Machine Project

A large part of the residency at the Hammer Museum involved experimenting with sound in the Hammer’s varied public spaces. This was accomplished through tabla workshops by Robin Sukhadia, the experimental women’s choir Singing by Numbers, or the mobile improvisers SCRIBBLE. Additionally, solo artists such as Emily Lacy came to sing and hang out in the lobby for a saturday afternoon, while Oud player Ibrihim Duqum preferred to play in the courtyard. In both cases, these musicians performed for transient audiences that would traverse the space briefly, or stop and sit for 30 minutes to listen one-on-one. In all situations, the juxtaposition of excellent musicians operating in public spaces helps to call into question the role of the concert hall, and the warming quality of live music in architectural space. Works were curated to be either intensely personal, or incidental as in nature. Below is a repository of sound based projects the were incidental, dispersed, or ambulatory in character, but have not been featured in other aspects on the Hammer Projects Page.

The Hammer Museum created a montage of our sound-based projects here.

• HELICOPTER
  
  HELICOPTER improvised for six straight hours in the public spaces of the Hammer. At times, they occupied different spaces with members stretching across the museum. At other times, they created spontaneous structures as duos, trios, and quartets. HELICOPTER is Brendan Carn, John Armstrong, Rory Cowal, and Brandon Sherman.

  Check out this video of HELICOPTER playing ping pong.

• NAP-IN
  
  A Nap-In held post-Dream-In. We provided music to nap to featuring Emily Lacy, Ambient Force 3000, Ryan Tanaka, Daniel Corral, and Jaeger Smith. Check out this video of the Nap-In.
• SCRIBBLE: FANFARE/NO FANFARE
  
  SCRIBBLE spent a week at the Hammer Museum performing fanfares for guests, improvising in the public spaces of the museum, and exploring the acoustical and social architecture of the space. SCRIBBLE is Andrew Conrad, reeds // Brandon Sherman, trumpet // Chris Kallmyer, trumpet
• PING PONG BELLS
  
  Chris Kallmyer created bell paddles for our ping pong table. Here is a video of our musical ping pong paddles at the hammer museum.