photo by Johnna MacArthur

World Trade Center Recordings: Winds After Hurricane Floyd is a multi-channel sound work that was recorded in 1999 during a six-month residency on the ninety-first floor of World Trade Center (WTC 1) in New York, while participating in the WorldViews Residency Program. The first thing that caught his attention was that the windows could not be opened, which explained why all the outside noise was drowned out by the building’s air-conditioning system. Vitiello decided to install contact microphones on the safety-glass windows, so as to make audible the vibrations caused by exterior sounds such as planes taking off, church bells, the wind, police sirens etc. The recording in this exhibition was made in September 1999, when Hurricane Floyd swept over the east coast of the USA with winds of up to 150 miles per hour and wreaked havoc. As though with a stethoscope Vitiello listened to the vibrations of the 110-storey building as it swayed in the hurricane, creaking like a sailing boat and moaning like a wounded animal.

(text: Inke Arns / HMKV)