Mespaetches Creek Dynamic Listening (2023)
Part of Cal's Pre-York River body of work, this installation series uses The Dynamic Listening Instrument, story quilts made from upcycled materials, and public activations to build and share
an immersive sonic archive making audible; ecological abundance and devastation, toxicity and power,and remediation and sonic healing along Mespaetches/Newtown Creek and other waterways
and communities connected to the Pre-York River or Hudson River. A sculpture/tool called the Dynamic Listening Instrument offers the chance to kinesthetically handle and
recombine hours of archival audio including interviews, field recordings, and healing tones in a modular venn-diagram of electromagnetic fields in parks along Mespaetches/Newtown Creek,
a waterway bearing a century+ of extreme toxicity and currently undergoing remediation efforts from local organizations like Newtown Creek Alliance. Sounding buckets and stuffed animals
set on a collection of Pre-York River Blankets offer a place for rest and repose
as well as critical play and multigenerational collaboration.
This series of installation featured Dynamic Listening Dance Workshops led by Cal and performances by artists Pudding Club, Bookworms, Kwami Winfield, and Certain Lives.
Mespaetches Creek Dynamic Listening 2023 was made possible, in part, by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor
and the New York State Legislature through the Media Arts Assistance Fund a regrant partnership of NYSCA and Wave Farm.
For short video demonstrations of the Dynamic Listening Instrument and other sonic tools, Click Here
Below are some of the sonic fragments findable in the buckets and stuffed creatures of the Dynamic Listening Instrument.
Similarly to the installation series you are invited to explore the volumes and combinations of these sonic fragments...
Bright Drone for Oil Soaking
Plank Road Bees
PYR Video Note #2 East River
Nance Klehm Interview at Hunt's Point
IBZ Traffic Ecosystem
October Rain on Bowls to Runoff
The Loggers are Dead Song
Anonymous Interview with the Fan On
Jan Moon Fairy Rings Explanation at Plank Road
Anonymous Interview with the Fan On
Kim teaches "Rise Like The Water" Call and Response
Kim at Cooper Park No North Brooklyn Pipeline Victory Party
Cousin Alexis Long Island City Walking Interview
Kingsland Ave Sewer
PYR Video Note #1 East River
This installation series will continue into the future.
10/07 Kingsland Wildflowers Greenroof NCA HQ
^Kim Fraczek and others interact with a sonic venn-diagram holding recordings of anti-fossil fuel infrastructure protests in NYC and soundings of National Grid industrial infrastructure. Kim helped
lead and realize multiple successful fights against pipeline infrastructure expansion that have been
memorialized in recordings taken by Cal since 2018 for the Pre-York River Sonic Archive.
^Artist and ecology worker Ocean listens to an interview recorded two years earlier
where they explain how they became interested in ecology work and activism and observe
a polluted area of Newtown Creek.
Cal, Kwami, and Magpie perform "Plank Beach Day W.E.H.A.B."...
Magpie and Kwami use the conductivity of their bodies and connection to allow sounds through the PA system
while Cal swings a bucket of the Dynamic Listening Instrument.
Otto Benson shares a set of improvised guitar loops...
Above photos and Video by Alana Floreck
10/15 Plank Road Public Shoreline
10/22 Under the K Bridge
10/28 Transmitter Park
A father and child learn how to use the Dynamic
Listening Instrument at Transmitter Park.
Co-incidentally
this father used to live in a boat on
Mespetches/Newtown Creek. We are working on
setting up a time to meet and add an interview
to the project archive.
Cal leads a Dynamic Listening Dance Workshop...
Chloe Ditloff helps host the archive...
Certain Lives
performs with hydrophone, geophone, recordings, and poetry
Kwami Winfield
performs over the East River with trumpet, electronics, found objects, and bicycle
Photos by Max Branigan
"Shoe" the listening aid outfitted with speaker, rechargeable battery, and EMF coil.
