“Flight Paths” Art Installation
For the last 6 months I’ve been working for SVI Themed Construction on the sound design for a large art installation in the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport by Steven Waldeck called Flight Paths.
Now that we are in the final month of putting it all together, I thought it would be good to share some of the progress.
Flight Paths has been quite an undertaking, spanning the entire 420 feet of the walkway between Terminal A and B of the Airport. The installation uses dramatic LED lighting imbedded into a custom manufactured canopy, video, lighting , 96 discreet channels of audio and 89 speakers.
There are four areas to each side of the installation; Forest, Clearing, Swamp and Pond. Visitors travel through the areas along the moving walkway between Terminal A and Terminal B. Each area provides a unique audio/visual experience. The audio delivery system is being handled by Ableton Live with Max 4 Live. I’ll post more info regarding the sound design and equipment in future posts as the project moves along to completion.
My main focus this month is tweaking the sound design and mixing the audio in the space. Mixing in the space is particularly challenging given the number of speakers, spatial movement between speakers (which follow visual events) and the need to mix remotely as the control rooms are up to 300 feet away from the installation! Remote mixing is being handled with TouchAble on ganged Airport Extremes and Desktop remote running on a MacBook Pro.
Big shout out to CEI Audio/Visual installers for all their work getting the hardware together!
The project has been a wonderful opportunity and I’m very grateful to have been invited to provide the sound design. And I’m looking forward to the return of my “regularly scheduled programming” writing music, recording and playing shows! New collaboration with Adam Holquist (onewayness) is recorded and siting on a shelf waiting to be mixed. Tour to follow 😀 and of course new dRachEmUsiK and Faux Pas Quartet music and shows.
Must. Be. Patient.
Here are some pictures of the current state of the installation and one of me looking “official” (ha!) with my special badge. The badging experience was quite an event and very much like being thrust into one of the office scenes from the movie Brazil…
Looking official
Side A Audio Rack
Side A Audio Rack 2
Canopy in progress
Chris from CEI
Video & Lighting Rack
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Awesome project. Amazing fun. Can’t wait to be done!! Bravo man.
Thanks! Glad you were able to experience the installation 🙂