This week, one of my assignments was to head to the Bronx to check out the Tree Museum, a public art project by Katie Holten. By name only, this sounds like it actually might be kind of interesting. I visited the Bronx Botanical Gardens last summer (2008) and I was thoroughly impressed. Everyone should go check it out. However, when I checked out the website, my hopefulness began to wane. Seriously. Rather than go into a terribly long discussion about what I didn’t like, I’ll just mention the two areas that disappointed me the most and will probably keep me from checking out more of this tree tour.
Disappointment #1: The first thing I was disappointed with was The Bronx. Well, I’m sort of scared of the Bronx. I mean, say what you will about gentrification, but what you don’t say is unsafe. I guess I prefer prefer strollers and soccer moms to whatever it is that goes on in the Bronx that keeps most people from visiting every weekend. So, I was a bit hesitant about checking it out. Also, the tour seemed to be about 70 blocks long and it just seemed like a bad idea for someone to go wandering around an unfamiliar neighborhood with no particular destination in mind, except to walk the length of the Bronx and look at semi-random trees that most people in the surrounding neighborhoods didn’t really seem to take too much notice of. So, to be safe, I wanted to look up as much as possible as I could on the website before visiting, including calling the 718 (not toll-free) number and see what this thing was all about. Which leads me to…
Disappointment #2. Not only was the audio quality poor enough that I could barely comprehend the speaker’s voice while sitting in a semi-empty room on a Sunday afternoon, but they also let the artist herself speak. What you learn on the site is that Ms. Holten is Irish. I love accents, but “poor audio” + “funny accent” = “I don’t know what you’re talking about”.
I don’t want to sound like I’m picking on the Irish accent, but the audio quality was very poorly implemented. It seems as if they forgot that New York City is L-O-U-D. When I visited on Wednesday morning, I didn’t call the 718 number but it wouldn’t have mattered anyway. I got off the subway at the 135th St. stop in the Bronx. Right under a bridge. If I could barely hear inside a building, how would I possibly be able to hear anywhere in NYC outside and especially near a bridge? The street where the tour takes place is called “Grand Concourse”. It sounds like a major street, and I would expect that it’s probably always loud.
I don’t know if this walking museum idea was actually tested out before going through with the project, but my guess is no. I know that Fort Tryon Park is pretty darn quiet for anywhere in Manhattan. Seems like it would be a much better destination for outdoor listening of relatively good audio. And, there are definitely plenty of kids and strollers.