Bird Calls, 2002: audio installation on the industrial banks of LA River
media: audio tour on compact disk, CD player and headphones, viewing booth with binoculars, concrete doves, pamphlets, petition
exhibitions: River Alchemy, Arroyo Arts installation event - 2002

Bird Calls is an interactive audio installation set on the paved banks of the Los Angeles River. Equipped with headphones and binoculars, viewers can observe the highly evolved concrete dove as they listen to an auditory guide about the rare bird. Since the paving of the LA River to alleviate flooding within the city, environmentalists and naturalists have raised concerns about the lost habitat for birds along the river. What they did not anticipate was the inception of a new, rare dove whose cellular structure has taken on the rigid properties of concrete. The artist’s investigation reveals a nationwide effort to support the preservation of the concrete habitat and the continued conversion of green to gray land.