Alana Bartol/Emily Linn

Intersections: A Collection of Street Sounds
Sound Installation
2007
(Located in building entranceway)

A city that once thrived on the auto industry, Detroit has and continues to face many socio-economic issues tied to transportation and suburban sprawl. Woodward stretches 27 miles, from downtown Detroit through the suburbs of Highland Park, Ferndale, Pleasant Ridge, Royal Oak, Huntington Woods, Berkley, Birmingham, Bloomfield Hills, Bloomfield Township and Pontiac. Similarly, Mack Ave and Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd stretch out from the heart of the city to its suburbs. For this sound installation we recorded street-level sounds at intersections along Woodward, Mack, and MLK during rush hour. We began recording at the point where the three streets intersect and moved outwards, mirroring the commute many suburbanites drive each day.

Rarely do we stop and focus on the street sounds to which we have become so inured. As you listen to this piece, it is our hope that you will reflect on the many cultural, social, and economic shifts that occur between Detroit and its suburbs, and the dominance of human technology and machinery in our urban environment.

Alana Bartol was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia but has spent most of her life in Windsor, Ontario. She completed a BFA in Visual Arts from the University of Windsor in 2004 and is currently completing her MFA in Sculpture at Wayne State University where she taught Special topics in Sculpture: Performance Art. Her work sensitizes the viewer to the natural and the artificial constructs of North American culture and society. She has developed several collaborative, community-building projects such as The Detroit-Windsor Journal Project; that illuminate the potential for transformation and positive change through co-operation and understanding.


Emily Linn was born in Detroit, MI, where she currently resides. She received a BFA in photography and a BA in Arts and Ideas in the Humanities from the University of Michigan in 2000. She recently completed an MFA in photography from Wayne State University. She works in the Education Studio at the Detroit Institute of Arts. Her work explores aspects of memory through photography, video and installation. She and Alana Bartol have collaborated on several projects together.