London Summer Olympic Games, and the World’s Fair in Zaragoza, Spain. Prior to its installation at LaGuardia Park, Sonic Forest has been on a 2014 tour at the Greenfest on Boston City Hall Plaza, Electric Forest in Michigan and FIREFLY in Delaware.

The installation, which seeks to further activate the Center for Architecture’s neighboring public space, is related to AIANY 2014 President Lance Jay Brown’s, FAIA, DPACSA, presidential theme “Civic Spirit: Civic Vision.”