‘If you’d like to….’ goes off-grid for THE PASEO!
It’s catching! The off-grid theme is making its way into everything we do!
One of our on-going projects is called “If you’d like to…” and now it’s on the move again! This time it’s coming to Taos, New Mexico for The Paseo art festival on Friday September 26th.
For its new off-grid incarnation, we’ve added a new solar component to the unit (see the little tri-winged solar panels?) and we’ve been crafting a new set of off-grid, Taos-based options for participants to choose from as well. Here it is stretching its new solar wings….and getting a test run by Claire’s husband, Chris. (Big shout out to Chris, who was instrumental in building the unit, it’s rolling platform and making the recent solar modification! Thank you!)
We are so honored to have been invited to participate in THE PASEO! It is a festival dedicated to bringing the art of installation, performance and projection to the streets of Taos, New Mexico in conjunction with the Taos Fall Arts festival (now in its 40th year).
You can read all about it here: http://www.paseotaos.org/
We are number 19 on this interactive map, though we will actually be a “roving installation”: http://livetaos.com/paseo-map
If you live nearby, please come for a stroll on The Paseo this Friday, September 26, 4 – 10 pm! Claire and family will see you there! (Anna will be cheering them on from Devon.)
DREAMING PLACE 
Good morning Claire, So glad you are participating in The Paseo! It’s such an exciting project, right?! I looked at your link, but I’m not clear on what your solar, winged box does? I’ll see it Friday but can you clarify a bit? Thanks, Mandy
Hi Mandy! Thanks for the comment…perhaps this feedback will help answer your question….So looking forward to THE PASEO today! See you there!
“Claire Coté and Anna Keleher collaborated to create one of their “If You’d Like to…” audio installations for Great Sand Dunes National Park in 2010. Thousands of visitors during the busy season listened quizically and pushed pretend buttons as they heard elk bugling, Medano Creek flowing, and other evocative sound bytes. This installation is a creative reminder of how automated our culture has become, and how that spills over even into our national parks. In our increasingly urbanized and consumer-driven world, many of us have become used to pushing buttons to immediately get what we want. Experiences of nature in the park become almost like items in a vending machine, a satellite channel list, or in this case, options on a prerecorded phone menu. Fortunately, these wooden buttons don’t really take the visitor to the experience they want, leading to frustration… and hopefully a new insight into the disconnect between the consumer’s automated world and the wild, unpredictable natural world. ”
-Patrick Myers , Park Ranger, Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve, January, 2011