An acoustic installation by the collective 3:1 (DK).
This is a two part audible exchange project, between Long Beach and Copenhagen, Denmark.
The first part of the project is installed in the interior of this parking garage as an event during SoundWalk. Prior to the installation in Long Beach, 8 recordings have been produced in a parking garage, located in Copenhagen, which was selected due to its unique acoustics qualities. In each four levels of the building, audio tracks were recorded simultaneously, whereby the experience of the cars driving between the four levels was preserved. All the cars occupying the parking garage that day were standard 2 or 4 door automobiles.
In the interior of the Long Beach parking structure the installation of the recordings is amplified and played through 8 speakers, as they weave and interfere, as well as overlap and co-exist with the live acoustics produced by the transiting automobiles. The second part of the project will be to replay a similar recording from the American parking garage in the Danish parking structure. This will take place in Copenhagen, Summer 2007.
The Street Car Conspiracy
In conjunction with other major corporate companies, General Motors constituted a holding company by the name The National City Lines and illegally acquired the streetcar systems in many cities in the USA, thus gradually dismantling them and introducing busses instead. The main motive was however to promote the automobile. In 1949 they were convicted of the criminal act and fined. The conversion to busses was then believed to be the new technology, as they were more flexible than streetcars with their fixed routes. The buses adjusted well to the rapid suburbanization, which followed the rising real estate values.
The Red Cars
The Red Cars is a nickname for the Pacific Electric Railway in Southern California, which emerged in the late 19th Century. The last passenger line of the Pacific Electric, the line from Los Angeles to Long Beach, continued until April 9th, 1961.
In 1990, electric rail train service returned to Los Angeles again with the opening of the Blue Line. The line runs from downtown Los Angeles to Long Beach, and uses most of the same trackage as the original Pacific Electric line, which was discontinued in 1961. Since then, a couple of more lines have been opened, but it is still unlikely that the level of the original Pacific Electric Railway will ever be reached again.
SoundWalk2006