Listening to Mitchell announces its Grand Opening on July 11th from 6-8pm with an immersive audio installation at 723 W. Mitchell
Thomsen & Carr launch multiple entry points to engage with public art installation
Beginning in fall of 2012, Sonja Thomsen and Adam Carr have been exploring the many layers of Historic Mitchell Street in Milwaukee, WI. Together they created Listening to Mitchell, an installation of image and sound that transforms over fifty interviews into a site-specific experience of place and its collective memory. With the installation taking shape amongst the seven block corridor, from the Modjeska to St. Stan’s, the artists are inviting the public to join them in a multifaceted conversation with Mitchell Street.
The Grand Opening
Listening to Mitchell
At 723 W. Mitchell, Listening to Mitchell converts a formerly vacant storefront into an immersive audio installation, allowing the audience to enter the tangle of Mitchell Street’s many voices and narratives in an exciting new way. To produce this piece, constructed from interview excerpts, Thomsen & Carr are partnering with acclaimed engineering firm Arup and acoustic consultants Ryan Biziorek and Shane Myrbeck. Visitors will be “fully immersed in a composed soundscape as they have likely never been before,” said Myrbeck. “This approach allows Sonja and Adam to craft the work in a truly multi-sensory fashion, playing with instinctual and physiological elements of how we hear, and how what we hear informs our impression of immediate space.”
The Grand Opening ceremony, on July 11th from 6-8pm on 8th and Mitchell, officially kicks off the installation and project as a whole, featuring remarks from Thomsen & Carr, Alderman José Pérez, Representative JoCasta Zamarripa, Rudy Gutierrez, President of BID 4, Polly Morris from the Milwaukee Arts Board and more. The sound installation will run until August 10th, with open hours on Thursdays (3:00-6:30pm), Fridays (3:00-6:30pm), and Sundays (2:00-5:00pm).
See and hear Listening to Mitchell on the street
Listening to Mitchell’s images can be found throughout the street, like a treasure hunt, from building-sides to storefront windows to checkout counters. These bright, poppy images flirt with the language of advertising, referencing the street’s history of commerce. Rather than selling products, however, the project’s artworks point towards the street’s latent web of experience using objects as an entry point.
Listening to Mitchell
While walking the street, visitors will be prompted through the artworks to access a cell phone tour created by the artists. Dial 414-921-2622, followed by 1-20#, to hear audio pieces constructed around 20 Mitchell Street themes that emerged through the interview process. These include Whose street is this anyways? (8#), Go out and play (12#), In our father’s shadow (16#), Nothing matters when we are dancing (20#), and more. Callers can dial 0# to leave their own Mitchell Street reflections.
An incomplete guide
The artists worked closely with designer Nate Pyper to create Listening to Mitchell: An incomplete guide, a printed publication pulling together the many points of access created by Listening to Mitchell. A collage of artwork, tips from the artists, and stories gathered during the interview process, the guide gives visitors a series of suggestions to experience the street and installation. The guide can be picked up at businesses on Mitchell Street, as well as locations throughout the city, such as the Old South Side Settlement Museum, Forest Home Library, United Community Center’s Latino Arts Inc, Walker’s Point Center for the Arts, UW-Milwaukee’s INOVA Gallery, the Pitch Project, Sharon Lynn Wilson Center, and more.
Events happening
Throughout the run of the installation, the artists are offering a variety of programming and events to engage community members with Listening to Mitchell. In addition to a series of walking tours, including an in-depth tour for Historic Milwaukee Inc.’s Doors Open Milwaukee, the artists will produce impromptu events, taking cues from memories collected during the interview process. These include a parking lot kickball game, portraits on the street, dance/music performances, unrehearsed storytelling circles, and more. A listing of events can be found at: http://listeningtomitchell.wordpress.com/event-schedule/
Listening to Mitchell
Listening to Mitchell on the air
Listening to Mitchell is partnering with WUWM’s Lake Effect to bring voices from the street to the air, every Friday morning from July 11th to the installation’s completion. Listen as the color and texture of Mitchell Street come to life, delivered through 14 short-form radio pieces produced from the many hours of audio and interviews collected by the artists.
Videos on ArtBabble
Intern and video artist Maeve Jackson is producing a series of videos capturing a wide range of the Listening to Mitchell process, from interviews in the field to development in the studio to response on the street. The Chipstone Foundation is hosting this series on ArtBabble, which can be seen here: http://www.artbabble.org/topic/series/listening-mitchell
Listening to Mitchell on the web
Follow Listening to Mitchell on Facebook, Tumblr, and our process blog.
Support
Thomsen & Carr have raised $53,600 in grants, private donations and in-kind support during the project’s development in 2013-2014. Current supporters of Listening to Mitchell are the City of Milwaukee Arts Board, Greater Milwaukee Foundation’s Mary L. Nohl Fund, Zilber Family Foundation, ARUP, the Chipstone Foundation, Greater Mitchell Street BID 4, City of Milwaukee Neighborhood Improvement Development Corporation, Clearwing Productions, Astor Street Foundation, Communicor, Signarama Milwaukee Downtown, Burton & Meyer, and artist Nancy Metz White.
About the Artists:
Thomsen & Carr collaborate to create site-specific public artworks. Utilizing image and sound, their projects create immersive experiences inverting the private into public space.
Sonja Thomsen (b. 1978) is a Milwaukee-based artist whose multifaceted practice includes sculpture, interactive installation, photography and site-specific public art. Her projects question the experience of seeing and elusiveness of knowledge. Since earning an MFA in photography at the San Francisco Art Institute (2004), she has worked with the Reykjavik Museum of Photography, New Mexico Museum of Art, Madison Museum of Contemporary Art, and Silverstein Gallery among others. In 2011 she was awarded the Mary L. Nohl Fellowship for Individual Artists. Thomsen’s work resides in the collections of the Milwaukee Art Museum, Reykjavík Museum of Photography and the Midwest Photographers Project at Museum of Contemporary Photography. Sonja Thomsen is a member of the international photography collective Piece of Cake and co-director of The Pitch Project Gallery and artist studios in
Milwaukee, WI.
Adam Carr (b. 1984) is a Milwaukee-based media producer and cultural field worker. He graduated from Carleton College in 2007 with a degree in Mathematics and Philosophy. Between 2008 and 2011, he was the Producer at community-based public radio station 88Nine RadioMilwaukee, creating nearly 1000 short-form audio pieces covering a wide range of topics, from arts and culture to at-risk youth, from Milwaukee neighborhoods to basic and human needs. Currently, he finds work at the intersection of community and communication, exploring new directions to explore the rigor and creativity of narrative as well as passion for community. Recent projects include work with the Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service, Milwaukee Art Museum, United Way, Reagan High School, LISC Milwaukee, Arts@Large, Artists Working in Education, the Greater Milwaukee Committee, Plaid Tuba, and the Zeidler Center for Public Discussion.
NOTE: This press release was submitted to Urban Milwaukee and was not written by an Urban Milwaukee writer. While it is believed to be reliable, Urban Milwaukee does not guarantee its accuracy or completeness.
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