Making a Rumble in my Hometown at Blink 2019

RUMBLE: A CONTEMPORARY VOICE FOR THE BRIDGE THAT SINGS

For BLINK Cincinnati, I created a musical score, lighting score, and technical language to bring the Roebling Bridge (aka “the singing bridge”) to life for four nights in October 2019 with Masary Studios, Brave Berlin and Vincent Lighting Systems. Here’s a peak into the process!

STEP ONE: Sample elements of the bridge itself. As Cincinnati native, I was thrilled to cruise my old stomping ground with Ryan Edwards and Sam Okerstrom-Lang. The Roebling provided an array of sounds, and the scootering was top notch.

STEP TWO: Connect with the team: we worked with visionaries Brave Berlin, lighting specialist Vincent Lightning Systems, and presenter Cincinnati Regional Chamber. They were all AMAZING people. Since we were working satellite, Skype for Business has been an integral tool for group calls and screen shares!

STEP THREE: Study the bridge, history, and story. Did you know the Roebling was a proto-type to the Brooklyn bridge? I loved the connection between John A. Roebling pushing limits, and our attempt to push the limits of our process. Once properly educated and inspired, create a project abstract: Bridges are a consistent marvel of architecture. A bridge represents what is no longer the edge, where travel and ideas formerly stopped, but now have a path. A visualization of this progress, Cincinnati’s Roebling Bridge sings as it suspends over the Ohio River connecting two banks, two cities, and two states.

STEP FOUR: Create a MIDI language, hacking Ableton Live, to enable music and light score to work hand in hand. We became hackers! Using Ableton Live, we created a system of MIDI commands, through using the MIDI notes themselves (think typical musical language - A, A#, B, C, C#, D … etc), velocity indicators to speak to RGB values (R=red, B=blue, G=green), and all 16 MIDI channels (there are over 500 lights on the bridge, so the MIDI map is huge and we had to be very careful when assigning!) to speak directly to the lighting board software. Vincent Lighting Systems reps were in close conversation, and as excited to hack and create a new system for creativity.

STEP FIVE: WRITE WRITE WRITE! (then listen and reflect, throw half of the writing out, and start again…) I wrote 3 new pieces and a 15 minute ambient track using the samples from the bridge, beautiful recordings of the Cincinnati Boychoir (thanks Jason Alexander) and other contemporary elements. The light score was totally synchronized with the music - and I had a black choosing colors and sections of activation with a goal to marry the sound with the architecture. The vibe of the experience moved through various genres - rock, classical, space 80’s, glitch, and more - because we believed that the Roebling has a lot to say. The last month before the fest consisted of bouncing our files back and fourth between the lighting company to assure connectivity and MIDI code translation.

“Rumble - A Contemporary Voice for the Bridge That Sings”
Commissioned by Blink Cincinnati 2019, produced by Brave Berlin and Masary Studios

The John A. Roebling Bridge Cincinnati, OH & Covington, KY
Music and Light Score: Ryan Edwards & Maria Finkelmeier
Project Manager: Maria Finkelmeier
Technical Direction: Ryan Edwards
Lighting Engineers: Vincent Lighting Systems
In collaboration with: Brave Berlin
Photos: Aram Boghosian