Swale is listed in Hyperallergic’s -Best of 2016: Our Top 20 NYC Art Shows

“Swale” at Concrete Plant Park, Yankee Pier, and Brooklyn Bridge Park

Mary Mattingly’s “Swale” docked at Brooklyn Bridge Park (photo by Jillian Steinahuer/Hyperallergic)

July 16–November 15

Part of why I can’t quit art is that artists continue to awe me by not only dreaming up, but also realizing, projects that sound impossible. In Mary Mattingly’s case this year, that project was “Swale,” a floating food forest that anyone could visit and pick from for free. The idea behind it was to consider food as a public good — something we don’t just buy and consume, but to which we deserve access. Behind the scenes, “Swale” was a huge undertaking, involving collaboration with some 50 people and groups, as well as a host of conversations with NYC officials; in person, it appeared modest. Mattingly was similarly humble and understated when we spoke about it — she made it sound simple, but it was radical. —Jillian Steinhauer

PandorBird: Identifying the Types of Music That May Be Favored by Our Avian Co-Inhabitants

PandorBird: Identifying the Types of Music That May Be Favored by Our Avian Co-Inhabitants, by Elizabeth Demaray in collaboration with Ahmed Elgammal, is an interactive outdoor installation that uses computer vision and interactive software to track and then play the music choices made by wild song- birds. This mobile learning system uses a novel algorithm for species identification, plays avian-favored human music, and builds a database of the musical compositions preferred by local feeder birds.
Visible from the benches at Pier 6, PandoraBird will be running on Swale each Monday from 10:00am to 1:00pm. Please come by and see the types of human music favored by our avian co-inhabitants.
PandoraBird, photo by Jen Jakimiak, 2016