The Front Yard

Located in Buffalo, NY, artist Brian Milbrand and architect Brad Wales envisioned the transformation of the Burchfield Penney Art Center’s exterior into a backdrop for audio and image, turning the traditional notion of a gallery inside out. They imagined art curated—created even—by the seasons, the weather, the passage of time. On October 18, this concept became reality as the Front Yard at the Center was unveiled.The sweeping curve of the Burchfield Penney exterior will become a projection surface, creating the world’s first permanent environmentally-responsive, outdoor audio and video environment. The Front Yard will turn the Center inside out both architecturally and socially. Installations are curated from image and sound art including new work created for this project, as well as from the Center’s collection.Using Max/MSP, artist Brian Milbrand with electrical engineer George Hampton and programmers Paul Visco, JT Rinker and John Bono designed an interface that will curate audio and video pieces based upon the weather data from a weather tower on the top of the Burchfield Penney. That weather data is also used to create audio and video using Max/MSP. Artists have created Max/MSP patches specifically for the installation, including John Toth's Time Interval, John Bono's Topia, JT Rinker's Tangents and Milbrand's Afterglow. Max/MSP acts as a bridge between the arduino based weather tower and the SQL database that media is selected from. Max also synchronizes the video and audio playback across 3 projectors and the 6.1 surround sound system.