the Bridge Report

a feast of AUDIO & VIDEO!

2009-11-02T19:25:00.000-08:00

Now you can experience Bridge Talks Back with images. The talented and effervescent Lisa Whitmer has created this beautiful video to personify the sound installation that will play from the Fremont Bridge through April 2010. Watch it here: BRIDGE TALKS BACK VIDEO!

LISTEN NOW!

2009-10-21T20:59:00.001-07:00

Bridge Talks Back will be available during daytime bridge openings and by calling 1-800-761-9941 through April 2010. Don't delay, call now!

The September 26th celebration of this temporary art piece was a resounding success. For more documentation, visit: http://www.flickr.com/groups/bridgetalksback/pool/show/. Also, stay tuned for a short video documentary that combines images from the opening celebration and the audio piece. It will be posted here within a week or so.

Many thanks to everyone who made this extraordinary event and temporary art work possible.

2009-09-14T14:30:00.001-07:00

video interview describes Bridge Talks Back

2009-09-02T14:21:00.000-07:00

I was recently interviewed by Melissa Newell of Edmonds Community College about Bridge Talks Back, the culminating sound collage that I am putting together to celebrate this residency. I describe here what you can expect at the big Bridge Talks Back event on September 26th. You can watch the video here:

Bridge Talks Back, interview with KTR

And while I'm thinking of it, I have some thanks to broadcast as I move through the end of this project:

Travis Morehead, my audio producer
Bruce Michie, the bridge electrician helping us figure out how to program this piece
Jefferson Wilson, my SF-based technical guru
Clay Allen and Steve Erickson, from the SDOT signage shop

procession prep

2009-08-20T12:50:00.000-07:00

It's full steam ahead here in the NE tower of the Fremont Bridge. I am busy getting all the aspects of a sound installation and celebratory event off the ground for a launch of September 26, 2009. I hosted a painting-in-the-lines party in my garage last night and some deftly-fingered friends came out to help begin the long, arduous process of painting 100 placards for the big procession. Thank you so much Jessica, Tracey, Laura, Judson, Erik, Wes, Gordon, and Morgan!

calling all volunteers!

2009-08-12T09:36:00.001-07:00

MARK YOUR CALENDARS (new date!)

2009-08-05T13:06:00.000-07:00

Come one, come all... to be part of The Bridge Talks Back, a sound installation and celebration on the Fremont Bridge!

Seattle Sketcher

2009-07-30T11:13:00.001-07:00

I just said goodbye to the Seattle Times' Gabriel Campanario, also known as our very own Seattle Sketcher. He'll be posting this drawing to his blog in the coming days. He is reviving the age-old tradition of artist as journalist. !Que viva Gabi!

SOUND COLLAGE COMING YOUR WAY

2009-07-27T11:22:00.001-07:00

The end of this residency is fast-approaching and I'm working on a sound collage based on audio that I've been collecting since May. I've got horns, bird songs, a multitude of sweet narratives left on the voicemail, the clickety-clack of the bridgeworks, and much much more. Details will follow, but mark your calendars for SEPTEMBER 12th, which will be the grand opening of this work!

Inspiration comes from every direction, but I was especially excited to learn that my childhood hero, Jim Henson, was also interested in found sound early in his career. Enjoy this piece titled "TimePiece" which was featured in the traveling Smithsonian Exhibition about Henson's life, open now at the EMP:

Jim Henson's Time Piece, 1965

23rd + Union - the Corner

2009-06-29T13:55:00.001-07:00

There is a powerful site-specific art/sound installation happening right now in Seattle's Central District. On the corner of 23rd and Union, visitors experience beautiful large-format photographs housed in sculptures that reference houses. And you can also experience the corner via a website and phone number that both delivers and asks for stories about the place. CHECK IT OUT!

watercolor towers

2009-06-28T22:09:00.000-07:00

On my way out on Thursday, I ran into an enthusiastic en plein air watercolor painter, Linda Dunn. Linda is part of Seattle's Northwest Watercolor Society. She was memorializing the NE tower of the bridge in loving, wet strokes!

see you at the Queen Anne farmers' market

2009-06-24T15:18:00.001-07:00

I'll be at the Queen Anne Farmers' Market tomorrow (Thursday, June 25 from 3-7pm) for a Meet-the-Artist event. We'll be talking about the residency and giving away FREE BUTTONS for anyone willing to take a stab at the FREMONT BRIDGE QUIZ! Step right up!!! Patricia Hopper will also be in attendance, representing the City's Office of Arts and Cultural Affair. We'd love to see you there!

