Yesterday was the opening of the Eden installation @vitra in Chinatown for NY Design Week. The space is worth visiting. It’s truly remarkable. A most gigantic window opens to the Manhattan Bridge. We’re very thankful to Camille Okhio (@cokhio ) for inviting us to be part of her reimaigning of Verner Panton’s Eden. Our sun here is playing the live sound of Macaw but no one heard it yesterday because a DJ was also playing in this vast, very resonant room. But if you go during the daytime maybe they’ll have it on. Our sun sits right behind a Living Tower by Panton. One of the best pieces of furniture I’ve ever seen. I think they sell it for $30k. My daughter is adamant that we should get it if we had that kind of money. You also need very high ceilings. But reading perched up at the top must be quite an experience. Our sun was also the backdrop for this elaborate photobooth, as you can see in this picture.
We’re honored to be part of a beautiful exhibition of art & science organized at our very very beloved @eastvillagecommunityschool . I feel at home among all this incredible artwork. Thanks very much to all the students, the teachers & staff and, always, Bradley, the amazing principal of this great school.
Reviewing some pictures of Macaw for an exciting new project we’re working on with two great new friends (oh what a city we live in). It dawned on me how much I miss this place. And how beautiful some of the pictures are. It’s been too many months since I visited Macaw. Almost 5 months. We need to get there soon again. Plenty of things to repair and some new experiments to bring back even more sound. Most pictures here were taken by my dear partner on this project Josh @_rglng_ , whom I also miss. I took the others.
New speakers for @betaworks .
We first met @johnborthwick and the Betaworks team back in 2011, when they decided to help us build our first digital product — a platform for digital art called to.be. I genuinely don’t know where I’d be without their support through so many experiments over the years.
And it turns out another major influence in my life is the person who introduced me to John: his brother @mark_borthwick , whose beautiful work also hangs in the Betaworks space.
We’re so grateful to the Borthwicks for everything we’ve made together, and for the worlds they’ve opened up for us. Six speakers now carry the sound of Macaw through that space — and we couldn’t be happier.
Mexico City is one of our favorite cities. New York and Tokyo are the other two. Soon we’ll hopefully visit La Paz, Lima and Rio, which must be amazing too. But back to Mexico City: @lulomx and his team just opened the doors to @sona___space . Sona is a space for listening. Of course one of the good things about it is that they asked us to hang some of our speakers and play the live sound of Macaw. This photo of @carogut_12 was taken by @jim.eames , in this beautiful space designed by @erik.elr . That round thing behind Caro is one of our speakers, as you might have guessed. Lulo has a radiantly clear vision for this space and we just wish we could be closer to it all. They play good records every day, some on a nice Ojas stereo system and others in Dolby Atmos, as well as our birds and frogs and crickets.
@odaislive en @sona___space
El Santuario de Macaw en Costa Rica es una de las historias sobre conservación más alentadoras.
En los últimos 30 años, este proyecto transformó antiguos terrenos de pastoreo en una selva tropical llena de vida, que hoy alberga más de 350 especies de aves, 30 especies de anfibios y casi 70 especies de murciélagos.
Escucha en vivo los sonidos de un ecosistema que volvió a la vida.
We just got back from an incredible week in Mexico. Installing sound, searching for sound, eating unreasonably well and getting to know some people that we already miss. We’re as thankful as one can be to @lulomx , @carogut_12 , @erik.elr and Rodelio aka @jim.eames for so kindly welcoming us to their super sound project that soon will open its doors (more on that later). We’re so grateful to @_bourdeau for introducing us to this crew. You’ll see Ethan in these pictures capturing the beautiful sound of the trajinera in Xochimilco. There is also a picture of Erik flooded with the light of the beautiful show “Jardín Perpetuo” that he’s made with @_edgarmondragon . I felt home with these wonderful people. Thank you.
Here comes a new year. Hope it’ll be a good one for all of you. This is one of the images of last December. @thespacelessgallery kindly took us to Design Miami. We made this two-way speaker which, I think, looks very nice together with this beautiful piece by @mr.flowerheadz . We start this new year with three new installations in January. Let’s see how the year goes. First thing we have to do is get back to Macaw for some repairs and because it’s already been four months since the last time we were there. We are very grateful to all the people that helped us last year on this long journey. Also thanks to @piergiorgiosorgetti for this good picture.
We were watching the great show ‘Better Things’ with the kids yesterday and there’s this very beautiful moment when one of the girls tells her mother, in a mock eulogy, that she annoys her to share some of the pain the girl feels, because she knows that the mother can carry that pain. Not sure why I bring this up now but I wanted to share some beauty from Macaw.
We have a new installation up at the soon-to-open @lorebathingclub . This is a good one. It sits in a beautiful room, a room with a very cold pool. I only managed to do 30 seconds in it. I thought I would do much better, as I take cold showers every morning. One of the owners, Adam, can do up to 4 minutes. You can also just sit in that room after taking a sauna. And listen to Macaw’s dawn chorus. Bathing and listening, what else. It’s been a pleasure working with the team at Lore: @adamelzer@jimmyoreilly@camronbooth@michellebelegrin . We’re so grateful to them for inviting us to be part of this beautiful space. And it got us a new mention in @tmagazine ! The pictures in the T-Magazine piece are by @seandavidson and the article is written by @lauraregensdorf , our thanks to them too.
So many things influence our work. Like this plant here: the Heliconia. Missing Macaw today. There are lots of Heliconias in Macaw. I love the burnt orange color. And the sound they make when rain drops fall on them. Their bracts have a lovely percussive sound, I imagine lobster claws sound good too. They have evolved in collabo with the hummingbird. Their tubular shape is made to measure for the hummingbird beak. And it’s likely you’ll see a dart poison frog or two in their vicinity, they apparently love laying eggs in the water pockets that form in the Heliconia.
