Musical Architecture (11)
Project: Music Box Outpost
Location: Prattsville Art Center, Prattsville NY
Date: July 2021
ARTISTS: Delaney Martin Taylor Shepherd Ranjit Bhatnagar Terry Dame Nick Yulman
Taylor Shepherd and Delaney Martin led their first Music Box Outpost that saw musical architecture built into a real house. The Prattsville Art Center and Residency is a vital hub in a small Catskills, NY working class village. With regular art shows, visiting musicians, a coffee shop and a community library the center is a creative outlet for locals and visitors of all ages. Musical architecture is now dispersed throughout this well used and funky former hardware shop dating from the 1800’s. A door bell by Martin and Shepherd functions as a call and response to the local fire departments sirens that run tests at noon daily. Open the door to the sound of Terry Dame’s tinkling keys instrument triggered by the door. In the library Nic Yulman has installed a shelf of playable books. In the performance room Martin and Shepherd have customized a staircase to have a chime balustrade and steps that trigger beats. Dame and Yulman have instruments to be played on the walls and the ceiling while Ranjit Bhatnagar built an accordion into the wall. Bhatnagar also provided the center with his very popular musical brooms! The group of artists unveiled the permanent installation with a performance and it continues to be used by visiting musicians who incorporate elements of the work into their sets. Airlift has encouraged the center to commission more experiments to grow its musical architecture over time. As always it was a joy to be in community with the folks we met in Prattsville.
Airlift created a first-of-its-kind traveling
musical architecture with support from Justin Vernon (Bon Iver) and the band
The National for Eaux Claires Fest in 2018. Since then " "Porch Life" has crossed the country,
turning up at locations including the Coney Island boardwalk, The Kennedy
Center, The Momentary Museum and more! Contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. for inquires about Porchlife coming to visit your town
Location: North Adams, MA at MASS MoCA and The Beyond Place
Date: MASS MoCA opening May 26th/ Beyond Place Opening June 25, 2017
Project Description:
New Orleans Airlift brings its Music Box project to North Adams, Massachusetts at the invitation of TOURISTS and MASS MoCA. Delaney Martin and Taylor Shepherd, two of the Music Box’s co-founders, and project alumni Klaas Hübner (Berlin) and Andrew Schrock (New Orleans) are building new musical architecture with help from locals artists and volunteers. The new works take inspiration from North Adam’s industrial mill history and its nickname of “Steeple Town” due to its many churches whose steeples dot the landscape.
The Corrugarou, a crank driven re-making of Huebner and Schrocks’s well loved Chateau Poulet, uses rotating fans with different size tubes to make hauntingly beautiful droning tones. It debuts at MASS MoCA during the Memorial Day Weekend opening of the museum’s new wing. The Corrugarou is also part of Earmarks II, MASS MoCA’s celebration of sound as medium and subject matter. Corruarou will spend some months at the museum before joining Martin and Shepherd’s Chime Chapel as a permanent installation in The Beyond Place.
The Beyond Place is a little island along the Hoosic river that is a gateway to the Appalachian trail. It is part of TOURISTS, a creative landscape that includes Blackington Mill and a mid-century roadside motel. In addition to being discovered by hikers and wanders, this Music Box Outpost in The Beyond Place will host an opening and then bi-annual concerts as part of the Wilco’s Solid Sound Fest held at MASS MoCA. John Stirratt, bassist from Wilco, is one of the minds behind TOURISTS
Project: Music Box Outpost
Location: Community Stepping stones, Tampa Bay, FL
Date: March 25th - April 17th, 2016
Project Description: Watch a documentary about this project HERE
The USF Contemporary Art Museum (USFCAM) presented The Music Box: Tampa Bay, a musical architecture project by visiting artists New Orleans Airlift, curated by Sarah Howard, Curator of Public Art and Social Practice, with assistance from Shannon Annis in Spring 2016. This interactive public artwork that fused architecture, engineering, history and music-making, The Music Box: Tampa Bay was a performance space and site for exploration, experimentation and discovery at the Community Stepping Stones (CSS) site at Mann-Wagnon Park along the primordial Hillsborough River in the Sulphur Springs neighborhood of Tampa full of alligators and manatees!
