Attunement: Listening to the New York Waterfront

mayfield brooks

This project is born out of artist Mayfield Brooks' investigation into the sonic lives of whales and how they perceive the world through sound. Additionally, brooks has been exploring the correlation between the present and historical industrialized bodies of whales and Black people from whaling to slavery. A little known fact is that some slave ships were later used as whaling vessels. Through this research comes a sonic residence with grief and a commitment to listen more closely. If we were to take hints from how whales understand their world sonically, could we learn how to listen better? Perhaps the blues is a prescient corollary? What music draws us to the edge? This project encourages listening as a way of perceiving in order to understand the vibrant, intricate life along the NYC shoreline. The public will be invited to listen to the shoreline, and sounds will be experienced through live stream, guided silent walks, and other engaged activities.

Week 18: mayfield brooks

What do I do at this juncture of land, memory, and water? I bump up against steel, consumption & blocked access to the actual water & land. The paradox of my existence resides here where land meets water because I come from a landless people. I have no answers. I simply show up to the place where the water meets the land. I stand at the bridge.
I become the bridge from the river to the memory of those that came before me.