historic photos

2009-06-18T11:50:00.000-07:00

The more time I spend in and around the bridge, the more I appreciate that a structure so old has stood the test of time. It is no exaggeration that, when not going up and down with amazing accuracy, the bridge is being relentlessly crossed by thousands of cars, trucks, busses, and high-octane bicyclists all day long. It is also amazing to me that the bridge opened even before the ship canal was completed, so the topography under and around the bridge has also changed. Old photos reveal a more hardscrabble and rough-around-the-edges type of living than the Fremont/Queen Anne we urban sophisticates know today. I've gleaned some photos from Helen Divjak's Seattle's Fremont, from the Images of America series (c.2006, Arcadia Publishing) and put them into a short slideshow. CLICK HERE ... you can almost smell these images!

on public art...

2009-06-11T12:41:00.000-07:00

I've been reading a bit about the importance and relevance of public art and want to share some of the ideas I've found most poignant from a great book entitled Mapping the Terrain: New Genre Public Art (Suzanne Lacy, editor, c 1995).

To search for the good and make it matter: this is the real challenge for the artist. Not simply to transform ideas or revelations into matter, but to make those revelations actually matter. Estella Conwill Majozo, "To Search for the Good and Make it Matter"

Public art implies significant social, political, and aesthetic agendas. If it is not truly about something other than the conditions and restrictions of private art production and distribution, then a continued distinction is not only inappropriate but misleading. Patricia C. Phillips, "Public Constructions"

Food for thought?

SURVEY SAYS....

2009-06-04T23:16:00.000-07:00

At the Fremont Market on Sunday, May 31^st, over fifty people participated in the Fremont Bridge Quiz, a homespun survey that asked participants to think creatively about their experiences with the bridge. Here are some excerpts:

Do you have a piece of advice for the bridge?

Stay lubricated and in shape.
Lighten up.
Remember not to let drivers’ anxiety pressure you into closing early or not opening.
Look in a mirror once in a while. Would it kill you to put on some paint?

Most popular adjectives for the bridge:

solid
historic
beautiful
cool
funky
quaint
blue

Not the most popular adjectives, but my favorite contenders:

sturdy
patina-ed
humming
people-sized
cheese-grated

How do you most often experience the bridge?

car = 38%
on foot = 29%
water vessel = 5%
bus = 15%
motorcycle/scooter = 4%
bicycle = 9%

Using this structure, create a metaphor for the bridge

SAMPLE: My relationship to the bridge is like that of a __________ to a ___________,

astronaut to a rocket
candy to a mouth
husband to a wife (usually think it’s great but occasionally frustrates me)
hand to a cookie jar (“sometimes I’m gettin’ through there and others not!”)
parent to a rebellious child
hairstylist to Cab Calloway

Fremont Bridge Math

steel + love = the Fremont Bridge

iron + hydraulics = the Fremont Bridge

Don Knotts + nuclear fission = the Fremont Bridge

MARK YOUR CALENDARS!

2009-05-27T20:30:00.000-07:00

There are two events coming up this week related to this Fremont Bridge Residency. At this Sunday's Fremont Market, I'll be seated under a canopy sponsored by the City of Seattle Office of Arts and Cultural Affairs. I'll be sharing my initial project ideas and gathering new ones. Come say hello and contribute your own stories to this project:

Fremont Market
Sunday, May 31st 10am-5pm
http://www.fremontmarket.com/fremont/

Also, tune in to the Seattle Channel's Art Zone. Next week the Art Zone will feature a short piece on my residency, airing Thursday, June 4th at 8:00pm. For those non-cable subscribers, check out the segment here: http://www.seattlechannel.org/artZone/

STAY TUNED...

2009-05-10T21:12:00.000-07:00

... for a summer's worth of posts from myself, Kristen Ramirez, a visual artist occupying the NE tower of Seattle's Fremont Bridge, a nationally registered Historic Place!

Thanks to a unique residency offered by Seattle's Office of Arts and Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT), I am undertaking an in-depth exploration of the historic bridge from May through August, 2009. Using the tower as a studio for making art, a platform from which to observe the bridge, and a base from which to interact with the public, I will create art!

The Fremont Bridge - opened in 1917 - is on the National Register of Historic Places. It is the key transportation link between the Fremont neighborhood and the Queen Anne and Westlake communities. It rises for marine traffic an average of 35 times a day, making it one of the busiest bascule bridges in the world. A bascule bridge is a moveable bridge that swings upward.