The Music Box: Tampa Bay was comprised of three temporary structures with embedded instrumentation designed to produce sounds when interacted with and performed by musicians and visitors. During the month of March, Airlift artists and Music Box founders Delaney Martin and Taylor Shepherd led the project featuring collaborating local artists Jan Awai, Devon Brady and Michael Lemieux from Livework Studios, community-based land artist, Tory Tepp, and NYC-based artists Ranjit Bhatnagar and Alyssa Dennis to design and construct the musical village. Students from CSS and USF College of The Arts worked with the artists to execute the public art installation and presentation.
Art works included The Symphonium (LiveWork), a bicycle powered instrument drawing water from the Hillsborough river to power a series of horns in a water tower, Pitch bo House, (Dennis and Bhatnagar) a two story structure with playable floorboards and sliding doors, and Lunar Tool Shed (Tepp) that came with sonic shovels and wheelbarrows and which used water pumped from The Symphonium to power percussive instrumentation and water flowers that grew around the structure over the course of the installation. Tepp’s piece remains at the site while the other two structures have joined Airlift’s permanent Music Box Village in New Orleans.
Following the artist design and build residency, The Music Box: Tampa Bay opened to the public for four weekends starting March 25th and concluding April 17th. Musical performances, orchestrated and performed by local musicians, including Ray ‘rayzilla’ Villadonga conducting The Modified Mosquito Massive featuring an all star cast of local luminaries, emerging band Career performing Structures, USF Composition Program presented “It's Called 'The Locktsapopka”, and a final performance by hip-hop collective Gwan Massive. Additional programming included artist talks and a spoken word performance by Heard ‘Em Say Youth Arts Collective.
In June of 2016, a follow up exhibition at USF Contemporary Art Museum, again curated by Sarah Howard, featuring a retrospective of the Music Box Project beginning in 2011 - 2016 and also included local artists responding to the experience of Music Box: Tampa Bay.
The Music Box: Tampa Bay was supported by a National Endowment for the Arts ART WORKS grant, The Frank E. Duckwall Foundation, The Gobioff Foundation, and the USF School of Art and Art History’s Bank of America Community Arts Endowment Fund.
Curator
Location: O.C. Haley Blvd, New Olreans
Dates: December 2015
New Orleans Airlift partnered with Ashe Cultural Center to create a Music Box Outpost in Central City, New Orleans. Ashe's mission to celebrate African diaspora art and culture, along with a belief in community and commerce, informed a designe with influences from Africa, the carribean, and New Orleans in the form of a musical market place. New Orleans visual artist Carl Joe Williams led the design of the project while prominent Congo Square drummer, Luther Gray, provided musical direction for the piece as well as leading many nights of music with the public. Drawing on the idea of umbrella style market places, the artists created a trio of vibrant, tin, umbrella shapes and used 55 gallon metal and plastic drums, water bottles, tin cans, and oyster shells to create a sonic experience that erupted into amazing drum circles once the public got their hands on the piece.
Our other collaborators were youth artists and musicians from Ashe's Kuumba Institute. They made masks and hand held instruments to sell at the market and participated in an amazing performance playing our musical market with the fabulous Tank and the Bangas. The Musical Market debuted with support from The New Orleans Arts Council at their Luna Fete 2015 event (Nov 29th - Dec 5th) in Central City ahead of joining our larger Music Box Village.
It is so important to form partnerships with organizations and neighbors in Central City and other parts of our city. We will continue to do Outposts in our hometown and abroad to build our project through collaboration.
Musicians
Community Artist Participants
Airlift’s permanent site for Musical Architecture!
