11.06.2015

chIMing&SHimmEring

...For a brief period after its completion in 1974, the Standard Oil Building at 200 E. Randolph (now the Aon Center, previously the Amoco Building) was the tallest skyscraper in Chicago. The following year the Sears Tower was finished, claiming the crown for itself, but that June designer, sculptor, and sound artist Harry Bertoia unveiled a massive public artwork, commissioned in '74, in the plaza of the Standard Oil Building. His "sonambient sculpture" originally sat within a 4,000-square-foot reflecting pool and consisted of 11 vertical rows of copper and brass rods ranging from four to 16 feet in height, arranged at right angles or in parallel. Because the rods are closely spaced and slightly flexible, strong winds or pushes from visitors cause them to brush together, creating a rich spatialized field of chiming, shimmering sounds... 

@ChicagoReader: Sonambient Pavillion by Olivia Block, based on Bertoia's sound sculpture

sound artist Olivia Block's Soundcloud page

2 comments:

Miguel Iturralde said...

kool!

sonora y matancera said...

Yes, super cool. La escultura sonora de Bertoia es impresionante, tanto por el sonido cambiante según el viento y la esbeltez metálica. En mis tiempos de estudiante enamoradiza, era un refugio-escondite. Me alegró la noticia de este proyecto. Es cierto que el sistema audio del parque lo va a amplificar de manera espeluznante. Trataré de ir. Saludos.