Musical Swings Installation: An Exercise in Cooperation

People. Music. Movement. Unity. It all comes to an internationally touring musical swings installation!

Now how does this sound? Curiosity took us over (understandably) and we wanted to learn more. How does it look like? Does it really create music or music just acts as a calming background noise? How does it work at all?

The Swings is an interactive installation that offers a fresh look at the idea of cooperation, the notion that we can achieve more together than separately. The interactive installation consists of a series of musical swings. When used all together, the swings compose a musical piece in which certain melodies emerge only through cooperation. It’s a game where from the start you need to adjust to the actions of others. Each swing in motion triggers different notes, which in turn represent one of four musical instruments: piano, harp, vibraphone, or guitar.

Participants make music with their entire bodies, by connecting to one another and also by having a sense of ownership of public space due to the music they create. The result is a giant collective instrument that brings together people of all ages and backgrounds. The project offers a new experience in collective music making, available to enliven urban spaces, festivals, special events, and more.

For the past four years, the original 21 Swings installation has attracted millions of fans to the Quartier des spectacles area in Montréal, where every day each swing has swung an average of 8,500 times.

Supported by the Knight Foundation, this documentary (assisted by an independent study conducted by Joshua Bloom and Surale Phillips of the Clue Group) http://www.dailytouslesjours.com/blog/2017/06/14/swings-impact-study/) spans the three cities of West Palm Beach, Detroit and San Jose where the Swings were temporarily installed at different times in 2016. The film follows the Swings around the United States and and allows people to see, first hand, the joy they brought to the downtown parts of the cities they visited. With help from interviews (members of the public and professionals) this documentary tells the stories of places and people the swings touched along the way. Together with the study, it aims to encourage artists, elected officials, developers and the public to be creative in the way they look at the parts of their city, a space that can be shared by everyone and transformed into a magical, vibrant area.