Location: Erato at O.C. Haley Blvd
Dates: Spring 2016
New Orleans Airlift is taking The Music Box Roving Village to Central City this spring! Due to the success of the City Park Roving Village Residency, (over 10,000 people visited in six weeks) and to grow our audiences across the city, we will open this interactive installation in one of the most historic and architecturally beautiful neighborhoods of our city. We are partnering with Ashe Cultural Center and many of the other amazing organizations along OC Haley Blvd to make the most of our time in Central City.
This fall look out for the debut of a musical market we are building in partnership with Ashe, the visual artist Carl Joe Williams and musician Luther Gray. The musical structure will combine our musical architecture with Ashe's African Diaspora mission and their focus on community, culture and commerce. It will function as an actual market place for vendors AND a playable instrument for visitors and professional musicians. The artists are drawing on African market's for the inspiration and their designs include sonic umbrellas and percussive tables. The Musical Market will debut with support from The New Orleans Arts Council at their Luna Fete 2015 event (Nov 29th - Dec 5th) in Central City ahead of joining our musical village in the spring.
We are so excited to be laying the groundwork for our next Roving Village Residency through projects like this while forming partnerships with organizations and neighbors in Central City!
If you would like to donate and make sure The Roving Village: Central City is a success, please support us here: http://www.neworleansairlift.org/index.php/support/donate
If you or your organization or business would like to participate in some way, please email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
If your school would like to schedule a field trip, please email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
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Synopsis:
In the beginning there was one: Swoon’s iconic design for Dithyrambalina!
Description:
At the start of Airlift’s evolving engagement with musical architecture we imagined that we would make one musical house. As lead visual artist on the project Swoon was tasked with designing the look of the house. After a few tries she created Dithyrambalina - as a joyus ode to New Orleans’ architecture. A cardboard model was soon followed by a 10ft quarter scale model for Dithy, as we like to call her. She was a beauty but we still didn’t know how to make her sing.
That was the moment when musical architecture co-founder, Delaney Martin, decided to create The Music Box: A Shantytown Sound Laboratory. Inspired by Swoon’s ten foot model, Martin envisioned a village of small shacks and shanties that could act as laboratories for artists to create musical inventions that could be incorporated into Swoon’s design.
But Dithyrambalina is still on the cards…. when we get our permanent site she will be our grand, magnum opus, looking out over the rooftops of the village she has spawned. TO But Dithyrambalina is still in the cards….
Lead Artist
Location: Approximately 1055 Harrison Ave.
Dates: April 3-May 10th, 2015
Remind yourself of the Magic with this wonderful behind-the-scenes film of The Music Box Roving Village: City Park featuring Solange, Arto Lindsey, Bruce "Sunpie" Barnes and others. This documentary was created by outstanding local filmmaker Lindsey Phillips! https://vimeo.com/138645567
New Orleans Airlift Presents The Music Box Roving Village at City Park which hosted free public hours for audiences to interact; nighttime concerts led by a composer-in-residence; interactive education workshops; and artist talks. Over the course of six weeks we had almost 10,000 people visit. 4500 people came to Airlift's free public open hours to explore the kinetic, musical structures that make ever visitor an agent of creativity. Almost 1000 students from all across New Orleans schools and after school programs came for interactive, educational workshops. 4400 people attended our orchestral concerts which were conducted by William Parker, a NY jazz master, Quintron, a local inventor and phenomenal music leader, and Arto Lindsay, a legendary performer who has worked at the cross section of visual art and music for decades. Participations by musicians like Arto, Wilco, Solange Knowles, Thurston Moore, Preservation Hall Brass Band and the Lost Bayou Ramblers prove that the concept of musical architecture is artistically exciting platform for performers. The massive public response that attracted people from all walks of life was a testament to the need for interactive, multi-disciplinary, public art exhibits in New Orleans.
See below for further information on our performances at City Park:
For this performance The Music Box Roving Village: City Park welcomed headlining Jazz Fest musicians Wilco, along with local musical stars, inventor/swamp pop legend Quintron, Dashing songwriter Luke Winslow-King, king of the avant-garde music scene Rob Cambre, freak-folk musician Dustan Louque and rock goddess Sean Yseult of White Zombie.
