Bird Song Sing

Bird Song Sing is an interactive installation that invites visitors to take on the identity of twittering birds. Large bird masks are mounted on microphone stands on a small platform. Visitors can walk up to a mask, and speak, whistle, and sing. The participants’ voices are picked up my microphones inside the bird-masks, and and transformed into birdcalls, which are played from speakers hidden in the platform.

Temporary projects like this one, which are usually presented at festivals, give an opportunity to see and learn how people interact with artworks. People will talk, tell jokes, curse, and laugh into the microphone. When they sing, it’s often Happy Birthday. When it works best, there’s a delight in trying and failing to understand what the person behind the mask is saying.

Date: 2011
Location: Chalk the Block Festival, El Paso, TX
Commissioning Agency: El Paso Public Art
Details: Plexiglass masks with colored adhesive, microphone, speakers, light, computer, custom software
Photographs: Alejandra Carrillo, A.T. Willett.