I’ll be closing out the Montreal chapter of the project this week with this recording. As I walked around downtown I stumbled upon Rue Sainte Catherine about a dozen times. The street is almost like 5th Ave, you can’t really escape it. The portion of St. Catherine I recorded around was a pretty interesting area. It reminded me a lot of St. Mark’s Pl. with tattoo parlors and an overall grungy feel to it. Additionally this section of the street was FILLED with street art. Almost everywhere I looked there was a mural, graffiti, or tagging. It was absolutely amazing. In fact, it was so good that I need to do more than just one picture to illustrate the street correctly. I’ve grown to love these recordings because they ultimately tell the story of a city or neighborhood. Through these sounds you can start to visualize how vibrant of how relaxing a place can be. In this recording you’ll hear some more French Canadian, music blaring from cars, and that bit of wind that never seems to leave me alone.

Today I take you guys onto the Boulevard De Maisonneuve in Downtown Montreal. After getting off the Saint Laurent Metro Station I decided to walk down this Boulevard, and what a great decision it was! As I walked down the street a noticed a siding of a complex was completely painted into a beautiful mural. After a couple more minutes on the street another complex had a great mural, followed by another. By the time I got to the middle of the long avenue I realized that almost all of the apartment complexes were made into urban art masterpieces! The entire neighborhood surrounding the Saint Laurent Metro stop is filled with street and graffiti art galore. If you’re an urban art enthusiast I advise you to head to Montreal immediately! In the recording you’ll hear all of the sounds I encountered along my walk down the street. There’s college students chattering, cars driving by, soccer games, and yes my footsteps. Enjoy!

Hello, fellow followers and thanks for coming onto the blog for this announcement. So as you know I’ve been traveling through New York looking for public art spaces - no matter how small or large. Well, I’m happy to announce that I’m taking my one-man scavenger hunt on the road! I will be visiting a couple of cities in the following weeks to document what those cities have to offer in terms of public art spaces. So what cities will I be going to? Well, I think it’ll be fun to keep you guys guessing every week but I’ll announce the city I’ll be going to next week….. Montreal!

That’s right! I’ll be crossing the border and in francophone land for some art fun. So, why am I choosing this city particularly? Well a couple of reasons. One important one, I have friends in the city so traveling there won’t be too expensive. I am a recent grad with no job so gotta cut costs where you can! Another important reason is Montreal’s extensive documentation of all of the official public art work the city possesses - over 200 to be exact. From the research I have gathered Montreal ALSO has a pretty vibrant street art community which of course is a big component of the project. Plus, I think it would be pretty awesome to capture some candid moments in French Canadian, don’t you think? Of course I’ll need some help from you guys in terms of tips! If you guys have any awesome recommendations for public art to see in the city - send it my way (eduardo.i.lipe@gmail.com)! I hope you guys are excited as I am to take this journey on!

Today’s find takes us to the corner of Houston St & Bowery aka the former Deitch Project Wall. The story of the Deitch Wall begins in 2008 when Jeffrey Deitch teamed up with Goldman Properties - a real estate agency - to commission quarterly work on the wall. Since then the wall has seen murals by the likes of the Keith Haring Foundation, Os Gemeos, Shepard Fairey, and Barry McGee. Once Deitch took off for Los Angeles in 2010 the wall became entirely managed by Goldman Properties (although the wall is managed by Meghan Coleman, former Deitch director). Goldman Properties has kept the wall alive with recent works by Kenny Scharf and now Parisian street artist JR. Now the interesting fact about the photo mural on the Goldman Wall is that it is part of a public art project itself! JR is the 2011 TED Prize winner and with the $100,000 prize the artist has decided to start the Inside Out project. The project challenges the public to take black & white portraits of themselves and then exhibiting these photographs in public. These photographs are meant to tell the stories of individuals who usually go unheard in our global mainstream culture. On Goldman Wall we see the eyes of DJ Two Bears - a member of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe in North Dakota. As Two Bears puts it:

“People forget that we’re here as Native American people. This is a great chance for the community of Standing Rock to tell their story,”

 As of right now the project has had over 10,000 portraits uploaded. If you want to look at some of these portraits, or even participate yourself click here. In the sounds around the mural you’ll hear why New Yorkers loathe Houston St. Stay tuned for an announcement from me on a special initiative I’ll be taking on for the project this month!

Photo Credit: Freshnessmag.com

Happy Labor Day! As many of you take in the unofficial end of summer (and a long weekend) I present to you a new find. This find is by the famed Shepard Fairey and can be found on Bowery & East 5th St. If you don’t recognize the name, you probably have seen his work. Among having murals in almost every corner of the world, he also designed the Obama “Hope” poster that went viral during the 2008 presidential election. In addition his work can be seen in some of the most prolific museums in the world such as the MoMA, the Smithsonian, and the Victoria & Albert Museum in London. The particular mural on the side of the Cooper Square Hotel is part of the hotel’s Art Wall Project. The mural depict a Myanmar Buddhist monk with an umbrella - a surprisingly politically charged subject. In 2007 these monks began to be prosecuted by the government because of their peaceful protests against the rulers. The mural serves as a voice for those being oppressed in Myanmar as well as a reminder of the price of freedom of speech. The sounds captured around the mural are fairly representative of the Bowery: loud traffic and chatty New Yorkers.

Weekly Recap: 8/14 - 8/20

Today’s find takes us to one of New York’s most iconic buildings, the Flatiron. Located on 23rd st between Broadway & 5th Ave the building was one of the first major skyscrapers to be erected in the city. At the base of the building there is vast retail space housing businesses like MAC Cosmetics and Sprint. Sprint has taken the great initiative to use part of their retail space as a sort of gallery showroom for new and emerging artists. Dubbed the “Flatiron Prow Artspace”, the company’s mission is to display artwork that  is “as unique and engaging as the building itself, with an emphasis on pieces that reflect the company’s commitment to eco-friendly living, technology and interaction”. The artwork that was on display was Miles Neidinger’s “Everything We See is Never Enough”. The massive structure models various synthetic materials such as twist ties, bright drinking straws, vinyl tape, and yarn and into seemingly organic shapes. In doing so the artist hopes the viewer strips away preconceived notions about synthetic materials and sees the materials in a “new found physical state”. In the sound recording you’ll hear the sounds of afternoon rush hour on the street: cars beeping, ambulance sirens, and people laughing as they clock out of work and into a happy hour nearby.