Summary
Inspired by the site-specific sound installations of Max Neuhaus (1939–2009), Sidewalk Sound draws attention to the unnoticed rhythms embedded in everyday urban life. The performance isolates and amplifies a sound most pedestrians overlook—the percussive click of rolling objects crossing the grooves between concrete sidewalk squares. These seams, spaced roughly four to five feet apart, form an infrastructural metronome that quietly frames our movement through cities. Sidewalk Sound makes this latent meter audible.
The piece unfolds through three performers walking a looping path along a stretch of sidewalk, each moving at a steady 80 BPM (or 160 BPM in double time) using synchronized metronomes. The first performer drags an empty dolly, producing a sharp, singular strike each time a wheel meets the concrete break. After one loop, a second performer joins, rolling a small suitcase filled with loose objects that rattle across the grooves. Entering at the midpoint of the first performer’s phrase, this second rhythm creates a syncopated counter-pulse. At the height of the piece, a third performer enters with an empty drink cooler whose hollow resonance adds a deeper timbre. Arriving on the third beat of each phrase, this performer’s pacing introduces a triplet structure, layering the rhythms into a percussive pattern generated not by instruments but by the sidewalk itself.
As the performers continue their circuit, the composition becomes a temporary sound installation in motion, prompting nearby pedestrians to pause and observe. After five full loops, the performers taper the piece by exiting in reverse order—first, second, then third—before merging back into the ordinary flow of foot traffic.
By combining performance and site-specific sound-making, Sidewalk Sound reveals the human-made meters that organize our environments and gestures toward the patterned routines we enact within them. The work asks viewers to reconsider the overlooked infrastructures that choreograph daily life—and the rhythms we participate in without noticing.
Video: University of Tennessee Knoxville campus (site)
*the video has been sped up to double speed