Playback
- Location: Purchase campus of New York State University, NY (2001)
- Funded by: Biennial Exhibition of Public Art, Neuberger Museum
- Fabrication: Scott Tiede
- Sound Artist: Siobahn Rigg
- Size: 130′ x 70”
Playback is a public art installation that evokes the memory of a tennis court dating back to the original Chisholm Estate upon which the main campus of the State University of New York was built. The court was long ago abandoned and has since become overgrown. The site of the tennis court is almost hidden by trees and an old chainlink fence, but the original playing surface has kept the court mostly open and discernible. The artists redrew outlines of the court with white nylon strapping elevated above the ground to make an apparition of the old court.
Sounds and Space
A recording of a tennis game with popping balls, shuffling feet, muffled voices and periodic pings of a ball hitting a chain link fence recreates the site’s past. The sounds coming from many hidden speakers spatially recreate the game in the court. The installation simultaneously exists in the past and present.