Sound Art Installation Community Project

Roundware app

During three weeks in October, students in Stephanie's Moon Art & Technology elective class at the Middle School worked with visiting artist Halsey Burgund to create a local installation of audio art, "4 Corners & 4 Questions." You can experience this virtual installation on our Middle School campus! Just download the Roundware app from the iTunes store; then when you are on campus, click on LISTEN or click on SPEAK if you would like to participate in answering any of the 4 prompts. Enjoy the experience!

This exploratory project enabled students to learn about the concept of sound art, and to be introduced to the work of Halsey Burgund who is a sound artist in the Boston area exploring the richness of sound as an art form and combining this medium with technological tools to create installation experiences. He works with several institutions including Harvard University, the Museum of Science in Boston, Miami Art Week, and the MIT Media Lab, to name a few. He has also programmed his own phone app (Roundware) which enables the audience to both contribute their voices to the work as well as to experience it. Here are a few other samples of Halsey's work:

• Sound Art Installations 
• Ocean Voices
• Voices with Faces, Voices without Races
• Scapes (at the DeCordova Museum)
• Patient Translation

At BB&N, the Art and Tech class was introduced to Halsey’s Artistic Process:

1. Brainstorming a Theme 
2. Selecting Music, Voices, Ambient Noise 
1. collecting/creating sounds 
2. editing sounds 
3. creating ambient layer 
3. Assembling the sound booth to collect student voices 
4. Using Roundware (http://roundware.org/)

The 4 Corners & 4 Questions are now part of the MS grounds virtual installation:

1. Laughter - Try to make me laugh, tell a joke (as you enter the school) 
2. Song - Sing a part of your favorite song (by the new sports shed) 
3. Encouragement/motivation - Say something to makes someone's day better (in the back by the science building) 
4. Venting - What's bugging you? (on the way to the carriage house)

Collecting the sounds using sound booth on the MS campus

Testing installation with Halsey