The sculptural installation of BeyondStreaming: Sound Mural for Detroit occupies the main glass enclosed staircase of the Michigan Science Museum, and is composed of thirty three listening stations fashioned out of copper pipes, running from the ceiling to one of the landings of the staircase. Each pipe has a spigot attached to its lower section, at varying heights but accessible to most visitors. The installation is site-specific in the sense that it is designed to attach to and rest upon the architecture of the three walls of windows around the five floors of stairs—which are part of the building design as conceived by the late, master architect William Kessler. In response to the architecture the installation weaves together the modern glass tower with the postmodern staircase to the rest of the museum.
In total, the installation is composed of almost a mile of copper piping and hundreds of copper fittings. All of the copper piping and fittings are on loan from MSU’s Department of Infrastructure Planning and Facilities, and will be recycled by the university after the exhibition closes, to be used to upkeep the plumbing of the many university buildings and facilities. The use of copper pipes and spigots was purposeful for a number of reasons, not least of which in recognition that they are familiar materials that reference the water transport systems used by municipal entities and households alike. Further, copper is a metal that is found naturally in the State of Michigan, and the history of the State is very much connected to the history of copper mining. The Upper Peninsula of Michigan was once the leading provider of copper to world markets, and work in the mines attracted people from across the globe to work and live in the UP.
How the installation works : within each pipe is located a different digital audio track made by one of the student poets. To access the audio, visitors to the Science Museum are able to interact with the copper pipes by opening and closing the spigot valves. When the valve is closed, the installation remains silent. When the valve is opened, the audio recording within pours out. To further accentuate the recordings, the pipes grow in diameter as they descend from the ceiling to the floor, thus allowing the sound waves to grow and amplify. Along with the listening stations dedicated to the students’ voice, there are also two stations created by the two Writers-in-residence Ber-Henda Williams and Peter Markus, who lead the workshops and facilitated the student writing.
