I just got this from one of my favorite New York poets, Mattea Harvey, whose magical work is exquisitely quirky. Wish I could see it–but in any case what a cool idea!
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Dear friends, near and far,
This year I worked on making a soundwalk with amazing sound artist Justin Bennett for the Guggenheim architecture program–it’s going on for four weekends (starting next week) in Staten Island. You take the ferry to S.I., then go to a kiosk where you get an ipod and go on a 90 minute soundwalk along the shore and into the St. George neighborhood. The piece is called TELETTROFONO and it’s about Antonio Meucci (who invented the telephone decades before Bell) and his mermaid wife, Esterre. Meucci was an amazing nineteenth century inventor who made a marine telephone for divers to speak with ship captains, flame-retardant paint (which he advised using on your underwear) and improved effervescent drinks, among other things. The telettrofono tour will introduce you to his real and imagined inventions, a mermaid chorus, a preset verifiable fact mode, and the story of a mermaid who leaves the water because of her love of how things sound aboveground.
If you would like to know more about the soundwalk, please go here for info and tickets (and an audio preview)!
http://stillspotting.guggenheim.org/visit/staten-island/
And if you don’t live in the New York area, but know someone who might enjoy this kind of thing, please feel free to forward my email to them. I promise it’ll be a unique and wild experience (I don’t want to give away all the surprises…) I hope you’re having a wonderful summer!
xx
Matthea
