Hear Our Houston
The Art Guys explore a different side of Houston with experimental audio tour
Artwork by Carrie Schneider
The Art GuysPhoto by Everett Taasevigen
Do you ever listen to a song over and over again but then watch the music video and find that the visual did not meet your expectations? The same can be said for experiencing a city.
By taking in Houston through our ears alone, the mind could lead us to believe the City of Black Gold could in fact be the Wizard of Oz’s Emerald City.
A new experimental audio sculpture by The Art Guys allows the human psyche to conjure original images itself and imagine something completely different than the reality.
“It is not an important part of Houston, but it is to somebody,” Galbreth said. “Somebody has lived there and it’s important to them. We find that indefinitely interesting. Greens Bayou Road will now be historical.”
The project is part of “Hear Our Houston,” an audio exhibit currently comprised of 16 artists walking around the city recording their surroundings and observations on a voice recorder.
The Art Guys project, however, stands out from the others.
Their experimental audio tour examines Greens Bayou Street through cyclical phase shifting, which overlaps both of their voices at different times to tell their reality of a little-known street.
The two used voice recorders to capture their individual observations and thoughts, and combined the audio to a single MP3. One of The Art Guys, Jack Massing, walked a minute ahead of the other, Michael Galbreth, on the same trail. After both were done they combined their audio wherein the sound begins in sync, goes out of sync, and resolves itself as it comes back in sync.
“We’ve done work like this over the years, and have done a lot of research on the topic,” Galbreth said. “Listening to those old radio programs, you could sit there and conjure ideas. When you close your eyes and just take in audio, the mind will conjure images and will structure sounds in a way that makes since.”
Both artists had no relationship to the location they chose and they said it was practically chosen at random.
“It is not an important part of Houston, but it is to somebody,” Galbreth said. “Somebody has lived there and it’s important to them. We find that indefinitely interesting. Greens Bayou Road will now be historical.”
Maybe Houstonians in 100 years will listen to these recordings and imagine a completely different time and place, which is part of the fun of audio recordings, he said.
“We like the idea of audio work in terms of art.” Massing said. “It is going to be out there forever now and becomes a historical artifact of the city of Houston at a specific time.”