April 29th, 2015 at 6:30-9PM
Rare Sounds: A Benefit for New Orleans Airlift
New Orleans Airlift hosted Rare Sounds: A Benefit at The Music Box Roving Village April 29th featuring New Orleans legendary band Preservation Hall Brass Band and grammy-nominated cajun rockers Lost Bayou Ramblers. Ticket sales from this performance supported Airlift’s educational and artistic programs that support our mission to collaborate to inspire wonder, connect communities and foster opportunities through the creation of experimental public art. Chefs across the city such as Sue Zemanick of Gautreau's Restaurant provided food and cocktails for the evening.
Closing Orchestral Performance- SOLD OUT
May 8th&9th, 2015 at 7PM & 9PM
Arto Lindsay, a performer who has worked at the cross section between music and art for four decades conducted The Roving Village Orchestra’s final performance in City Park. Lindsay was joined by Animal Collective's Josh "Deakin" Dibb, jazz chanteuse Meschiya Lake, zydeco king Bruce Sunpie Barnes, Loose Marbles' tuba player Jon Gross, drummer for the Yellow Pocahontas Solomon Israel Mason, mad electronic musician Earl Scioneaux III, Northside Skull and Bones member "Bone Man Zohar" Israel,innovative multi-instrumentalist Aurora Nealand, and Sean Yseult of legendary metal band White Zombie. In addition there were special apperances by the 504 Boyz Horse Riding Club, Caramel Curves all female motorcycle club, and the Free Spirit Brass Band.
Musical House Makers
- Delaney Martin
- Taylor Lee Shepherd
- Swoon
- Darryl Reeves
- Frank Pahl
- Ross Harmon
- Nina Nichols
- Klaas Hubner
- Andrew Schrock
- Justin Rabideau
- George Long
- Lindsay "Viki" Karty
- Rainger Pinney
- Jonah Emerson-Bell
- Michael Glenboski
- Rick Snow
- Matthew Ostrowski
- Ian Vanek
- Mars Brown
- Clayton Stephens
- Rob Dowtin
- Caramel Curves
- The 504 Boyz Horse Club
Musicians and Performers
- Swoon
- Ian Vanek
- William Parker
- Cooper Moore
- Quintron
- Tank
- Rob Cambre
- Leyla McCalla
- Glenn Barbarot
- Rusty Lazer
- Marion Tortorich
- Arto Lindsay
- Solange Knowles
- Aurora Nealand
- Free Spirit Brass Band
- Wilco
- Earl Scioneaux III
- Bruce Sunpie Barnes
- Jon Gross
- Sean Yseult
- Josh "Deakin" Dibb
- Solomon Israel Mason
- Bone Man Zohar Israel
- Aurora Nealand
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Musical houses in the shadow of the Calanthean Canyon
Description:
New Orleans Airlift second outpost of musical architecture was part of the Shreveport Regional Arts Council’s UNSCENE! Residency program. Airlift was so happy to work with over 30 local artists from Shreveport, sharing ideas and building musical houses together. The most exciting element of our project is that our collaborators are now in charge of the installation, creating their own performances and experiences in this new musical village.
Our site was in the shadow of the Calanthean Temple, a building erected in 1923 by the Order of Calanthe, an African-American womens society that held legendary performances by Cab Calloway and others during the heyday of Shreveport’s music scene in the 1940s.
The Airlift team was led by artistic director Delaney Martin who collaborated with fellow project founder Taylor Shepherd on one of our newly transportable musical houses. Music Box New Orleans veterans Ross Harmon (New Orleans) and Frank Pahl (Detroit) also joined the team creating their outstanding chime-based house “The Bower’s Nest”. Frank acted as our conductor for an outstanding opening performance.
We were also honored to work with a member of The Residents, a cult band whose members have stayed largely anonymous. Rather than join us, we were haunted by a Resident via a video piece and vocals created especially for our project. They were incorporated into a custom built log cabin of the artist’s design created in collaboration with locals Nate Treme and Josh Porter.
