Gatekeeper

Today I will begin the second phase of the Parchetypes performance. During this phase of the performance I will act as Point Pleasant Park's Gatekeeper. As the Gatekeeper I'll be sharing the recorded sounds from a mix tape of week one's performances on a portable cassette player. I will be sitting at the Park's Upper Parking Lot entrance from Wednesday, September 14th, 2011 until Sunday, September 18th, 2011 from 12 p.m. until 4 p.m. everyday.

Parchetypes in the News

Parchetypes has had a bit of local news coverage over the past week.
Below are a few links to some of the press and media pieces about the project.

The Coast Article
http://www.thecoast.ca/halifax/parchetypes-puts-piano-in-the-park/Content?oid=2679860

CBC Live at 6 p.m.
http://www.cbc.ca/video/#/News/Local_News/NS/1317909223/ID=2095320752

CBC Information Mornings
http://www.cbc.ca/informationmorningns/2011/08/23/point-pleasant-parchetypes/

Closing Bagpiper Performance Rescheduled

Parchetypes closing bagpiper performance that was supposed to take place from 7 p.m. until 9 p.m. this evening was cancelled due to bad weather.  The performance has been rescheduled for this Wednesday, August 24th, 2011 from 7 p.m. until 9 p.m.

Piano in the Park Extension

I wanted to pass on the good news that the piano has been granted to stay an additional week in its Point Pleasant Park location. It will be moved on Monday, August 29th. Please feel free to take full advantage of this extension to visit the piano and play until your heart's content.

The Piano Wizards

Yesterday, on a beautiful and sunny Saturday afternoon, the exceptional piano wizards crew helped me lug the Parchetypes piano into the Point Pleasant forest aurrounding the performance site. It was an amazing collective effort. My sincere thanks and appreciation to Aaron, Nathan, Brendan and Mat for their extraordinary help.

Below are a few photographs of the crew in action and the piano feeling fresh in its new home. The beautiful photographs are taken by the one and only Mat Dunlap.

Point Pleasant Park Map

Below is a detailed Photo Map showing how you can easily get to the piano from the Heather Road sign.

Point Pleasant Park Photo Map to Piano

Find the Heather Road sign that is roughly in the centre of Heather Road overlooking Sailors Memorial Way (the sign is also right next to a green park bench). Heather Road can easily be accessed from both Cambridge Drive and Prince of Wales Drive.

From the Heather Road sign - specifically mentioned above - take the path that is directly North of the sign. Walk 165 paces (approx.) until you reach a fork in the path.

After you've walked 165 paces (approx.) you will have reached the fork in the path. Turn left and walk another 146 paces (approx.) straight up the new path.

Keep walking straight.

Enter the forest.

After you've walked 146 paces and entered the forest you will have reached a fork in the forest path, turn left and walk another 11 paces on the new path.

After you have walked 11 paces turn left.

The piano.

Parchetypes Description

Parchetypes is based on two real-life personalities who define the experience of attending Point Pleasant Park through their musical performances. These two parchetypes or fathers of the park use this extraordinary urban forest in order to nurture the park’s natural elements and entertain park-goers with their musical expressions.

The first I have encountered as an anonymous bag piper. His disembodied sounds are a common auditory occurrence and are part of the Point Pleasant Park experience on any given summer day. Like a living ghost nestled in the park’s forest this musical patriarch offers up his kinship with the park by leaving only trace chanters and drones from his pipes into the wind.

The second is an elder who provides an embodied auditory experience. Like a guardian to the park he plays fiddle music on his small portable cassette tape stereo at the Tower Road entrance. As the park’s proverbial gatekeeper he provides a transitional point by projecting a unique tone onto the park experience.

My performance project will pay tribute to these two musical fathers by utilizing their sonic templates, but infused with my own and others unique soundscapes (using bagpipes & piano), which will attempt to respond dynamically to the environment of the Park.

Week One Performances - Monday, August 15th, 2011 until Monday, August 22nd, 2011

The intention is to (dis)embody the sounds of the rogue bagpiper. For the duration of one week, check performance schedule for details, myself and other commissioned musicians (pianists & a bagpiper) will be playing piano and bagpipe music anonymously in the park’s forest. The music, songs and sounds myself and others create and perform will be informed by the surrounding natural environment and momentary experiences. The performance camp will consist of an old upright piano. Anyone and everyone is welcome to attend the scheduled performances as well as play the piano during park hours.

Week Two Performances - Monday, September 5th, 2011 until Sunday, September 11th, 2011

I will sit as the gatekeeper to the park playing the recorded sounds from a mix tape of Week One’s performances on a portable cassette player. Sitting on the stone wall near the Tower Rd. entrance from 12pm until 5pm I will act as the doppelganger of the park’s elder guardian, by setting my new and specific sounds onto those who enter the park.

Cassette mix tapes and printed matter from the performance will be distributed to various local art galleries and environmental related organizations to be sold as charitable items. All the proceeds will be donated to the Ecology Action Centre in Halifax NS.

This project was made possible by the funding and support of HRM Open Projects & Point Pleasant Park.