LyreBird

Filed under Open Workshop, projects

Event Information

Artist: Jessica Corr

The LyreBird is a pendant to wear while participating in Conflux events. It will record 1-2 minutes of sound at random times resulting in an audio souvenir of the city.

Typical souvenirs of New York fail to invoke meaning, memory or emotion and do nothing to capture the varied individual experience of the city. The LyreBird, a pendant to wear while participating in Conflux events, replaces these disconnected existing souvenirs and establishes an artifact to remember one’s unique experience of the city. It is inspired by the real Lyre bird of Australia which mimics other birds and sounds of the forest. With the intrusion of humans upon its natural habitat, the bird has famously begun to mimic sounds of car alarms, cameras and chain saws randomly mixed with the sounds of other birds and animals of the forest. This somewhat absurd song tells the story of our particular time in history, the human imprint, technology, deforestation. The bird is a living souvenir of what is happening now. The LyreBird pendant will also act as a souvenir and like its inspiration, will play back random sounds to create an abstract story of a person’s experience of the city. While activated, it will record 1-2 minutes of sound at random times for a total of 60 minutes of sound. Modeled after a simple USB digital recorder, when plugged into a computer, any of the sounds recorded from the events will play. Participants will have a one of kind, individual composition of sound revealing a new experience of the city and a physical memoir of their participation in the Conflux festival.