Who am I?

Hello everyone! My name is Eduardo (or Eddie whatever floats your boat) and I am a part of the first class of Community Fellows!

I’m a New Yorker by birth although I’ve called Pennsylvania my home (away from home) almost a decade. I just graduated college, NYU to be specific, with a BA in Art History. While in college I was a brother of Delta Lambda Phi, Beta Xi Chapter to be exact. Now DLP isn’t your regular fraternity, its the national social fraternity for gay, bisexual, and progressive men. While I was a brother I helped devise programs for recruitment as well as lent my Photoshop skills for marketing materials. I also am an editor for Born Like This, a website where teens speak to other teens who are coming to terms with themselves. On a more selfish note I am a pop culture intellectual and an ambassador for all things pop music. I also love art, visual culture, social media, and technology in general. Enough about me though, onto the project!

My Fellowship Project:

As an art history major we always studied several aspects of art; the technical, the social, and yes its historical importance. Although we touched on all of these points I have always wanted to study the social interaction with art. So when I signed up for the SoundCloud fellowship I wanted to create a project where I could explore that further and thus the Without Walls Project was born. Being from New York I thought what better place to make the epicenter of my project?

Under the Without Walls Project I will be venturing into neighborhoods in New York City – and beyond – looking high and low for public art which can range from sculptures in parks to elaborate graffiti on street corners. I want to see how the surroundings around a particular artwork can change how its audience interacts with it. For example how does a busy intersection create a different scene from a public park? I also want these maps to become a resource for all the urban scavengers, art enthusiasts, and tourists who come across them and decide to take a stroll through a new or familiar neighborhood. After I collect sounds I’ll be making maps for all of the neighborhoods I visit and with the help of ThingLink I’ll be combining both the audio and the visual. If I’m lucky on these outings I’ll also be adding candid audience reactions to these art works, we all love candid moments no?

Get involved?

Want to become a part of the project? Participation from you guys is an essential piece! If you come across any cool public art in New York or in your very own city I want to hear the sounds around it! Got any reactions to any piece of public art you come across on the blog or in your daily life? Record it and send it my way. Just follow the link and it’ll tell you everything you need to know!

Follow Without Walls:

SoundCloud: http://soundcloud.com/withoutwalls
Tumblr: withoutwallsproject.tumblr.com
Twitter: @withoutwallspjt

Here are some of the first recordings I’ve made for Without Walls:

“Andy Warhol” by Robert Pruitt by withoutwalls

Rob Pruitt’s tribute to Andy Warhol can be found in one of New York’s most popular destinations, Union Square. I like this recording because it catches the essence of Union Square at lunch time on a summer afternoon. While I observed the interaction around the sculpture I witnessed a lot of quick glances and lingering. Oh New York, always on the go.

“Echo” by Jaume Plensa by withoutwalls

Jaume Plensa’s sculpture is smack in the middle of Madison Square Park, home to the amazing Shake Shack! You can hear a major difference around this sculpture as opposed to Warhol. The city almost seems to fade away and you can hear nature begin to take over. As I sat and observed this space much more people were tempted to stop and read the plaque talking about the sculpture.

Jordan Betten “High Lines” by withoutwalls

This one is a bit of preview but that never hurt anyone! I love this one because its one of the first artworks I found that was a sudden find. I found this one as I was taking a stroll on the High Line, one of my favorite spots in the city! This particular piece was on the roof of one of the buildings bordering the elevated park! One of my favorite moments in recording is the French family that notices the work and talk about it and take pictures of it. One of the things I love about NYC is how multicultural it can be.