sound cave

Last night I went traipsing through the Mission in the still-warm twilight down to Million Fishes for the opening of Tyson Ayers's wonderful Sound Cave installation.  Ayers has constructed a small room out of piano parts so that all four walls and ceiling, inside and out, have exposed piano wires that visitors are encouraged to pluck with their fingers or strike with loose piano keys.  One young boy was having a lot of fun swinging a mallet at one of the outside walls, though he was reluctant to crawl inside the cave proper.  I had no such qualms myself and spent some quality time cocooned inside, just listening.  The near-dark interior space is equipped with microphones and a speaker, but it was unclear to me if the tones I was hearing were pre-recorded or some real-time remix of everyone's interactions with the piece.  Though not always harmonious the music did seem to adhere to some rhyme and reason; I am fully willing to accept, however, that I might have been projecting structure where there was none.  In any case, it was beautiful in there and a fine place to spend a few moments of introspection.  And then I stopped at Humphry Slocombe on the way back to BART for a cone of Secret Breakfast ice cream, which I ate on the curb while watching the light slowly leave the sky above me.  I adore summer nights, as few and far between as they are around these here parts.