Park Bench Cinema

It's been a long week of cranking out project proposals, artist statements, and the like. All stuff I'm really excited about (especially the LMCC workspace program) but lots of work.

I did want to mention, however, a project that I'm planning on doing for Conflux Festival, or just on my own. I'd hoped to do it for the Red Hook BWAC open studios weekend (June 9-10), but don't think I'll be able to finish one in time. Anyhow, here it is: Park Bench Cinema.

The widespread use of personal stereos has created an army of listeners navigating the city in reverie, enjoying a synaesthetic relationship between what they see and the music they hear. Such sonic mediation to the body’s experience might be thought of as a form of cinema. But such sonic mediations need not be restricted to the commercial providers of music. Sound artists might wish to take advantage of the nonchalance with which the public now synthesizes disparate sonic and visual sources into a complete, and very individual, filmic experience. And I have just the ticket.

A ticket, that is, to the Park Bench Cinema. Who wants to sit inside a movie theater on a sunny September afternoon? Why not bring the cinematic experience outside? The Park Bench Cinema consists of a series of downloadable mp3s meant to work with the ambient sonic and visual environment to create an intense filmic experience in very specific public New York City locations. There will be showtimes, naturally, where people will be expected to gather and then listen at a particular time. Of course, the on-demand crowd may desire to create their own showtimes; that’s okay too, though these ‘films’ are best experienced in groups.

This community aspect will be accentuated by a website to foster discussion of experiences, to perhaps organize further showtimes without the participation of the creator, and even to promote the creation of more Park Bench cinematic experiences by other creators.