Scott Ordway

The Place of Life [working title]

Scott Ordway Music & Design LLC for Arnold Arboretum 

To celebrate the redesigned southeast entrance to the Arnold Arboretum, we propose a combination of performance and installation works which explore scale (replicating something ordinary at an extraordinary scale), surprise (finding something where you least expect it), and discovery (a sense of continual unfolding). Three installations address the central concerns of viewshed, organism, and collection.

I will collaborate with New England designer Erica Eliot, with whom I have worked closely since 2019, on the design, fabrication, and installation of physical sculptural elements.

As guests arrive, they walk at their own pace through an immersive choral performance in the Arboretum Road Underpass. Ideally, this would be a collaboration with one or more Harvard choirs.

Viewshed is a sound installation of indeterminate length which is performed by live musicians lining both sides of the tunnel. The composition is tailored to the acoustic properties of the Arboretum Road Underpass (see preliminary sketch at right).

To create the text for the work, I will adapt writing from two bodies of work. The first are naturalistic descriptions of public gardens and arboretums which I will select in collaboration with AA staff. The second are writings from diverse global faith traditions affirming the ancient, transcultural centrality of hospitality. These two sources interact to emphasize the importance of care for one another, for our public communities, and for the landscape.

As audiences move through the installation, they are offered a high-quality printed booklet of the choral texts and a brief elaboration on the themes of the complete installation. I will design and produce this booklet.

Upon exiting the tunnel, signage guides visitors to the next installation.

Proof of Concept: Watershed (2021) by Scott Ordway. Rutgers Gardens, New Brunswick, NJ

2: ORGANISM

In the second installation, visitors encounter a museum-style sculpture gallery in the middle of the forest.

The “gallery” consists of twelve installations ranging from small, shoebox-sized sculptures on pedestals to larger, floorstanding installations (3’ wide, 2’ deep, 3’ tall). Each piece is housed in a purpose-built wooden frame.

To create each piece, we will gather on-site materials (fallen branches, leaves, needles, cones, etc) to craft a series of highly-detailed, large-scale dioramas that illustrate and aestheticize the life cycle of a tree. Each vignette centers around an abstract recreation of a sapling coupled with evidence of other aspects of a tree’s life cycle: growth, decay, and seasonality.

To accompany the visual component of this installation, I will create a series of digital soundscape compositions based on field recordings made in the Arboretum (see below for an example of this type of work). These compositions will be available via streaming platforms and YouTube so that visitors can access them via their personal devices while viewing the sculptures.

Inspired by the ongoing work of the propagation team at the Arboretum, this multisensory installation highlights the importance of both early care as well as long, sustained care.

Proof of concept: sound installation and test sculptures by Scott Ordway and Erica Eliot.

3: COLLECTION

In the final installation, visitors enter a pine grove in which large numbers of wind chimes (most very small, some larger) are suspended high in the canopy. Interpretive signage explains that each chime represents a certain number of organisms in the collection. This uncommonly vast array of delicate chimes creates an immersive sensory experience in order to convey the scale of the Arboretum’s collections.

In this way, we hope to reveal the scale of the collections in such a way that it can be sensorially “taken in” from a single vantage point and through the unexpected medium of sound. We believe that this will convey the underlying information in a way which is emotionally resonant and conceptually clear.

In this final installation, which is the most subtle of the three, we invite visitors to pause and enjoy a beautiful moment in a place though which they may otherwise have passed unreflectively.

Proof of concept: The sonic characteristics of this installation are dependent on site-specific acoustics and weather conditions. For an approximation, though, I offer an excerpt from a previous composition featuring a large collection of wind chimes (also created in collaboration with Erica Eliot).

TIMELINE

June 2024: We will visit Arnold Arboretum to make field recordings during a season when the arboretum is most sonically vibrant. During this visit, we will work with staff to determine final installation locations.

Winter 2024/2025: Music composition, preliminary design and fabrication.

May 1–15 2025: On-site sculptural fabrication and installation; choral rehearsals and staging.

Late May 2025: Performance and installation opening.

BUDGET

Artist Fees

Choral Composition: $7,500
Installation 1: $3,750
Installation 2: $3,750

Materials

Choral Performance: $500 (printed scores for choir)
Booklet with texts and description: Print cost TBD
Installation 1: $500 (construction materials for frames and pedestals)
Installation 2: $2,500 (flexible depending on the quantity of chimes desired)

Travel

Two trips from Philadelphia to Boston (June 2024, May 2025)