Land Buoy Bells

Artist Statement: Land Buoy Bells is a site-specific sound sculpture. Starting with my first site-visit to Seattle, I wanted to create a sound work that was played by the natural environment. Considering the long-term plans for this work to stay available to the public, most of the technologies I have worked with in the past – electronics, computer playback, audio speakers – proved impractical. This is one of a handful of kinetic artworks that I have produced. This is the first that functions without electricity. The engineering, designed by Stuart Kendall and his team is an essential part of what I hope will add to the magic of the work. Energy is built up by the motion of the water and the floating dock, creating the actions to strike the various bell-like instruments at semi-random intervals. Each bell has it’s own tone and timbre. Taking machined parts that are not designed as instruments, opens up a planned imperfection that I hope is intriguing. The mechanisms have random playback factors so that we never know when one bell will ring alone or any combination of up to 5 at once. The goal is to create sounds that play in concert with the existing and ever changing environment – the sounds of the water and waterfront, boats, voices, rain, music from another pier, distant and closer natural and engineered sounds that come and go throughout the day, throughout the year and years to come. 

I’ve been creating public art works since 2007. Land Buoy Bells has a connection to a piece I made in 2010, first installed on the High Line called A Bell For Every Minute. The piece on the High Line integrated recordings of bells from all over New York, from different cultures and played them back together at the beginning of the hour and then individually throughout the following hour. I am hoping that Land Buoy Bells becomes a part of the waterfront’s soundscape – a recognizable part of the culture that I have helped to conceive of and insert into the city’s history moving forward.

Location: Pier 62, floating dock