P.S. 244 Sound Carnival (overview) Brooklyn NYC 1996

Designed for two playgrounds incorporated into a new wing at PS 244, an elementary school in the Caribbean community of East Flatbush, Brooklyn to explore music and the physics of acoustic phenomena. The school is surrounded by single-family residential housing, and student enrollment increased from 900 to 1400 when the project was completed. Two outdoor sites were selected for the installation: an inner playground for preschool through second grades which is enclosed by two and four-story school buildings on all sides, and an outer playground for grades 3-6 bordered on two sides by buildings and two sides adjoining the street. click here for sound

Drum Circle & Speaking Dishes (detail)

In the playground for older children, groupings of bronze drums engage children in communal music making and serve a dual function as tables and seats. Five Bata drums of Haitian origin and parabolic dishes in the Drum Circle connect to a large underground chamber. Children hear their voices and playing reverberating through grates in the concrete benches and in the center of the dishes.

Talking Drums & Listening Dishes (detail)

Conga shaped "talking drums" of Afro-Cuban origin (Tumba, Conga & Quinto) are also connected underground in pairs by pipes and are flanked by large parabolic dishes which focus sounds to a central point where children discover their voices are greatly amplified. Additionally, the parabolic dishes focus and reflect sound waves towards the players' ears and across 40' to each other. Flowering vines, bushes and trees surround the fenced peripheries of the playground area to creating visual and acoustic isolation from the service area and protect the privacy of adjoining housing.

Palm Trees (detail)

Two stainless steel "Palm Trees" are played by slapping open ends of tuned stainless steel pipes embedded in the 'trunk' to produce tuned percussive sounds. The opposite ends of the pipes form the curved canopy of the 'treetop'. By listening and speaking in the open ends, children also hear the resonant frequency of each pipe. Tuned to a 7 note diatonic scale.

Hand Fence (detail)

Stainless steel cut-outs of students' and teachers' hands are embedded in concrete and "wave" from the top of the fences. In the Drum Circle their hand tracings are stenciled in colored concrete.

Telephone Tubes

In the early childhood play area children communicate through a network of curvilinear color-coded "Telephone Tubes" inter- connected underground. Each is linked by color, and the children speak into, listen and play on the sculptures. Fabricated of painted steel with a safety surface covering the play area. Open pipe ends are capped with perforated grates. Credits: In association with the architectural firm, Montoya-Rodriguez and the landscape architecture firm Abel, Bainnson and Butz, this project is scheduled for completion in the fall of 1996. It was commissioned by the New York City Board of Education, the NYC School Construction Authority and the Department of Cultural Affairs Percent for Art Program.