Want to feel like a child again?

Come and see one of the newest features along the Connective Corridor, the re-designed Syracuse Stage plaza, on Saturday, Sept. 29, at noon during a special celebration as part of Syracuse Stage’s Open House.

Timothy Bond, Syracuse Stage producing artistic director, and Linda   Dickerson Hartsock, director of community engagement and development for Syracuse University, will dedicate the new plaza, with a demonstration of a new soundscape for the 40 motion-activated, soundscape bricks.

The plaza features the “singing sidewalk” and eight innovative, high-intensity illuminated panels. The project came to life through the work of a creative team including SenSyr, LLC, the company of Syracuse University physics professor Ed Lipson; Paul Gelling, SenSyr partner and chief engineer;  Joe Sisko, assistant director of UPSTATE  in SU’s School of Architecture; and Jeffrey Woodward, managing director of Syracuse Stage.

The red-colored, “singing” pavers, an extension of SenSyr’s prior work with custom pressure sensors, were a technical challenge given the thermal-expansion variations in a four-season environment.  The LED panels contain electromagnetic sensing technology, much like radar, and are programmable for color variations based on motion-sensing, all based on coding developed by Gelling, who also designed and implemented the electronics.

“The new plaza is a wonderful and welcoming addition to the Syracuse Stage/SU Drama complex and the East Genesee neighborhood,” says Woodward. “Every day, I see families, people from the neighborhood, students and our patrons playing on the plaza with the interactive pavers and screens.  It’s great fun.”

Besides funding the deployment of these technologies, the Connective Corridor also supported “performance art” audio programming for the singing sidewalk, orchestrated by Emmett Van Slyke, a producer/composer/musician, and owner of Black Lagoon Productions.

“I approach each sound set for this project with the intention of creating a smooth transition from the concrete day to day world of everyday life, to the metaphysical escape of the theatre experience,” says Van Slyke. “As they enter the plaza, the audience triggers sounds that enhance their theatrical experience, and upon leaving the show they are smoothly transitioned back into the world they briefly left.”

Saturday’s plaza celebration will feature a new paver composition entitled “Encounters with the White Whale.”  Syracuse University students will perform in conjunction with a new original composition by Van Slyke which begins with the sounds of a port as a ship is leaving, with calm seas and the eerie drone of a whale song in the distance.  As the piece continues, a storm blows in and in its ferocity, the ship is destroyed with the survivors washed up on the shore, and awakened by the sound of surf and seagulls.  The composition concludes with the taunting and playful sound of the whale song off in the distance.

The composition, created especially for the plaza opening celebration, uses every effect in a new soundscape, created in conjunction with “Moby Dick,” which launches Syracuse Stage’s 40th season.

The new soundscape includes sounds such as whale songs, along with wind, waves, rain, thunder, seagulls and surf, ship bells and other nautical sounds.

Joe Sisko, assistant director of UPSTATE:  A Center for Design Research and Real Estate, was the project designer — creating the vision for the elements that came together to create this unique new public space.  He notes, “The plaza’s interactive system has been designed to be malleable—to accommodate change in the future, an invitation of sorts to students and faculty to propose new and different ways to use the technology. We want to encourage people to participate in its ongoing development.”

The Connective Corridor is designed to be an interactive experience that is also a testbed for new technologies.  The plaza’s interactive system is a perfect example.  It is designed to be a pilot for the demonstration of advanced technologies, along with dynamic interactive public art installations.

Syracuse Stage’s open house is from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on September 29 and includes tours, refreshments and free performances. Find the schedule at:  www.syracusestage.org