Vertical Water

VERTICAL WATER IN NEW YORK, UNITED STATES

Vertical Water was a temporary sound installation in 1991 at the Whitney Museum in New York, using loudspeakers to project the sound of Niagara Falls onto the museum facade, designed by Bill Fontana. The project aimed to create an immersive soundscape and mask the traffic noise from Madison Avenue.

In the audio example, you can hear the sound of Niagara Falls from the sound installation [1].

1991

CONTEXT

In 1991, during the Whitney Biennial exhibition, an artwork called "Vertical Water" was installed on the outside of the Breuer Building, where the Whitney Museum was located at the time. The installation included putting speakers under the roof and in a small trench in front of the building. The speakers played the sound of Niagara Falls, which had been recorded beforehand [1].

INTERVENTION STRATEGIES

To better reproduce the sound of Niagara Falls on the walls of the Whitney Museum, they used speakers placed in two different locations: the lower frequency sounds were played from speakers in the sunken garden, while the higher frequency sounds were played from speakers under the concrete overhangs [2].

1991

OBSERVATIONS

It was noticed that the sound of the waterfall helped block out the noise from traffic on Madison Avenue [2].

References

[1] Vertical Water – Whitney Museum of American Art – New York – 1991. Retrieved 7th March 2023, from https://resoundings.org/Pages/Vertical_Water.html.

[2] Vertical Water. Retrieved 7th March 2023, from https://www.resoundings.org/Pages/Vertical%20Water.html

Photos, video, audio: André Fiebig
Entry submitted by: André Fiebig