Sonic inhabitation of Silo #5
Silophone is a sonic occupation of Silo #5, an abandoned grain elevator in Montreal. Changes in the global grain market in the late twentieth century left the elevator redundant; it was shut down in 1994. The building is situated in one of Montreal’s oldest industrial districts, now rapidly being gentrified and renovated for high-tech commerial and luxury residential uses. The Silophone project is an intervention into this urban condition.

[The User] has transformed Silo #5 into a musical instrument by installing microphones and loudspeakers inside four of the elevator’s empty grain storage chambers, making them accessible to the outside world via internet (www.silophone.net), telephone (+1.514.844.5555), and the “Sonic observatory,” a permanent public sound installation located near the site in Montréal. These three elements of the Silophone public instrument have been active continuously since 2000 and have been accessed by hundreds of thousands of individual participants from around the world. In addition, a series of punctual interventions took place in galleries and performance spaces in North America and Europe between 2000 and 2003. Original works using the Silophone instrument were commissioned from twenty-five sound artists and musicians. Audio recordings of these works are available at Reservoir, Silophone’s online archive.

For more information and to hear and play the Silophone, visit silophone.net, the project’s website.