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About Music Lives Here
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Music Lives Here is a public art project by Chicago graphic art studio Sonnenzimmer and Maya Bird-Murphy of Chicago Mobile Makers celebrating Chicago’s musical legacy. The project was commissioned by DCASE, the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events, and coordinated by Director for Public Art, Lydia Ross.
This project pays tribute to the spaces, places, and people that have shaped Chicago’s music landscape, past and present through 50 unique graphic Tribute Markers installed at sites across Chicago, a website (www.MusicLivesHere.site), and a printed guide. Look down, look up, take in and explore the marvelous contributions to the local music history. Each Tribute Marker has a QR code which leads the curious explorer to the website where they can discover more information about the sites from local music journalist, Aaron Cohen.
Sites for Music Lives Here were selected by Chicago cultural historian Tim Samuelson; journalists Cohen, Dave Hoekstra and Ernest Wilkins; activist/artist Carlos Flores; record producer Vince Lawrence; musicians Jose Luis Terrazas, Pugs Atomz, Margaret Murphy Webb and Ramsey Lewis; DJ Lori Branch; radio producer Ayana Contreras; and Mateo Mulcahy from the Old Town School of Folk Music..
The project invites further participation by means of the print guide distributed to Chicago Public Library branches, which is also downloadable from the website, encouraging the public to let Chicago know where “Music Lives!” by making their own tribute marker.
About Music Lives Here
Short form text
Music Lives Here is a multi-media project by Chicago graphic art studio Sonnenzimmer and Maya Bird-Murphy of Chicago Mobile Makers. The project was commissioned by the City of Chicago’s Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events. Music Lives Here pays tribute to the spaces, places, and people that have shaped Chicago’s music landscape, past and present, in the form of unique graphic sidewalk markers installed at 50 sites across Chicago. The project is further supported by a website, a small print guide distributed to Chicago Public Library branches, and pop-up performances throughout the year. Music Lives Here is part of the City of Chicago’s Year of Chicago Music initiative.
About the making of the Tribute Markers
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How do you pay tribute to the breadth of historic music sites in Chicago as a collective gesture? How do you honor locality without disregarding its shaped history? How do you pay tribute to something that is not materially present, but clearly held in memory and passed on as a lived tradition? These were just a few of the questions that guided our ideas for this project.
The city’s grid and the strong pull towards a linear orientation were very present when imagining the physical and emotional geography of all this musical activity. What forms can be made that push and pull against those structures? Can the grid of the city be compared to the lines of a musical staff? Can the destructive legacy of segregation be addressed?
Music doesn’t happen in a faraway silo. It’s created by being witnessed. Together it forms a shape, it moves, it grooves, and it pours out of collective structures, some domestic, some public, some geared towards commerce. Building types and roof lines that housed music-related activities form the icons used in the series and help visualize the sites, Broadcast Distribute, Gather, manufacture, these were inspired by the movement and flow of music. Although the tribute markers are 2D, they symbolize 3D spaces that existed in the past, present, or future.
Over the course of studio visits, Sonnenzimmer and Maya Bird-Murphy immersed themselves in improvisational screen printing to develop a library of images. In these sessions, many prints were created, building the base for the graphic vernacular for the Tribute Markers, a moving library of shapes emerged that created the look and feel of the project.
About the making of the Tribute Markers
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The Music Lives Here Tribute Markers aim to create shapeshifting graphic encounters that stoke curiosity about Chicago’s musical landscape. Merging playful colors and forms with clear demarcation, the artists hope these graphic markers will inspire the casual passerby and enthusiast alike to contemplate the evolving and interconnected nature of the spaces, places, and people who have given shape to the music in the city. The shapes were developed through collaborative and improvisational studio sessions between Sonnenzimmer and Maya Bird-Murphy. The resulting designs were equally improvisational in their form-finding, aiming to give a unique character to each marker.
As a way for the viewer to navigate and better understand the role of the individual sites, we’ve developed four distinctive categories; Distribute, Gather, Manufacture, and Broadcast. Rather than grouping the sites by musical genre, we’ve chosen to highlight the flow of information, with nods to the industrial history of the city.