,
an immersive sonic archive making audible; ecological abundance and devastation, toxicity and power,and remediation and sonic healing along Mespaetches/Newtown Creek and other waterways
and communities connected to the Pre-York River or Hudson River. A sculpture/tool called the Dynamic Listening Instrument offers the chance to kinesthetically handle and
recombine hours of archival audio including interviews, field recordings, and healing tones in a modular venn-diagram of electromagnetic fields in parks along Mespaetches/Newtown Creek,
a waterway bearing a century+ of extreme toxicity and currently undergoing remediation efforts from local organizations like Newtown Creek Alliance. Sounding buckets and stuffed animals
set on a collection of Pre-York River Blankets offer a place for rest and repose as well as critical play and multigenerational collaboration.
This series of installation featured Dynamic Listening Dance Workshops led by Cal and performances by artists Pudding Club, Bookworms, Kwami Winfield, and Certain Lives.
Mespaetches Creek Dynamic Listening 2023 was made possible, in part, by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor
and the New York State Legislature through the Media Arts Assistance Fund a regrant partnership of NYSCA and Wave Farm.
For short video demonstrations of the Dynamic Listening Instrument and other sonic tools, Click Here
Below are some of the sonic fragments findable in the buckets and stuffed creatures of the Dynamic Listening Instrument.
Similarly to the installation series you are invited to explore the volumes and combinations of these sonic fragments...
Bright Drone for Oil Soaking
Plank Road Bees
PYR Video Note #2 East River
Nance Klehm Interview at Hunt's Point
IBZ Traffic Ecosystem
October Rain on Bowls to Runoff
The Loggers are Dead Song
Anonymous Interview with the Fan On
Jan Moon Fairy Rings Explanation at Plank Road
Anonymous Interview with the Fan On
Kim teaches "Rise Like The Water" Call and Response
Kim at Cooper Park No North Brooklyn Pipeline Victory Party
Cousin Alexis Long Island City Walking Interview
Kingsland Ave Sewer
PYR Video Note #1 East River
This installation series will continue into the future.
10/07 Kingsland Wildflowers Greenroof NCA HQ
^Kim Fraczek and others interact with a sonic venn-diagram holding recordings of anti-fossil fuel infrastructure protests in NYC and soundings of National Grid industrial infrastructure. Kim helped
lead and realize multiple successful fights against pipeline infrastructure expansion that have been
memorialized in recordings taken by Cal since 2018 for the Pre-York River Sonic Archive.
^Artist and ecology worker Ocean listens to an interview recorded two years earlier
where they explain how they became interested in ecology work and activism and observe
a polluted area of Newtown Creek.
Cal, Kwami, and Magpie perform "Plank Beach Day W.E.H.A.B."...
Magpie and Kwami use the conductivity of their bodies and connection to allow sounds through the PA system
while Cal swings a bucket of the Dynamic Listening Instrument.
Otto Benson shares a set of improvised guitar loops...
Above photos and Video by Alana Floreck
10/15 Plank Road Public Shoreline
10/22 Under the K Bridge
10/28 Transmitter Park
lead and realize multiple successful fights against pipeline infrastructure expansion that have been memorialized in recordings taken by Cal since 2018 for the Pre-York River Sonic Archive.
a polluted area of Newtown Creek.
Cal, Kwami, and Magpie perform "Plank Beach Day W.E.H.A.B."...
Magpie and Kwami use the conductivity of their bodies and connection to allow sounds through the PA system
while Cal swings a bucket of the Dynamic Listening Instrument.
10/15 Plank Road Public Shoreline
10/22 Under the K Bridge
10/28 Transmitter Park
A father and child learn how to use the Dynamic
Listening Instrument at Transmitter Park.
Co-incidentally
this father used to live in a boat on
Mespetches/Newtown Creek. We are working on
setting up a time to meet and add an interview
to the project archive.
Cal leads a Dynamic Listening Dance Workshop...
Chloe Ditloff helps host the archive...
Certain Lives
performs with hydrophone, geophone, recordings, and poetry
Kwami Winfield
performs over the East River with trumpet, electronics, found objects, and bicycle
Photos by Max Branigan
"Shoe" the listening aid outfitted with speaker, rechargeable battery, and EMF coil.