Whispers on the 41st Latitude
Whispers on the 41st Latitude is a community art project made with and for the Monroe community.
Monroe, located on the 41st latitude, 20 miles south of the Detroit airport, is on the list of culturally underserved communities in the USA. The city is built on a battlefield. The Battle of River Raisin (also known as the Battle of Frenchtown or the River Raisin Massacre) is part of a series of conflicts in Michigan between January 18-23, 1813 during the War of 1812. January 22, 1813 is considered the deadliest day of war on Michigan soil. The in 1830 passed Indian Removal Act was legislation largely written in response to the battles in Monroe.
The project that was based on creating cyanotypes of plants harvested from the former battlefield (the city of Monroe) and using musical sounds derived from plant-generated biodata recorded as MIDI using a pair of PlantWave (MidiSprout) devices. From September 1st till 30th, 2022 we, my collaborator Dr. Gordon Marsh and I, created a temporary installation with and for the community of Monroe. After converting an unused storefront downtown into our workshop hub, we invited the community to partake in daily free sessions as well as I traveled to farms, schools, libraries, and other institutions conducting workshops. Each cyanotypes became part of the temporary installation, which was concluded on September 28th with the revealing of the sound component and a big community party.
The total duration of the sound work is 14:50 minutes (441 bars). Its musical sounds derive from plant-generated biodata recorded as MIDI using a pair of PlantWave (MidiSprout) devices, which respond to the electrical variations in living plants. The device uses two electrodes, attached to two leaves on a plant. Signals are graphed as wave forms for translation into pitch messages and texture data (MIDI). This data can play virtual musical instruments designed by PlantWave—or a virtual instrument created by the composer/designer as done in “Whispers.” The plant music includes “compositions” from several different locations in the River Raisin Battlefield Park (Monroe, MI). The opening (through to 1:48) uses musical data from a pair of plants along the banks of the River Raisin near the battlefield. Set in F-sharp pentatonic minor to represent that water, this music differs from the park plant life’s key of E. The lowest note on a bass sounds at 41 Hz (= 41st latitude). Later in the music, the riverbank’s data creates brief knocking sounds, which punctuate the texture at 3:44, 6:31, and 9:19. The first nine minutes of the work introduce two pairs of grasses and weeds recorded at the base of two different memorial benches located at opposite ends of the park. At the start of the second part at 9:16, listeners will hear new music “composed” by two large trees located by the park’s memorial plaques. The difference between the weeds and the trees is, as one might suspect, striking: the former, full of quick changes and activity; the latter, big-boned and somewhat aggressive. Across the entire work, a short motif taken from a corn stalk (long and strident) and a longer passage from a butternut squash (rapid and tinkly) gradually crescendo and pan, meeting at the start of the work’s second part before returning to silence at the end of the work. These two plants live in the “3 Sisters Garden” at the south side of the River Raisin National Battlefield Park’s Visitor Center. For the plant music’s performance, we created a virtual instrument via Logic Pro’s physical modeling synthesis engine Sculpture (see image below). The settings for this instrument use the precise coordinates of River Raisin Battlefield Park. These coordinates create an instrument of wood and glass. Additional Sculpture settings used the coordinates of the Congress of the United States building in Washington D.C. There in 1830, the Indian Removal Act was passed, legislation largely written in response to the battles in Monroe (see under Spoken Text below). To help distinguish among the plants’ individual music, each “composition” received its own spatial setting using Logic Pro’s Space Designer.
Spoken Text: This work features the The Indian Removal Act’s statute title, date, and opening paragraph. The Battle of River Raisin— also known as the Battle of Frenchtown or the River Raisin Massacre—was part of a series of conflicts in Michigan Territory between January 18-23 of 1813 during the War of 1812. On January 22, 1813, the deadliest battle of the war occurred at Frenchtown, which is now the city of Monroe. Considered a “national calamity,” this event was used as the rationale for The Indian Removal Act, and led to the Trail of Tears (1831-1850). Two lifelong residents of Monroe County, Ms. Sierra Seidelman and Mrs. Carol Winkelman-LaRoy, graciously read the selected passage for this project.