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 Sunday, 9 October 2011

Got The Power: Minnesota Mixtape Pt.1

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

ROLLER DERBY

1. Amanda, St. Croix Falls, Hot n’ Fun, N.E.R.D. ft. Nelly Furtado

2. Amelia, Minneapolis, Lovely Day, Bill Withers

3. Chelsea, Andover, Torn, Natalie Imbruglia

4. Cordell, Minneapolis, Fight The Power, Public Enemy

5. Lillie, Maplewood, I’mma Be, The Black eyed Peas

6. Woody, Shafer, Everything Under The Sun, DJ ESP

CAMPING

7. Carly, Edmonton, Born to Run, Bruce Springsteen

8. Tom, Franconia, Take 5, Dave Brubek

9. Evelyn, Hopkins, Baby Bumblebee, Camp song/kids song

10. John, Hopkins, All Along The Watchtower, Jimi Hendrix

11. Mike, Chisago City, Dreams, The Allman Brothers

SNOWMAGEDDON 2010

12. Anne, St. Croix, Animals, Neon Trees

13. Matt, St. Croix, Welcome to the Machine, Pink Floyd

14. Kira, Minneapolis, Little Boxes, Malvina Reynolds

WARTS

15. Morgan, Luck, Lollipop, Mika

16. Maia, Luck, Oh No, Marina and The Diamonds

17. Chitti, Minneapolis, Edge Of Glory, Lady Gaga

18. Amy, St. Paul, Cult of Personality, Living Colour

AN EPIC BATTLE

19. Carissa, Franconia, Final Countdown, Europe

20. George, St. Paul, Send Me Your Money, Suicidal Tendencies

21. Sara, St. Paul, Queen Bitch, David Bowie

22. Jeff, Oakdale, Eye of The Tiger, Survivor

23. Andrew, Maplegrove, Looking Out My Back Door, CCR

24. Kevin, St. Cloud, Space Oddity, David Bowie

25. Phoenix, St. Cloud, Somewhere Over The Rainbow, Israel Kamakawiwo’Ole

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