Architect and composer Christopher Janney in the MSU amphitheater (photo: Montclair State University/Mike Peters).

When visiting Montclair State, Christopher Janney discovered a beautiful stone amphitheater that dates from the WPA in 1936. For Janney, the site reverberates with early 20th-century history, while at the same time evoking the form of the original performing arts centers, the ancient Greek theaters. The handsome stone of the amphitheater also reminded Janney of a quote from the late contemporary composer, John Cage: “Everything you do is music/And everywhere is the best seat,” thus giving the MSU installation its name.

The John Cage quote is a perfect reference for Janney, who turns architecture into music with his interactive installations. In the case of Montclair, every seat in the amphitheater is indeed the “best” one, as people can sit wherever they want and create a personal experience as they interact with the full color, changing LEDs and small loudspeakers tucked into the 36 bold, bright red, aluminum and PVC columns that stand like soldiers in straight rows and pop visually against their natural stone environment.

The movement of people among the rows of columns triggers the lights and rhythmic sound patterns—composed by Janney—creating an urban oasis where the sounds wash over the listener. There also are sounds that play on their own, inviting people to investigate what is going on (Janney designed hand prints on the columns to indicate “please touch me”). As more and more people get involved, they create a denser sound field that echoes the density of their movement.

Putting on his musician’s cap, Janney became intrigued by the possibility of live performance as well, flipping the sense of the installation with music flowing back toward the seats. On September 11, Janney and his frequent collaborator Stan Strickland join with vocalists Dave Revels and Jimmy Hayes of The Persuasions in a free concert entitled Disembodied Instruments, performed on the stage of the amphitheater.

Everywhere Is the Best Seat is the spiritual successor to Sonic Forest, one of Janney’s most popular large-scale, site-specific, interactive installations. As an architect, musician, composer, and alchemist of the arts, Janney began developing the idea for Sonic Forest in 1991, pulling together elements from his various areas of expertise to transform underpopulated urban plazas or open fields into lively spaces where people could share an interesting aural and visual experience. The first Sonic Forest premiered at the Three Rivers Arts Festival in 1995, and over the past 15 years various versions—both permanent and temporary—have reappeared around the world, one of the most successful venues being the Bonnaroo Music Festival in Tennessee where people practically worshipped at Janney’s shrine. With a series of 8′-tall towers outfitted with lights, loudspeakers, and photosensors, Sonic Forest can be set up in a circle—like a modern-day Stonehenge—or any desired configuration that fits the site, making this installation both portable and flexible, redefining the concept of site-specific work.

Everywhere Is the Best Seat gave Janney the opportunity to update technical elements used in Sonic Forest. The variables that differentiate Everywhere Is the Best Seat and Sonic Forest from Janney’s other major site-specific projects include portability, touring capability, shorter installation time, and the pure joy of the spatial sound moving through the air. The shape of the installation is dictated by the essence of the space, just as MSU’s stone amphitheater put its architectural imprint on Everywhere Is the Best Seat. Future iterations remain to be disovered, for at the end of November when the installation leaves Montclair, the 36 high-tech towers will be divided into two groups of 18, forming two new options that can leapfrog their way around the world, adding Janney’s interactive magic to multiple landscapes.

Ellen Lampert-Gréaux is consulting editor and conference director for Live Design/LDI. She writes regularly about performing arts and architecture, including the 14 project descriptions in the book Architecture of the Air: The Sound and Light Environments of Christopher Janney.