Musical Swings near Brookfield Place

Brookfield Place Palm Garden
This summer Canadian design studio  installed  swings that play sounds of musical instruments  at Brookfield Place,  in  lower Manhattan.  Brookfield Place, originally known as the World Financial Center, is a complex of office buildings located across the street  from the World Trade Center site.   
The view form the Brookfield Place

Brookfield Place is  a great indoor shopping/ dining area,  with a beautiful  palm garden  inside  - the only one palm garden in New York.   Outside located there is  a Waterfront Plaza  where  live music and films take place during warm weather. And this summer the Plaza has a new addition- musical swings.



The  Montreal-based design firm, Daily tous les jours installed  at the plaza a set of ten swings that emit sounds as you swing.  There are four instruments represented in the swings: piano, harp, guitar and vibraphone. Each swing   triggers sound when participants swing back and forth.


The  seats have sensors that link to a computer that responds to motion with music. Swing alone and you’ll hear notes. Synchronize your swinging with those beside you and you make beautiful music together.


 In 2012  the same company  installed   21   Swings  in Montreal.  Pre-recorded sounds from a xylophone, piano, and other instruments were programmed into color-coded swings that when in use play various notes, however when swung in unison with careful cooperation, more complex melodies and harmonies arise.
Artist, Melissa Mongiat, one of the co-founders of Daily tous les jour,  
says that the group worked with animal behavioral scientist, Luc-Alain Giraldeau from the Université du Québec à Montréal, to explore how the musical cooperation would work. “People cooperating is important,” says Mongiat. “The point is that we can accomplish more together than alone.”


When I visited Brookfield Place there was no line.   During peak times, visitors have a suggested five minute time limit on the swings.   If you are there with kids there are  two excellent parks  close by- Nelson Rockefeller park  with  huge green lawns  and beautiful sculptures  done by Tom Otterness and a Teadrop park- a real treasure hidden in from the tourists  hidden from the tourists.
“The Swings” will be on display at Arts Brookfield from June 10 to July 7 from 12 pm to 8 pm daily, and is free to the public.

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