The icons developed for these categories represent typical building types and roof lines that you encounter on the city grid. The interlocking geometry found in the icons showcases the interconnectivity of the various activities represented.
About the Artists
Sonnenzimmer
Sonnenzimmer is the collaborative practice of artists Nick Butcher and Nadine Nakanishi. Their work investigates and challenges the preconceived notions of the graphic arts. Their experimental studio was established in 2006 in Chicago. Together, they explore the physical and psycho-physical nature of visualization through image-making, sculpture, writing, publishing, exhibitions, design, music, and performance. While they move through an array of media, their focus is on triangulating a deeper understanding of graphic expression at large.
Maya Bird-Murphy
Maya Bird-Murphy is a designer, multi-instrumentalist, and the founder of Chicago Mobile Makers, an award-winning nonprofit organization making design education more accessible in underrepresented communities. She believes that the field must expand to include more people and perspectives through teaching and community engagement. She loves Chicago and hopes to make her mark by making it a more equitable place to live. Maya was recently featured in Dwell Magazine and on Design Milk.
About the Contributors
Aaron Cohen
Aaron Cohen teaches humanities and English composition at City Colleges of Chicago and writes for the Chicago Tribune, Chicago Reader, National Public Radio, and numerous other publications. His most recent book, Move On Up: Chicago Soul Music and Black Cultural Power (University of Chicago Press), looks at the social and musical changes that shaped R&B in Chicago during the 1960s and 1970s. His first book, Amazing Grace (33 1/3; Bloomsbury), analyzes Aretha Franklin’s popular 1972 soul-gospel album. Cohen has been a National Endowment for the Humanities Public Scholar, DownBeat editor and is a two-time recipient of the Deems Taylor Award for outstanding music writing from the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP).
The Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events (DCASE)
The Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events (DCASE) is dedicated to enriching Chicago’s artistic vitality and cultural vibrancy. This includes fostering the development of Chicago’s non-profit arts sector, independent working artists and for-profit arts businesses; providing a framework to guide the City’s future cultural and economic growth, via the 2012 Chicago Cultural Plan; marketing the City’s cultural assets to a worldwide audience; and presenting high-quality, free and affordable cultural programs for residents and visitors.
https://www.chicago.gov/city/en/depts/dca.html
Other Information
Press Contact
publicart@cityofchicago.org
Hashtag:
#MusicLivesHere
#YearofChicagoMusic
Website:
www.musicliveshere.site
Social Media Style
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Music Lives Here….
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Discover 50 sites that shaped Chicago Music.
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[ Image Caption: xxx. ]
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#MusicLivesHere #YearofChicagoMusic #ChicagoInTune
Tags (if appropriate):
Sonnenzimmer: @sonnenzimmer
Maya Bird-Murphy: @chicagomobilemakers
Aaron Cohen: @aaroncohenchicago
Chicago DCASE: @chicagodcase
Media
Music Lives Here - Project Reel
Caption: Music Lives Here project reel by Sonnenzimmer. Music by Sonnenzimmer and Maya Bird Murphy.
Image ID: A video featuring a scroll-through of the Music Lives Here website. The site features photographs and write-ups for the 50 sites selected for Music Lives Here. The Music Lives Here Tribute Markers are also shown on the site. A fast-paced overview of the Tribute Markers blends into a series of photographs of the Tribute Markers installed at various sites around Chicago. The video closes out with first-person footage of walking down a sidewalk on a sunny day and encountering the Music Lives Here Tribute Marker for Delmark Records. Ambient music plays in the background throughout.
Music Lives Here - Selected Tribute Marker
Caption: Music Lives Here Tribute Marker for Jerry Butler's Songwriting Workshop.
Image ID: A colorful square graphic featuring the words “Jerry Butler’s Songwriting Workshop” on each side of the square. In the middle of the graphic, the Music Lives Here logo sites on top of interwoven abstract shapes of green, red, and purple. A small yellow icon that mimics the shape of a factory indicates that his site is categorized as manufacturing. A website URL for www.musicliveshere.site and a QR code graphic are also included.
