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Harmonic Bridge

Resonating tubes make music from highway overpass
  • Harmonic Bridge in North Adams, Massachusetts

    Click to enlarge.  

  • Harmonic Bridge in North Adams, Massachusetts

    Click to enlarge.  

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Artists Bruce Odland and Sam Auinger affixed two 16-foot-long resonating tubes to the bottom of a highway overpass, and placed microphones at specific intervals to pick up both the sound of traffic and passing pedestrians. The sounds travel down to speakers encased in concrete cubes on either side of the road below the bridge. The hum generated by the device is a droning C, one so low its sound wave is 16 feet long (the reason for such long tubes).

The droning is a subtle presence that blends with the sounds of passing cars, creating a unique sonic experience in a seemingly unimportant location. An instrument literally played by the city, one whose melodies are harmonious with the overall landscape of sound in the urban world.

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  • Hours 10am-8pm
  • Website Mass MOCA
  • Cost Free
  • Address Harmonic Bridge
    Marshall Street
    Outside Mass MOCA Museum
    North Adams
    MA
    01247
    United States

Directions / Map

Directions

1040 MASS MoCA WAY NORTH ADAMS, MA 01247

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Comments

By Anonymous July 7 2009

This Odland+Auinger website has recordings of the harmonic bridge in action.

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