Writing / Book/Catalog Essay
SoundSculpture School of the Art Institute of Chicago, 2012
Writing / Book/Catalog Essay
SoundSculpture School of the Art Institute of Chicago, 2012
Soaring Echoes, a new sonic sculpture created by Bill Fontana for the Pritzker Pavilion at Chicago’s Millennium Park, dislocates then relocates the viewer within its host environment, transforming perceptions of time and space. Pritzker Pavilion, an outdoor music bandshell designed by Frank Gehry, is the centerpiece of Millennium Park, part of Grant Park, more than 300 acres of public park land bordered by Lake Michigan to the east and by Chicago’s famed architectural skyline to the west. Using the pavilion’s existing sound system, a steel trellis equipped with 102 loud speakers that arcs high above Millennium Park’s Great Lawn, the artist has composed a series of soundscapes that expands the act of listening while reframing our everyday experience of the city.