Caption: Music Lives Here Tribute Marker for Vee-Jay Records /Brunswick Records.
Image ID: A colorful square graphic featuring the words “Vee-Jay Records” and “Brunswick Records”, one on each side of the square. In the middle of the graphic, the Music Lives Here logo sites on top of interwoven abstract shapes of pink, blues, and purple. A small yellow icon that mimics the shape of a skyscraper indicates that his site is categorized as distribution. A website URL for www.musicliveshere.site and a QR code graphic are also included.
Caption: Music Lives Here Tribute Marker for Music Box.
Image ID: A colorful square graphic featuring the words “Music Box” on each side of the square. In the middle of the graphic, the Music Lives Here logo sites on top of interwoven abstract shapes of blue, red, yellow, and purple. A small yellow icon that mimics the shape of a church indicates that his site is categorized as a gathering place. A website URL for www.musicliveshere.site and a QR code graphic are also included.
Caption: Music Lives Here Tribute Marker for Music Box.
Image ID: A colorful square graphic featuring the words “Soul Train Studio” on each side of the square. In the middle of the graphic, the Music Lives Here logo sites on top of interwoven abstract shapes of pink, yellow, yellow, and blues. A small yellow icon that mimics the shape of a hanger indicates that his site is categorized as broadcasting. A website URL for www.musicliveshere.site and a QR code graphic are also included.
Music Lives Here - Selected Tribute Marker Installation Photos
Caption: Music Lives Here Tribute Marker installation at 3726 Broadway, the former location of Augie and C.K.’s.
Image ID: A one-story brick building on the corner of two streets is pictured in the late afternoon. Bright blue awnings are over the windows. On the sidewalk is a large pink square graphic featuring the words “Augie and C.K.s”, as well as the Music Lives Here logo, category icon, website URL, and QR code.
Caption: Music Lives Here Tribute Marker installation at 4501 S Vincennes Ave., the current location of Ebenezer Baptist Church.
Image ID: A large brick building on the corner of two streets is pictured in the late afternoon. The building features columns and arched windows. On the sidewalk is a large pink square graphic featuring the words “Ebenezer Baptist Church” as well as the Music Lives Here logo, category icon, website URL, and QR code.
Caption: Music Lives Here Tribute Marker installation at 7711 S Racine Ave., the former location of Willie Dixon’s Yambo Records.
Image ID: A small one-story brick building with empty adjacent lots is pictured in the late afternoon. The building features a single door and window. On the sidewalk is a large pink square graphic featuring the words “Willie Dixon’s Yambo Records” as well as the Music Lives Here logo, category icon, website URL, and QR code.
Caption: Music Lives Here Tribute Marker installation at 3350 S Kedzie Ave., the former location of WVON Radio Station.
Image ID: A long one-story brick building behind an empty parking lot is pictured in mid-morning. The building sits in front of a tall radio town. On the sidewalk is a large yellow square graphic featuring the words “WVON Radio Station” as well as the Music Lives Here logo, category icon, website URL, and QR code.
Music Lives Here - Additional Photos
Caption: (from left to right) Nadine Nakanishi & Nick Butcher of Sonnenzimmer and Maya Bird-Murphy of Chicago Mobile Makers.
Image ID: Three people are pictured gathered around a table looking through a stack of colorful prints. Each print features interwoven shapes of various colors. On the far left is a woman with dark hair and glasses in a short sleeve denim shirt. She is lightly holding one of the prints. To her right is a bald man in glasses and a striped shirt looking at the print she is holding. To his right is a woman with dark hair and glasses in a sleeveless shirt looking down at the same print.
Caption: Photograph of someone using the Tribute Marker template to create their own Music Lives Here Tribute Marker.
Image ID: A close up photograph of someone writing "The Hideout" by hand on to a the Music Lives Here Tribute Marker template.