"Audubon’s Aviary: Portraits of Endangered Species" Brings Audubon Watercolors To Life At New-York Historical Society, February 8 – March 16, 2008

First-ever mix of bird sounds with original watercolors from “The Birds of America” collection recreates Audubon’s passion for birds in New-York Historical Society's Dexter Hall.

John James Audubon’s classic life-like bird images have been visual icons since he created them in the early nineteenth century, but few remember that Audubon was also an accomplished musician who was very sensitive to sound. He frequently described birdcalls and songs as an integral part of his species identification.

Pioneer sound artist Charlie Morrow designed and constructed a unique ornithological sound installation honoring Audu-bon’s ear in addition to the artist’s eye at this year’s limited public showing of light-sensitive originals from The Birds of America.

The 2008 exhibition Audubon’s Aviary: Portraits of Endangered Species at the New-York Historical Society continues the first-ever mix of bird sounds and video with these original watercolors, creating an “urban aviary.” The exhibit runs February 8 through March 16 in the palatial second-floor Dexter Hall at N-YHS, Dexter Hall. For this exhibition, the Society has once again collaborated with Charles Morrow Productions to create the world’s largest True 3D sound array, which conjures a spatial audio environment, based on field recordings by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. When viewing the gorgeous watercolors, the visitor will feel as if standing within a great bird conservatory. In addition, there is a video under-scoring Audubon’s mastery at encapsulating each bird’s personality and unique physical characteristics.

Charles Morrow Productions created an all-encompassing audio experience for the low-light exhibit. His design includes individual sounds tailored to specific pictures, as well a 3D sound experience throughout the hall and stairwell areas, periodically simulating fly-overs of birds making their calls.

Morrow assembled the team that would fulfill his artistic connection to the treasured Audubon paintings. The CMP team built and engineered custom 3D audio systems for “Audubon’s Aviary” by combining a variety of advances and breakthroughs in spatialized sound.

CMP designed and manufactured a set of small sound boxes to be set below individual watercolors. Sensors detect the visitor’s presence and respond with birdsong and bird calls appropriate to the species depicted.

CMP also installed 24 MorrowSound® 3D cuboid loudspeakers in five connected “sound cubes” stretching through Dexter Hall. These speakers provide overall ambience and the 3D sound system driving them creates the effect of birds flying overhead and even through the walls. The 3D speakers are arrayed both at foot level and 13 feet above to create a unique, fully immersive sound environment.

Morrow’s design for the N-YHS exhibit also includes a soundscape of echoing bird calls, installed in the master stairway on each of its two mid-floor landings. Matt Stine, Rie Koko, Marc Nasdor, Alban Bassuet (Arup Acoustics), Robert Bielecki, Joel Stuart, Maija-Leena Remes and Michael Schumacher worked with Morrow to produce, program and install the show.

“My 40 years as a sound artist and museum audio exhibit designer have led to inventing an easy to set up, hide-the-wiring system to distribute and enjoy diverse, spatialized sound works,” said Morrow. “This opens up a whole new set of artistic options.

"The spark created by mixing the very new with the ancient animates runs through my life's work, celebrating nature with art and science. We live in a world of 3D sound, where hearing in all directions is a matter of survival. Just as Audubon painted his environment, my 3D soundscapes portray moments in our sound world.

“The Audubon’s Aviary exhibit is one of the first major public demonstrations of what we as artists can do with these new developments in 3D systems,” he said.

Documentation of bird sounds and video footage was generously provided by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology in Ithaca, NY. Flamingo video was provided by The Wildlife Conservation Society.

For more information, contact Charlie Morrow at info@cmorrow.com
Phone: (212) 989-2400