Project 1: Observation & Proposal
We chose to observe the pedestrian/bicycle way on the Williamsburg Bridge.
At 8:30am on Sunday (January 29) morning Kenny and I (kati london) met and walked across from the Lower East Side of Manhattan to Williamsburg, Brooklyn. It was a cold morning with lots of wind, and even though it was cloudy we could see the difference between the more industrial architecture of Brooklyn and the residential architecture of Lower Manhattan. Police boats travelled below us on the river. There were not a huge number of people out, mostly there were cyclists, a few roller bladers, a few groups of Hassidic Jews walking back and forth for excercise, and some people who seemed to be heading to work or looking for early morning excercise. The traffic direction seemed out of the ordinary for New York---pedestrians to the left and vehicles with wheels to the right. It was pretty noisy with the rhythmic bumping sound from cars below and the occassional passing of subways slightly lower to the side of the walking path.
Chained garbage cans along the way were filled with drink bottles, alcoholic and non---this would be a great area to have recycling bins as well.
Here is a little video, mostly of traffic patterns.
Kati and I went there for observation. My role was take pictures. Here we go.
Williambsurg Bridge at night. Documented by Rocio.
Monday, 9:00pm. I spent almost an hour standing in the pedestrian/bicycle way. It was really cold and isolated. Once every five minutes a guy walking or by bike appeared. They where all rushing and seemed cold and tired. They inspired me to cross the bridge (I didn't do it, it was too cold), but at least I got the inspiration. I felt that to getting to the other side of the bridge is a really long distance to have only metal and cement. I wouldn't feel safe. Maybe there should be something in the middle. Or maybe every time you enter the bridge you could put your name on a paper and drop it in a 'bridge-paper-dropper'. So... this way you can know how many people crosses the WB. With all this information we could do a raffle and give prizes. I don't know... I am just letting my mind go along. Symmetry.
Bennett - I rode over from Chinatown to the Williamsburg around 8:45 on Monday morning armed with a Marantz mp3 recorder and microphone, hoping to capture some sounds from the morning commute time on the pedestrian overpass. It was a beautiful, sunny morning, after a few minutes riding up the bridge it was t-shirt weather. There was a fair amount of activitiy on the bridge while I was there, both cyclists and people on foot. Most of the traffic was coming over from Brooklyn into Manhattan. Some commuter cyclists, a lot of messenger types too, I was checking out their sexy track bikes. Thankfully, the yellow plastic speed bumps that used to be on the descent side into Manhattan have been removed and replaced with yellow metal plates. I tried to record some sounds of bikes riding over it. There was a lot of construction going on. Where the walking path normally splits in two, one side was blocked off for some jackhammering and sawing. Farther up, another crew was working near the base of one of the towers. I recorded some of the sounds that my bike made while riding along the path, though it was hard to avoid wind and mic jostling noise. I also recorded the sounds that I make while riding my bike, more easily discernable when chugging uphill. I recorded sounds of traffic, and walked down the final steepest portion of the path into Brooklyn, where it is very narrow. On my way back over the bridge, I began making recordings while holding the microphone against the various metal parts of the bridge, getting lots of nice reverb and metallic noises, as well as banging sounds of my U-lock against various metal surfaces.
I made this mp3 in Garageband as a soundscape collage of the pedestrian overpass. I mixed the tracks, trying to maintain the overall aesthetic; to create a more accurate depiction by layering some of the sounds and not using effects. Its 5:18 long.
Williamsburg Bridge Soundscape
On the recording you will hear traffic, construction, sounds of a bike, sounds of me breathing heavy, coughing, banging on pipes, jackhammers, the occasional conversation, wind from high-speed cycling, a stroller, railings, and of course, the subway.
Proposal
In response to our observations we propose a participatory sound installation that allows foot, cycling and rollerblading commuters to listen to:
- spontaneous, anonymous, real or live conversations with other commuters
- the bridge's perspective (inside of beams, cables, roadbeds, etc.)
- recorded surrounding elements that the bridge passes through, over or under, such as the river below & the sky above
As a prototype we have experimented with 2''-diameter PVC pipe outfitted with joints and makeshift 'speakers' that allow for funnelling or listening to sound. The ideal lengths of these pipes would stretch varying and very long distances creating opportunities for anonymous and surprising conversations or aural experiences.
