By: Jason Lahman for CODAworx
Traversing the Path of Subtle Sound and Deep Color
In mythologies the world over, the rainbow is a bridge or causeway between different dimensions; nature’s great prismatic arc becomes a link between the mundane and the ethereal. Artist, architect, and composer Christopher Janney has spent many years plumbing the seemingly endless possibilities of this incredibly fecund phenomenon. Trained as an architect and musician at Princeton and MIT, Janney creates works of art that can best be described as interactive spaces where patterns of changing sound and color stimulate the imagination.
[photo credit: ©PhenomenArts, Inc.]
“Goethe is credited with saying that architecture is frozen music. This is more than just an analogy for me – it is very real and very much based in a physical experience. I like the idea of creating deliberate situations where people can experience multiple senses harmonized in a new way.”
![“Passing Light,” San Antonio Airport [photo credit: ©PhenomenArts, Inc.]](https://www.codaworx.com/news/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/passing-light-600x336.png)
[photo credit: ©PhenomenArts, Inc.]
The Power of “Urban Musical Instruments”
[photo credit: ©PhenomenArts, Inc.]
“Everywhere is the Best Seat”
[photo credit: Alexandra Pais/for The Star-Ledger]
Named for the John Cage quote mentioned above, “Everywhere is the Best Seat”, is Janney’s reinvention in a WPA amphitheater, turning it into an environmental musical instrument: each level contains a series of columns that play different rhythms at the touch of a hand. “In these works, I control the melody and harmony, but the public generates the rhythmic content by how and when they trigger any of the elements. This encourages endless experimentation and sonic permutations.”
[photo credit: ©PhenomenArts, Inc.]
[photo credit: ©PhenomenArts, Inc.]
This kind of interactive work can also be a catalyst for education; these instruments can function as a laboratory. That belief is evident in Janney’s large wall work created for the MLK School in Cambridge, MA. Using his signature techniques of composing with percussion and sampled sounds from nature and programming these musical elements to respond to human movements, “Light Shadow: MLK” acts as a kind of magical wall of sound. The piece is triggered by bodies moving past its glimmering sensors. “Christopher has made a work of art that responds to whole-body engagement… prompting a sense of wonder and delight for all ages,” says Lillian Hsu, Director of Public Art and Exhibitions for the school district.
Playfulness, a sense of wholeness and integration of sensorial phenomena, all work together to bring a sense of sheer joy. The word “school” is derived from the Greek word for leisure, a place of instruction apart from labor. These pieces partake in this multilayered etymology – learning, playing, enjoying together through the spontaneity of sound.
Dream Forests, Harmonic Riddles, Colored Glass Canopies

[photo credit: ©PhenomenArts, Inc.]
Along with encouraging creative play in social spaces and soothing the weary traveler, Janney’s large collaborative pieces are also about enchantment and mystery. By night, works like “Sonic Forest” become luminous realms where people can control magical effects as in a lucid dream – brilliant light shows and weaving music through their bodily movements. “Sonic Forest” has been a fan favorite at major music festivals including Lincoln Center, Bonnaroo, Coachella, ULTRA in the USA to Hyde Park Calling, Glastonbury and the London Olympics in the UK. Most recently, CREOS has signed on to include “Sonic Forest On Tour” as one of its principle artworks for upcoming city festivals worldwide.
In “Touch my Building” entire structures become like the legendary sphinx asking those passing by to solve a riddle. There are variations on this work, which is site-specific, but each incarnation of “Touch my Building” has as its goal to challenge people to physically, intellectually and emotionally engage with the facade. For those willing to spend some time with the musical refrains, sound collages and even the recitation of poems that are the hallmarks of “Touch my Building,” a deeper world of music and meaning unfolds. The riddles posed, once solved, release new musical combinations or pairings of colorful lights and sounds. Here architecture, musical instruments and synesthesia collapse into one total work, a Gesamtkunstwerk, of interactive art.

[photo credit: ©PhenomenArts, Inc.]
Janney’s latest chromatic creation is a 4,000 square foot glass canopy of transparent green and blue glass, which incorporates his signature sound concepts via 24 speakers connected to hand-shaped sensors. Janney has a long relationship with children’s hospitals for which he has designed a number of installations including two “Soundstair” installations, one for St. Jude’s in Memphis and one in Boston. “Seeing the effect that this can have on the children’s deep emotional impact is quite moving. I have seen children at the top of the “Soundstair,” in tears and then laughing in delight by the time they get to the bottom.”
A devotion to the transformational work of public art via sound, form, and color is central for everything Janney makes. As the CBS This Morning journalist Martha Teichner remarked, “He seeks to transform a place into a moment, a form into a feeling as if it is alive. Like some sleeping soul, it will wait for someone to come along and awaken it.”
![“Harmonic Grove”, Our Lady of the Lake Children’s Hospital [photo credit: ©PhenomenArts, Inc.]](https://www.codaworx.com/news/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Canopy3-600x450.jpg)
[photo credit: ©PhenomenArts, Inc.]