海角大神

Leah Hennessy steps into a telephone booth in the center of the Music Box Village, a permanent outdoor arts exhibition, and lifts the receiver. There鈥檚 no dial tone. The booth is an unusual musical instrument, one of the many exhibits that Ms. Hennessy oversees as the venue鈥檚 lead creative producer. When she sings 鈥淵ou Are My Sunshine鈥� into the mouthpiece, a horn-shaped speaker on top of the booth broadcasts her voice. The horn starts to rotate like a weather vane in a gale. In a nifty effect, it distorts Ms. Hennessy鈥檚 voice so that it warbles like a gramophone record.

If inventor Rube Goldberg were to transform a junkyard into musical architecture, it might resemble the Music Box Village. By day, it is an interactive playground for tourists. By night, it鈥檚 a live music venue for exploratory musicians. More than that, it鈥檚 a metaphor for the extraordinary revitalization of New Orleans. On the eve of its 10th anniversary next month, the community center is a testament to the artists who had a vision of creating something beautiful from the detritus left by Hurricane Katrina 鈥� a physical representation of perseverance.聽

鈥淚t鈥檚 become one of the cultural institutions that I would say is on your must-see list,鈥� says Doug MacCash, features writer for The Times-Picayune/The New Orleans Advocate. 鈥淭he Music Box was literally built out of the ruins. The clapboards, and the salvaged materials, and all the found objects that went into those little structures were very familiar to us. Those were the sorts of things that were piled on the curbs from the damage.鈥�

鈥淲e鈥檙e going to come back鈥�

The Music Box Village sits next to train tracks on the industrial edge of New Orleans鈥� Bywater neighborhood. The village walls, a patchwork of corrugated iron strips, give it the outward appearance of a fortress straight out of 鈥淢ad Max.鈥� Today, Delaney Martin 鈥� co-founder and artistic director of New Orleans Airlift, the parent nonprofit organization of the Music Box Village 鈥� sits outside with her drowsy baby while Ms. Hennessy demonstrates a nearby installation. She tugs on ropes that make ceiling fan-like blades and tubes spin around to generate tranquil drone sounds. Ms. Martin鈥檚 baby doesn鈥檛 stir.

The once-nomadic Music Box installation settled in this permanent location three years ago. But its genesis dates back to the aftermath of Katrina.聽

鈥淚t was a very depressing era when there were people still stranded out of town and a lot of the old familiar sites and neighborhoods were still ruined,鈥� recalls Mr. MacCash. 鈥淭here鈥檚 a couple of wonderful things about the Music Box, and one of them was there was a great spirit of 鈥榳e鈥檙e going to come back.鈥� There was a spirit of defiance.鈥澛�

Airlift co-founders Jay Pennington and Ms. Martin wanted to draw audiences to the desiccated city by transforming a dilapidated Creole cottage into an artist gallery and performance space. Mr. Pennington invited the renowned New York-based mixed-media artist known as Swoon to revamp the house.聽

The result was an ambitious concept: Transform the house into musical architecture that musicians could play. Their idea may have been sound, but the building鈥檚 structure wasn鈥檛. It collapsed. Swoon鈥檚 ambitious design for a replacement house was deemed too expensive. Despite the setbacks, Ms. Martin envisioned an opportunity to invite 25 local artists to create small-scale variants of the musical architecture idea.

Melissa Stryker/Courtesy of The Music Box Village/File

Theris Valdery, of the Black Feather Mardi Gras Indian Tribe, performs at the original Music Box in 2011.

鈥淚 had this vision of a shantytown sound laboratory,鈥� says Ms. Martin. 鈥淲e had all this wood from the falling-down Creole cottage and I said, 鈥極K we have this raw material. Let鈥檚 all get together and we鈥檒l build tiny little houses that don鈥檛 cost a lot of money.鈥欌��

Some of the original installations survive in the Music Box Village. Some travel as mobile installations to other cities. No installation is alike. Inside a wooden cabin, loose floorboards trigger electronic sounds. A metallic gazebo features an array of levers that blast compressed air through brass-band horns welded into the structure鈥檚 exoskeleton. Up in a treehouse-like 鈥渄rum kitchen,鈥� percussion instruments are fashioned from pots, pans, and, well, everything including the sink.

Building communities

The Music Box Village constructed a replica of its quirky phone booth for Orl茅ans, the French twin sister town of New Orleans. It鈥檚 all part of Airlift鈥檚 mission to foster connection between communities, both local and abroad.聽

Its latest installation, 鈥淓levator Pitch,鈥� arose from a 2019 partnership with the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center as part of their Year of Music. Co-designed by sound artist Christine Sun Kim, who is deaf, the exhibit consists of a grounded elevator in which the buttons inside next to the doors trigger shouts recorded by 13 deaf people. The vibrations approximate how deaf people experience sound.聽

There鈥檚 no central stage, so up to 1,000 attendees can enjoy close proximity to local performers or even notable guests such as Solange Knowles, Peaches, Norah Jones, and Sonic Youth鈥檚 Thurston Moore. Performers are encouraged to incorporate the installations into their music.聽

Ms. Hennessy excitedly recalls how the adventurous indie rock band Animal Collective utilized many of these instruments to create new music during a memorable 2018 show.

The Music Box Village also hosts local performers as part of its mission to connect New Orleans artists. Last year, it hosted an ambitious performance by New Orleans composer Tucker Fuller, the Polymnia Quartet, and students of the Homer A. Plessy Community School. Mr. Tucker鈥檚 composition, 鈥淥de to NOLA: A Musical Collage,鈥� utilized boxes in the village to create musical motifs that represented the mood and feel of each of the city鈥檚 neighborhoods. Fifth and sixth grade students had to follow a conductor to know when to play the musical sculptures.

鈥淭he preliminary visit [to the village] was an entire field trip for the whole school,鈥� says Kate Withrow, a violinist in the Polymnia Quartet, who also teaches strings at the school. 鈥淭he students could just come in and tinker on the instruments to get a feel for them before we even started on the composition. [The Music Box Village] philosophy in terms of making these instruments available to students all over the city is very apparent.鈥�

The Music Box Village has an ambitious wish list for the future, including the addition of recording facilities, Dolby surround sound, and an upper level accessible via the elevator.聽

鈥淲e鈥檙e hoping that we are doing something slightly new in music,鈥� says Ms. Martin. 鈥淥n a history-of-music level, the kind of spatial phonics that happen and the way we see people at our concerts and the way the music is happening all around you, we鈥檇 like to think that we are contributing something to the way music is experienced and heard.鈥�

Editor鈥檚 note: This story has been updated to correct Leah Hennessy鈥檚聽title in the photo caption, and to clarify the design process with Swoon and how visiting musicians interact with the venue.