Black Bottom neighborhood, Detroit
Ash Arder: Solar Juke
Join Ash Arder, UMS’s Flint Artist-in-Residence, in a Detroit garden party and sound performance that uses “Whoop House” — a completely solar-powered sound sculpture — as a musical instrument.
Solar Juke will invite musicians of all levels to convene in the northeast corner of Black Bottom for a 3-hour improvisational and collaborative performance exploring and uplifting environmental themes within African diasporan music.
Visual and performance artist Ash Arder has collaborated with architectural designer, Kapish Singh, to create Whoop House a completely solar-powered sculpture that acts as a power source and sound amplifier for electronic instruments. Throughout the afternoon, musicians will cycle in and out of a durational performance that will be recorded by the sculpture’s electronics.
Whoop House is part interactive sculpture, part instrument, and will be a catalyst for conversations around clean energy, natural landscapes, and the potential for music and art to be a uniting force for social change.
Solar Juke is an official part of the #DetroitMonthofDesign program.
Whoop House was graciously funded by Knight Foundation and the University Musical Society.
UMS is pleased to welcome Ash Arder as this season’s Flint Artist in Residence. Ash Arder (she, they) is a transdisciplinary artist whose research-based approach works to expose, deconstruct, or reconfigure ecological and industrial systems. Born and raised in Flint MI, they hope their residency on the University of Michigan Flint campus will put community stories on a platform to be celebrated. Ash’s process-based residency will continue their research of broadcasting as a concept in both agricultural and technological spaces, with the sun as a prominent source of energy.