With construction of the
FringeArts Lab well underway, the
Race Street Pier is set to become Philly’s next creative hotspot. To draw attention to its revival,
The Mural and the Mint’s Michael Kiley chose the site for his second sound installation.
Animina: A Race Street Pier Sound Walk -- created in partnership with South Philly web development company
P'Unk Ave -- is a GPS-enabled musical piece; users can download the app via iTunes starting October 1.
Kiley used a similar process with his first installation,
Empty Air: A Rittenhouse Square Sound Walk. He began with an unaltered sound recording of the Race Street Pier, then layered in originally composed music. Unlike RIttenhouse Square with its concentric layout of walkways, the Race Street Peir is linear. Kiley had to adapt the musical installation -- which changes according to location instead of time -- to fit the structure.
"I couldn't just leave people at the end of the pier," he says. "I tried to write something that would work forwards as well as backwards."
While creating
Empty Air, Kiley became familiar with how the app's technology affects sound; he created
Animina with those subtleties in mind. The piece aims to embody the theme of "lost relationships and healing," and contains music and lyrics inspired by new activity along the river.
"I wanted to personify what the city is doing," says Kiley. "Philadelphia is where it is because of the Delaware River. We deserve a preeminent waterfront."
The project was created in partnership with
FringeArts and the
Delaware River Waterfront Corporation, and is sponsored by grants from
Pew Cultural Center for Arts & Heritage and the
Painted Bride Art Center through the
Wyncote Foundation.
Source: Michael Kiley, Mural and the Mint
Writer: Dana Henry