Our local team of artists were led by Peter Fetterman who galvanized the most awesome community of artists and musicians ahead of our arrival. Folks like Jon Mackey, whose musical greenhouse perched 20 ft. up on a catwalk built in just three weeks by Jimmy Cousins, along with a spiral staircase and a Thermin whose antenna was a geodesic dome. Josh October got an amazing sound out a barrel-based instrument he had been dreaming about making for years, while Brett Roberts‘ House of God harnessed the power of PVC pipes. Christian Maes made a bottle carillon that was so elegant and we even had a Windmill created by John Martin in collaboration with Laura Thompson.
Synopsis:
The United States Embassy in Kiev, Ukraine invited New Orleans Airlift to complete a very special mission at the Art Arsenale Museum.
Description:
Airlift was invited by the American Embassy in Kiev, Ukraine in cooperation with the Art Arsenale Museum to realize an outpost installation of Musical Architecture. This was our first “Outpost” and has become the model for expanding our idea of Musical Architecture to new communities. By researching the architectural and musical history of the specific place and working with seven local artists, we were able to create an installation that reflected Kiev’s unique culture.
Dimitriy Tiazhlov, a Ukranian documentary film maker, followed their adventure collecting materials, wandering through Ukrainian markets and collaborating with a slew of amazing Ukranian artists. The film culminates in the building and performance of the musical house in the Art Arsenale Museum.
Collaborators:
Delaney Martin, Taylor Lee Shepherd and Andrew Schrock collaborated with Ukrainian artists Ivanov Down, and Dmytro Nikolaienko to build the structure. Airlift also imported instruments like Ranjit Bhatnagar’s Noise Floor and Lindsay Karty’s Electric Curtain, plus new inventions from Music Box artists Taylor Kuffner, Ben Mortimer and Ross Harmon.
Musical Collaborators
More...
If The Music Box was America, the Shantytown Sound Laboratory would be our Plymouth Rock.
Description:
The Music Box: A Shantytown Sound Laboratory (2011-12) on Piety St. in New Orleans was our first installation of musical architecture, acting as a testing ground and proof-of-concept for our vision of what musical architecture could be. The installation was built from the salvaged remains of a 250 year-old house on the site where it had stood. Invented instruments were embedded into walls, ceilings, and floors of nine small structures that supported boundary-breaking musical performances and inspired wonder, exploration and invention in visitors of all ages.
Created by 25 collaborating artists, performed on by over 70 world-class musicians and attended by over 15,000 visitors and 500+students, The Music Box captured the hearts of the New Orleans community. In addition to seven orchestral concerts led by conductors, the instruments of The Music Box were put to test in recordings sessions and pop-up performances by amazing and diverse musicians including Thurston Moore, Dark Dark Dark, the sample-based band Javelin, the Brooklyn pop punk duo Japanther, and noise heroes Black Dice.
Thanks to all the artists, staff, volunteers, musicians and neighbors who made the magic of The Music Box possible.
Artistic Director: Delaney Martin
Associate Curators: Taylor Shepherd, Theo Eliezer, & Swoon
Musical Curator and Cheif Conductor: Quintron
Associate Musical Curator: Jay Pennington
Project by
Associate curators
Commisioned Artists
- Delaney Martin
- Taylor Lee Shepherd
- Swoon
- Quintron
- Jayme Kalal
- Aaron Taylor Kuffner
- Ross Harmon
- Ben Mortimer
- Lindsay "Viki" Karty
- Angeliska Polacheck
- Ranjit Bhatnagar
- Serra Victoria Bothwell Fels
- Elizabeth Shannon
- Rainger Pinney
- Jonah Emerson-Bell
- Micah Learned
- Aaron Kellner
- Andrew Schrock
- Mankh Smith
- Myrtle Von Damitz III
- Ratty Scurvics
- Simon Berz
- Arto Lindsay
