BeyondStreaming: Sound Mural for Detroit is a sound installation that serves as a platform for local poets to share their thoughts on issues with drinking water in the city and its public schools.
This site functions as an active archive, with hopes to grow and accumulate information, updates, and relevant stories pertaining to the ongoing water crisis in Detroit while also providing an additional access point for audience when visiting the sound installation at the Michigan Science Center.
In the fall of 2016, the Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum at Michigan State University invited Chicago-based artist Jan Tichy to participate in the MSU Federal Credit Union Artist Studio Series. Tichy is well-known for his large-scale, community-based initiatives that respond directly to local, contemporary issues. For this residency, Tichy was invited to address the Flint water crisis, which came to the forefront of regional and national consciousness in 2014 after the Flint water supply was switched to the Flint River—the results of which led to high-levels of contamination and health problems for many residents. Still today, the crisis remains a daily reality for many affected citizens who no longer have direct access to clean, safe water. While many initiatives have been launched in response to the crisis, the artist and the museum joined together in a shared belief in the power of art to offer more nuanced and poetic ways of coming to terms with the situation in Flint. Tichy developed the project together with Steven L. Bridges, associate curator at MSU Broad. You can see much of the material and information gathered along the way for BeyondStreaming: Sound Mural for Flint on its dedicated website.
In early 2019 BeyondStraming was invited by Mark Sullivan, the creative director of the Science Gallery Detroit, to participate in Depth – water themed group exhibition organized by the Science Gallery in the Michigan Science Center. After visiting Detroit in early spring, Tichy realized that there are many issues with drinking water and instead bringing the existing work from Flint, he decided to use the copper pipe SoundMural concept to create a new installation that functions as a platform for local students to have their voices heard. The artist partnered with InsideOut Literary Arts, a local organization that is deeply engaged in providing creative writing programming for Detroit school system, bringing local writers, poets and activist to work with young people across the city, to develop a content for the new work.