David Byrne Turns Unused Space Into Interactive Art Project "Playing the Building"

"We're bringing democracy to lower Manhattan," joked David Byrne. He wasn't launching a revolutionary coup on Saturday morning; rather, he was introducing his latest multi-media project called "Playing the Building." With the help of Creative Time, Byrne turned the long-closed Battery Maritime Building on New York's southern tip and morphed it into a nine thousand square foot sound installation that features a gutted organ, a series of colorful tubes and a whole lot of ambient noise. Click above for Byne's explanation of his work and for a look at how the whole thing works.

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Song Stories

“Help Me”

Joni Mitchell | 1974

Joni Mitchell wrote and recorded this song for her album Court and Spark, but she had to switch from her regular band to make the song sound exactly the way she wanted. "I had attempted to play my music with rock & roll players," she told Rolling Stone. "They’d laugh, 'Awww, isn't that cute? She's trying to teach us how to play.'" Mitchell switched to a jazz band, Tom Scott’s L.A. Express, and scored the biggest hit of her career in the process.

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