SAFE
I work a block-and-a-half from MoMA, and joined earlier this year. With $20 admissions and $75 annual memberships, it was an easy sell. You get unlimited visits, free movies, and a special member coat check. I used that once, though, and my coat came back smelling like mothballs and wormwood.
Anyone who's been there knows it's overload--you spend too long inside to justify the entrance price, absorb too much so that the stuff that really grabbed you is diluted, and leave with agoraphobia and sore feet. It took me 47 of the paid 52 weeks to realize, finally, that with a membership I can spend 30-45 minutes at a time walking down there, checking out one or two exhibits, and heading out refreshed.
The last couple weeks have been pretty mellow at work--last week with the strike, this week with the boss out of the office. So two weeks in a row, I've gone during lunch. My first stop is Janet Cardiff's installation of a Thomas Tallis motet, a 40-voice vocal piece sung by a Salisbury, England choir of men and boys. The room is approximately 40' by 25' and has 40 speakers set up at ear level in 8 groups of 5 set in an oval around the perimeter of the room. The piece is 11 minutes long and is jaw-droppingly beautiful. You can sit in the middle and let it wash over you, or walk around and listen to the individual voices. The reason I keep going back to hear it is the piece is preceded by 3 minutes of junk time - if you put your ear up to any speaker you can hear a guy warming up, a guy clearing his throat, or a couple kids discussing a new watch one of them just bought. I find these subtle touches do as much to transport me as the splendor of the music itself. So on every visit I hang at a different speaker to hear how that particular singer prepares.
Next up is a minute or two in James Turrell's A Frontal Passage. It's hard for me to describe the effect here. It's like living inside David Lynch's heart. In my version of From The Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, I hide out at MoMA and sleep in here.
After that I hit one new exhibit. Today was SAFE: Design Takes on Risk, up on 6. It closes next week, but there's a good interactive site to see some of the mind-bending stuff designers have created to embrace (and lampoon) our world's expanding exposure/obsession to danger, fear, and paranoia. You need to check it out.
Some of my favorite items were:
bulletproof clothing (designed by Israelis), although instead of using Kevlar, they use swan and pheasant feathers. Swans are bulletproof!
A bedside table that can be immediately dissembled and used as a bat and a shield. Yes, a shield. Designed by James McAdam, who is my new best friend.
The Karryfront Screamer bag. If someone tries to yank the bag from you, the strap breaks and the bag emits a 138-decibel scream. That's a jet engine at 100 feet, motherfuckers.
The Swiss Fondue Earthquake Safety Table. Self-explanatory.
The Date Rape Spike Drink Detector. Works like a pregnancy test, but instead of pissing on it, you dip it into your vodka and red bull. Has a woman ever read anything I've written here?
The 3 in 1 Kite/Splint/Inflatable Body Warmer. I couldn't make that up if I did drugs for 160 years.
Homeland Security Blanket. A blanket that tells you the current Homeland Security threat level.
GiantMicrobes. Any of my friends who have small children can expect one of these stuffed animals as a gift next time around.
But by far the coolest thing was the video demonstration of the Oldcastle Glass Blast Mitigation System. If you go to the MoMA site and scroll until you find the mound of dirt with the broken white picket fence and click on it, the mitigation system is right in the middle. Click on it and then hit next. An embedded video file will play.
Anyone who's been there knows it's overload--you spend too long inside to justify the entrance price, absorb too much so that the stuff that really grabbed you is diluted, and leave with agoraphobia and sore feet. It took me 47 of the paid 52 weeks to realize, finally, that with a membership I can spend 30-45 minutes at a time walking down there, checking out one or two exhibits, and heading out refreshed.
The last couple weeks have been pretty mellow at work--last week with the strike, this week with the boss out of the office. So two weeks in a row, I've gone during lunch. My first stop is Janet Cardiff's installation of a Thomas Tallis motet, a 40-voice vocal piece sung by a Salisbury, England choir of men and boys. The room is approximately 40' by 25' and has 40 speakers set up at ear level in 8 groups of 5 set in an oval around the perimeter of the room. The piece is 11 minutes long and is jaw-droppingly beautiful. You can sit in the middle and let it wash over you, or walk around and listen to the individual voices. The reason I keep going back to hear it is the piece is preceded by 3 minutes of junk time - if you put your ear up to any speaker you can hear a guy warming up, a guy clearing his throat, or a couple kids discussing a new watch one of them just bought. I find these subtle touches do as much to transport me as the splendor of the music itself. So on every visit I hang at a different speaker to hear how that particular singer prepares.
Next up is a minute or two in James Turrell's A Frontal Passage. It's hard for me to describe the effect here. It's like living inside David Lynch's heart. In my version of From The Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, I hide out at MoMA and sleep in here.
After that I hit one new exhibit. Today was SAFE: Design Takes on Risk, up on 6. It closes next week, but there's a good interactive site to see some of the mind-bending stuff designers have created to embrace (and lampoon) our world's expanding exposure/obsession to danger, fear, and paranoia. You need to check it out.
Some of my favorite items were:
bulletproof clothing (designed by Israelis), although instead of using Kevlar, they use swan and pheasant feathers. Swans are bulletproof!
A bedside table that can be immediately dissembled and used as a bat and a shield. Yes, a shield. Designed by James McAdam, who is my new best friend.
The Karryfront Screamer bag. If someone tries to yank the bag from you, the strap breaks and the bag emits a 138-decibel scream. That's a jet engine at 100 feet, motherfuckers.
The Swiss Fondue Earthquake Safety Table. Self-explanatory.
The Date Rape Spike Drink Detector. Works like a pregnancy test, but instead of pissing on it, you dip it into your vodka and red bull. Has a woman ever read anything I've written here?
The 3 in 1 Kite/Splint/Inflatable Body Warmer. I couldn't make that up if I did drugs for 160 years.
Homeland Security Blanket. A blanket that tells you the current Homeland Security threat level.
GiantMicrobes. Any of my friends who have small children can expect one of these stuffed animals as a gift next time around.
But by far the coolest thing was the video demonstration of the Oldcastle Glass Blast Mitigation System. If you go to the MoMA site and scroll until you find the mound of dirt with the broken white picket fence and click on it, the mitigation system is right in the middle. Click on it and then hit next. An embedded video file will play.
posted by stinkrock at 10:11 PM
3 Comments:
Awesome post.
SAFE sounds incredible.
If you liked the Tallis piece, you should just walk down 53rd Street to St. Thomas Church to hear the Choir. The music there is unbelievable.
Thanks for the tip.
The other cool thing about the Tallis piece is that my father has sung it--he used to sing with the St. Louis Cathedral Choir.
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