The first installment of Project Elements Easthampton created by Burns Maxey was presented in September to December 2009. The three-part multimedia exhibition incorporated installation, audio, photography, illustration, and historical study all about the city of Easthampton and its relationship to the element earth.
INSTALLATION
The first component was a multimedia installation located at 1 Cottage Street Room 1-06. The installation consisted of audio sculptures whose elements encompassed chairs covered in grass, telephones playing audio stories gathered from Easthamptonites (listen at left), and night photographs depicting Easthampton homes. The installation transformed dynamically throughout the exhibition. Some visitors left their stories on a telephone provided at the installation site that were then added to the exhibition. Visitors also watched and participated with Maxey who seeded the chairs during the opening hours of the exhibition. As part of a representation of the transformative quality of nature and recognition of growth and disintegration, the grass were grown and seeded throughout the exhibition. By the completion of the show, the chairs lived their life cycle and the grass decayed naturally. All of the decayed matter was composted following the exhibition.
AUDIO TOUR OF WEIRD AND TRUE STORIES
The second portion of the project was a self-guided audio tour of historical stories. These stories are not typically known history, but more unusual accounts about unknown characters and occurrences of Easthampton. The artist researched this history for two years, combing through microfilm day by day, 1 month of history taking an hours time. The original tour was set up as an audio cell-phone tour. Now Listeners can download a podcast of the audio tour in iTunes by searching for "Project Elements Easthampton."Download a map here and take the tour. Music for these stories was created by Timecard. See more informtion below. Listen to the individual tour sites on this website by clicking on the bullseye icons in the google map to your left.
EASTHAMPTON ALPHABET
The third portion of the project was 26 illustrations of found historical stories that were exhibited in the Old Town Hall at 43 Main Street. Each story corresponds to a letter of the alphabet with an illustration of the story above it becoming the "Easthampton Alphabet." The paintings and collages vary stylistically and the stories range from quirky to poignant.
The audio walking tour stories feature the sounds of Timecard.
Timecard
An Epic Walk Through A Field Of Broccoli
Download full album for free
Soundscapes composed of live band improvisation, samples, and distorted sound, "An Epic Walk Through A Field of Broccoli" collects more than ten years worth of instrumentals by the band Timecard. The material ranges from 4-track cassettes created in 1997 to digital recordings made in 2009. Listen and download to your left.
Performers:
Matt Medeiros: guitar, synth, toy piano, melodica, programming on all tracks
Eric Smith: bass, guitar, synth on tracks 1, 5, 6, 9, 10
Thomas Glass: drums on 1 and 10
Jeremy Plaugher: drums on 9
All songs recorded and mixed by Matt Medeiros.
A few of the stories from the installation listened to on 15 black rotary telephonesIt looks like you don't have flash player installed. Click here to go to Macromedia download page.
