Listened To A Wave Chime
September 02, 2011 Filed in: San Francisco
"The world is full of poetry. The air is living with its spirit; and the waves dance to the music of its melodies, and sparkle in its brightness."
--James Gates Percival
Today during lunch, I visited the Wave Organ, an acoustic sculpture built in 1986. It's a series of concrete tubes that emanate sounds coming from San Francisco Bay. It was a collaboration between Peter Richards, an Exploratorium artist, and George Gonzales, an artist and stone mason. The piece was dedicated to Frank Oppenheimer, the man who not only funded the project but also founded the Exploratorium.
After a little lunch time CrossFit, a few of my friends and I headed out to a little jetty just east of Crissy Field. It starts north of the Palace of Fine Arts where you'll find the Golden Gate Yacht Club. There's a section of parking only club members can park in, but we parked just outside that area.
We walked from the lot, along the water and the boats, and past the yacht club. At the very end of the jetty, we finally found the sculpture.
You could sit next to the individual pipes and just listen for a while. The 25 pipes that make up the wave organ are made out of PVC and concrete. The sound created when the waves hit the pipe ends is actually pretty calming.
Some pipes are closer to the waves than others. These two were right near the edge of the jetty.
The view from the wave organ is really nice. The area is surrounded by water and across from the spot is a clear view of the downtown skyline.
This was a pretty cool experience. It was neat to hear the sloshing of the water in the organ pipes and the artistic arrangement around that area of land was unique and impressive. It's so cool when art, nature and science meld together in a spot that showcases the beauty of this city.
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