In the same way that you can pin a location to a google map, there are apps that allow you to pin audio files to create a “sound map”. Using the app you can follow this map on your phone and walk to different pins. Once you are in range, the audio file will play on your phone. For this piece, the pins will be sections of a narrative that can be gradually experienced as you walk from place to place.
Vacant Lots is two stories…and yet one story. On the East side of Woodward, the sound map will be based on a novel about middle-schoolers growing up in North End in the 1950's written by literary icon Bill Harris, with score by Detroit Jazz legend Marian Hayden.
On the West side of Woodward, in the Piety Hill neighborhood, a similar sound map will be set by high-schoolers (Arise Rock and Kaleb Bowdre) who live in the neighborhood. While the pieces will be divided by geography (the East / West), and generation, both will explore life in a place through the eyes of a young person.
