Got the Power

In his project, Got the Power, artist Bayeté Ross Smith uses ambient sound, music, and oral history to create portraits of American communities. As a project that began while he was a public artist in residence at The Laundromat Project, Ross Smith travels to historically-significant neighborhoods and invites community members, young and old, to collaborate in making a mixtape which archives their favorite songs and stories. Through a tower of boom boxes that the artist builds at each site, participants are able to play their own cassette tapes, add their favorite song titles to a public playlist, and record their memories about their community. Ross Smith then collects these contributions mixing them with ambient sound specific to the area, and creates a mixtape that can be played both online and through the boom box tower.

Referencing the role boom boxes have played in urban communities and within popular culture, the resulting sculpture and soundscape is a symbol of pride, power, and autonomy. By collaborating with local residents to realize each iteration of this project, Ross Smith creates an accessible and site-specific work that offers its collaborators an opportunity to record their own history.

Want to know more about this project?

Posted on Saturday, 8 October 2011

Got The Power: Minnesota Mixtape Pt.2

The Minnesota Mixtape was created by collecting song titles from visitors to Franconia Sculpture Park and people I encountered in my travels around the Twin cities area. Each participant was allowed to submit at least one song title. I have included the first name and town of residence of each participant, along with their song title. I also collected recordings of people recalling a memory from their life that relates to Minnesota. These stories are interspersed between the songs. The Minnesota Mixtape serves as a portrait of the Twin cities and the surrounding area, through audio recordings, both the songs people listen to and their actual voices describing significant moments in their lives. Unfortunately they were about 6 songs I was not able to locate, however the other 75 are the direct result of local community’s input.

Name, Town, Song, Artist
HAZELDON
26. Rosalie, Shafer, “Simple Gifts”, classic Shaker Song
27. Paul, Osceola, “Love Is The Law”, The Suburbs
28. Abigail, “If I was Your Girlfriend”, Prince
29. Craig, Shoreview, “Back In Black”, AC/DC
MOVING TO THE TWIN CITIES FROM DALLAS
30. Deb, Bloomington, “Genie in a Bottle”, Christina Aguelira
31. Lisa, Glenwood, “You Are My Sunshine”, Johnny Cash and Ray Charles
LOVE AT FIRST SITE; THE AIRPORT
32. Grozio, Glenwood, “Tangled Up In Blue”, Bob Dylan
33. Jack, Glenwood, “Y.M.C.A.”, The Village People
34. Mia, St. Paul, “Push It”, Salt N’ Peppa
35. Sunidh, Minneapolis, “Bust A Move”, Young M.C.
36. Summer, Woodbury, “The Cars That Go Boom”, L’Trimm
37 Dave, Minneapolis, “Animal”, Miike Snow
38. Pam, Stillwater, “I Can Only Imagine”, Mercy Me
39. Kale, Osceola, “Clint Eastwood”, Gorillaz
MARY POPPINS
40. Alex, St. Paul, “Zhong Nan Hai”, Carsick Cars
41. Josine, Minneapolis, “Shining Star”, Earth wind and Fire
42. Justyne, Shafer, “The Show”, Lenka
43. Liz, Shoreview, “I Want to Hold Your Hand”, The Beatles
44. Paul, Lakeville, “The Joker”, Steve Miller Band
45. Emily, Minneapolis, “Wannabe”, The Spice Girls
46. Nicole, Franconia, “All I Want to Do”, Sugarland
47. Leeann, Taylors Falls, “What’s Up”, Four Non Blondes
48. Lisa, Glenwood, “Imagine”, John Lennon

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