Building a chain of sights and sounds
Savvas O. Spyridopoulos knows how to finesse a building code.
Sheet rock, plaster, electric wiring, and sprinkler systems are the materials he's worked with to bring together "Soundscape 2007," an audacious, 8,000-square-foot installation of art and music unfolding today and tomorrow in a fifth-floor soon-to-be office space in Fort Point.
"I'm a contractor, but I've never dealt with so much construction red tape," Spyridopoulos said recently, standing in the entryway to the 14-room complex on Congress Street that will house "Soundscape."
The space, which he rented on the cheap after a cold call to owner Berkeley Investments Inc., is now a fluid warren of oddly shaped galleries. "A lot of the walls were here," Spyridopoulos said. "Some, we cut and moved." On Tuesday, it still felt like a construction zone: Plaster and sawdust littered the floor; holes needed to be patched, rough edges sanded.
For the show, work by 16 artists will be installed, and 14 musicians will play, singly and in duos, strung throughout the area -- each one responding only to the two neighboring musicians to form a flowing chain of sound.
Spyridopoulos aims to create an organic experience: The artists will respond to the space; the musicians will respond to the art, the space, and one another. The audience's movement through the labyrinthine rooms will cap off the experience of "Soundscape" (not to be confused with the recording studio of the same name, also on Congress Street).
"A lot of people do installation and site-specific work," said sculptor Daniel Petraitis , in town from Philadelphia to install two pieces for "Soundscape." "Not a lot of people build spaces to have sound and visual art together."
Spyridopoulos and Petraitis went to Massachusetts College of Art at the same time. While there, Spyridopolous mounted a similar project in a performance hall. He graduated in 2002, gave up art, and started his own construction business, Ithaca Contracting.
"I was ripping down ceilings, putting in tile," he said, "and then something just clicked."
Spyridopoulos realized he needed to make art -- and for a contractor, that meant making the space for art and calling on artist friends such as Petraitis, sculptor Mike Newby, and light artist Cameron Shaw to work collaboratively with them.
"[Spyridopoulos] asked me, 'What kind of wall do you want?' Do you want a curved wall?' " said Petraitis. "I was like, 'Wow. I'll totally take a curved wall.' "
One of Petraitis's sculptures is inspired by that wall. He's been working the graveyard shift this week, installing an arcing river of steel rods that springs from a notch near the ceiling. Like Spyridopoulos's design of the space, the form echoes and encourages flow.
Money for the project came out of Spyridopoulos's pocket. "I've spent all I've made in the last six months. All my credit cards are maxed out, and I've borrowed," he said. Admission to "Soundscape" will be free. To recoup costs, "Soundscape" is accepting donations and lining up multiple sponsors.
Spyridopoulos, 29, is easygoing and tall, with a beard and wild black hair that springs out from his head in thick locks. "My hair is usually crazier," he volunteered. "I keep gel on hand for meetings with the [city's] building department. I have an older, more normal looking guy who comes to the meetings with me."
"Soundscape" draws on a roster of established players from Boston's jazz scene, such as the project's music director, alto sax player Andy Voelker, and drummer Michael Vitali . At a recent rehearsal in the space, the music at first sounded like warm-ups at band camp. That was just to get the engineering straight. Once they launched into the classic "All the Things You Are," the tune resounded beautifully throughout the space.
They'll perform jazz standards for "Soundscape," but each player will wear headphones and improvise in coordination with just the two nearest musicians on each side. For audience members navigating through the space, the music will transform as they move.
"It's a different kind of acoustic geometry," said John Voigt , plucking a deep, playful rhythm on his electric upright bass as the music swept through the galleries. "It's like a kaleidoscope."
Voigt has played jazz and avant-garde music and worked with performance art, but he says he's never seen anything quite like this. "I think our boy here has cracked the egg," he said, nodding at Spyridopoulos. "A new concept has popped out of Savvas, the mother hen."
In a dark room in front of a digital sound mixer, engineer Owen Curtin seemed pumped up by the challenge. "It's 14 different mixes," he said. "That's 14 people who all need to hear a specific thing -- each hearing only their two neighbors." He has enlisted a half-dozen of his sound-engineering students from the New England Institute of Art to help pull it off.
"I didn't think it would ever work," he said, "but this is the best rehearsal we've had yet."
Spyridopoulos hopes to keep the art installation up for a month and possibly bring in the musicians for a closing bash. In the meantime, he's thinking ahead to an outdoor project he's dreaming up.
"If everything goes well, the next project should be easier," he said.
He can already see it clearly in his mind's eye, despite the snarl of red tape that would surround it.
"People walk down the street and see the same stuff every day," he said. "What if artists did work that was architecturally integrated -- like sidewalks made out of glass bricks, with a flickering light pattern -- and it literally happened overnight?"
