Every advisory, I have to go to at least 3 approved events for Community Lecture Credits. It’s much more fun than I initially thought, it gives me a chance to go out and experience things with my friends. I also get to support my school, which is cool. If I am planning to go somewhere or there is a cool exhibit that I went to, I can recommend it and others in my class can go. In this video, I feature the Transformer Gallery (No Sharps, No Flats, http://www.transformerdc.org ), The Story (a Duke Ellington Theater Department Production, http://www.ellingtonschool.org) and the Renwick Gallery (Wonder, http://renwick.americanart.si.edu). Learning and new experiences are good for you.
I've had a this event planned in my calendar since Ms Anderson put this in Google+. The dates have been moved around, but I had always planned to go. I had never been to or seen the Transformer Gallery. I didn't know what to expect because I didn't fully understand the synopsis for the exhibit. It was a complete surprise for me. That was all part of the fun.
My mom and I went after school on a the Friday after its opening. I was wearing my new leather jacket, one I was really pumped to have gotten. The wind was whipping my hair around my face, tangling it terribly in the process. We turned the corner and arrived at the Transformer Gallery. It was a small building, wedged between to other, bigger buildings. A large window on the building's face allowed a good look on the inside- shelved with raw machinery and cassette tapes. I pulled open the doors and a bell chimed, my mother walking in after me. I was surprised to see a loft, presumably where the office was. The space in itself was tiny. There was only room for one piece of work, in this case, the sculpture. The woman there shouted out a greeting to us as we entered.
“Hey! Just play the tapes- press the buttons with the blue tape on them. Just ask if you have any questions!” She said before returning to her work.
“Thanks.” Was our mumbled reply as we approached the sculpture. I remembered cassette tapes from when I was a toddler, specifically a cinderella one I used to listen to frequently.
I went to turn on the first one, sound filling the silent space as we did.
“Should we turn them on at the same time or…?” My mom asked, hovering over the next tape.
“Oh yeah, I’d turn them all on at the same time.” The woman said, a smile in her voice.
“Okay.” I said, quickly moving to the next tape opposite my mom. As we pressed play at the same time, I listened to the concoction of sounds and voices and music that quickly filled the room. I laughed with my mom at the funny sounds we were hearing.
Some tapes needed to be turned over, though. I, being a kid from the “advanced digital-age”, had no idea. It definitely was harder for me to work the machine than my mom. When all of the tapes were playing, we stood back and took in the sounds.
“...34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50…” sang one man on a tape. My mom and I erupted with laughter, thinking to ourselves that this was such a weird thing to put with music. It had a certain flow to it, though.
Sometime during our spectatorship a man entered. We all went back to the machine, turning over tapes that had stopped. It got easier to work the machine/sculpture as I went. I bobbed my head to the music subconsciously a smile on my mother’s face as well. I still don’t know much about the artists and musicians that put this together, but I do know how damn cool it was. Thanks for suggesting it.
