William Lamson: Divining Meteorology August 13, 2011

Brooklyn-based artist William Lamson forges a captivating exploration of forces of nature and the passage of time through his inventive, often poetic interventions into natural and man-made environments. To create 'Divining Meteorology,' Lamson reanimated a former communications tower by transforming it into an instrument. Originally designed to withstand the trials of nature, this monumental tower was relocated from the Missouri countryside to the Efroymson Family Entrance Pavilion and re-engineered to fit inside the space, as if it had collapsed into itself. In addition, the artist installed a system of speakers and resonators throughout the structure that receive the weather radio signal from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and allow him to "play" the tower as an instrument. By moving a magnetic pickup device across the metal structure, Lamson activates internal resonances within the tower that are both physical and acoustic. The resulting audio composition mixes recordings of the artist's movements around and through the structure with the live weather radio broadcast. Like the shifting weather, the sound varies from extreme quiet to a vigorous crescendo. Lamson's repurposed tower radically reinterprets the weather conditions that the glass-paneled pavilion both reveals and protects against. Harnessing the imperceptible phenomena of a radio signal, the artist--rather than making its real-time weather report audible--translates the signal into a physical and resonant experience. With 'Divining Meteorology,' Lamson has created an unlikely instrument whose totemic presence suggests an unknown mythology.