Play Me, I’m Yours: Reclaiming Public Space
What the London Symphony Orchestra has to do with skate parks and the Sydney homeless.
You may recall UK artist Luke Jerram and his brilliant glass microbiology from our Biology-Inspired Art issue. But besides exploring the beautiful intersection of science and art, some of his work transcends aesthetic art, entering into social experiment and anthropology.
Play Me, I’m Yours is a fascinating project, touring the globe since March 2008 and placing street pianos in locations all over the world. From train stations to laundromats to skate parks, the pianos emerge in public spaces, inviting the community to engage and interact with them in a way that creates a playful and vibrant canvas for grassroots cultural self-expression.
Questioning the ownership and rules of public space ‘Play Me I’m Yours’ is a provocation, inviting the public to engage with, activate and take ownership of their urban environment.
Since its launch, the project has received wide media attention from NPR, The New York Times, BBC, and a myriad other culture-purveyors. And the 112 pianos installed so far have been played by anyone from school children in Sao Paolo to the London Symphony Orchestra.
Next year, Play Me, I’m Yours is hitting London, Belfast, Barcelona, Pécs, Cincinnati, San Jose, Medellin, Cartagena, Bogatoa and 17 more cities.
The project is a much better-conceived and more ambitious analogy to Volkswagen’s recent Fun Theory effort, which tests the simple hypothesis that giving people something fun to do will change their behavior and their relationship with public space.
Explore Play Me, I’m Yours and more of Luke’s amazing work for a glimpse of art’s transformative power in human behavior and sociology.
Psst, we’ve launched a fancy weekly newsletter. It comes out on Sundays, offers the week’s articles, and features five more tasty bites of web-wide interestingness. Here’s an example. Like? Sign up.
- Reclaiming Urban Landscape | Part 4 The most influential guerrilla and street art that liberates our urban landscape from the gray grip of blandness and makes a social statement in the process. ...
- Reclaiming Urban Landscape | Part 1 The best green touches to urban landscape -- ideas that bring a much-needed shot of green into our bucket of city gray. ...
- Reclaiming Urban Landscape | Part 2 Graffiti artwork, once the mark of a city's counter-culture, has come dangerously close to becoming an expected cultural cliché. Some of it, however, breaks convention in the most unexpected and stride-stopping of ways: here are our top 5 picks. ...
- Reclaiming Urban Landscape | Part 3 One of the greatest challenges of city life is navigating the cultural clutter. Here are 5 ways to find the best of what's out there with minimal effort. ...
- Far Out: The Real Space Odyssey Fascinating and viscerally gripping anthology featuring hundreds of remarkable images from observatories around the world and in space, telling the story of time and space in a way that intrigues, illuminates, and inspires...
Play Me, I’m Yours–global art project installs street pianos to challenge relationship w/ public space http://ow.ly/zase (via @brainpicker )
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RT @brainpicker: Play Me, I’m Yours– global art project installs street pianos to challenge relationship with public space http://ow.ly/zase
This comment was originally posted on Twitter
RT @brainpicker Play Me, I’m Yours– global art project installs street pianos to challenge relationship with public space http://ow.ly/zase
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Love this… Come to Boston! Note to self: Must learn to play piano. Fast. http://ow.ly/zase
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Play Me, I’m Yours: Global art project installs street pianos to challenge relationship with public space – http://bit.ly/2QcSyx
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RT @redstarvip: Play Me, I’m Yours: Global art project installs street pianos to challenge relationship w/ public space http://bit.ly/2QcSyx
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I love this – Play Me, I’m Yours: Global art project installs street pianos http://bit.ly/2QcSyx (via @redstarvip)
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RT @brainpicker: Play Me, I’m Yours– global art project installs street pianos to challenge relationship with public space http://ow.ly/zase
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I love it when #music #art and #socialgood come together: http://bit.ly/3OhAEz
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Play me, I’m yours
http://bit.ly/3OhAEz
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Encore! RT @brainpicker: Global art project installs street pianos to challenge rltnshp w public space http://ow.ly/zase
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Na Inglaterra: pianos em locais públicos – toca quem quer http://ow.ly/zh9x
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@amycarolwolff RT: I love it when #music #art and #socialgood come together: http://bit.ly/3OhAEz
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Play Me, I’m Yours: Reclaiming Public Space http://bit.ly/4g2YCM
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Any good at playing piano? http://bit.ly/G9up6 Not sure it’s ‘art’ but it’s still cool.
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http://bit.ly/2QcSyx another example of the presence of art making people happier! Simple concept!
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Play me, I’m yours! This is real engagement. I want this in my city. http://ow.ly/zy5n
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Pianos emerge in public spaces, inviting the community to engage & interact! http://bit.ly/1DCOv9 #art #inspiring
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‘Play Me I’m Yours’ global public art project puts pianos in 17 cities http://tr.im/EfoY to encourage cultural expression.
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[...] http://thejailbreak.com 03. http://www.muji.net/mt/naruhodo/newitem/ ????? 04. http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2009/11/04/luke-jerram-play-me-im-yours/ ??????????? 05. [...]
RT @redstarvip Play Me, I’m Yours~Global art project installs street pianos to challenge relationship with public space http://bit.ly/2QcSyx
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@brainpicker’s latest jam-packed newsletter http://bit.ly/1XRFXb & my fave story – street pianos… http://bit.ly/2TInnm
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we could all be street musicians- http://bit.ly/3OhAEz
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So important to live life & have fun. Changing your environment changes your behaviors. Check out this FUN project: http://icio.us/br3sd5
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