<h1><a href="../../index.html">Acconci Home</a></h1> <h2><a href="../../projects/index.html">All Projects</a></h2> <h2><a href="../../threads/index.html">All Threads</a></h2> <!--<h2><a href="/acconci/dev/views/">All Views</a></h2>--> <h2>13</h2> <p>PLAYING THE SQUARE (Conceptual Proposal 2) New Street Square, London 2005 Turn the square into an instrument. Through each passage, a set of strings – like the strings of a harp, say –contracts, condenses, turns upside-down as it rises toward the square. From the tops of the buildings, the sets of strings swoop down, twisting and turning, to the center of the plaza; they make an hourglass of strings. There’s a pool here, inside and outside the hourglass. Pulling a string connects to a synthesizer that releases sound, the sound of a voice: a whisper, an insistent voice, a soothing lulling voice, a worried voice. Words range from intimations and hints and assumptions, through statements and talking and writing, to commands and contracts and laws. The sounds of the recorded voices move the pool: a whisper makes the water ripple, a lulling voice makes the water wave, an insistent voice makes the water gush. From the circular pool in the middle of the square, the pavement spirals out, the circular bands changing shape until they coincide with the square of the plaza; they turn the corner out of the plaza. The strings carry mirrors – spheres, domes, that bounce sunlight down to the plaza and its passages. The strings carry artificial lights for night. If the sunlight travels in circles, bouncing from sphere to sphere, the night-light travels in lines; if the sunlight is dots, the night-light is dashes. When the plaza is ‘played,’ when a string is pulled in the middle of the plaza, voices echo through the pavement – spheres rotate, redirecting the sunlight – lights chase each other. </p> <p>This project view belongs to <a href="../../project/london_new_street_square/index.html">London New Street Square</a>, and is threadged with:</p> <ul> <li><a href="../../thread/2005/index.html">2005</a></li> <li><a href="../../thread/Buildings/index.html">Buildings</a></li> <li><a href="../../thread/Circle-Spiral/index.html">Circle-Spiral</a></li> <li><a href="../../thread/Dar%C3%ADo%20N%C3%BA%C3%B1ez/index.html">Darío Núñez</a></li> <li><a href="../../thread/Eduardo%20Marques/index.html">Eduardo Marques</a></li> <li><a href="../../thread/England/index.html">England</a></li> <li><a href="../../thread/Parks%20and%20Gardens/index.html">Parks and Gardens</a></li> <li><a href="../../thread/Sarina%20Basta/index.html">Sarina Basta</a></li> <li><a href="../../thread/Seating/index.html">Seating</a></li> <li><a href="../../thread/Sound/index.html">Sound</a></li> <li><a href="../../thread/Streets%20and%20Plazas/index.html">Streets and Plazas</a></li> <li><a href="../../thread/Unbuilt/index.html">Unbuilt</a></li> </ul> <p>(<a href="../../img/285/ground01.jpg">I</a>, <a href="../../img/285/ground01.jpg.large.jpg">L</a>, <a href="../../img/285/ground01.jpg.thumb.jpg">T</a>, <a href="../../index.html">A</a>)</p>