Houston-based comedian and visual artist Jacob Calle has recently installed an interactive work in Houston’s Menil Park. Entitled The Juke Box, and decorated to reference both Nirvana and the Sex Pistols, the installation is meant to act as a retro (i.e. not digital) music sharing system among strangers. The instructions written inside the box are clear: “Make a mix compilation of your favorite tunes that you’d like to share and conceal your package so that no information is given on what’s on the mix. (This way you can not judge a book (a mix) by the cover and so you’ll be choosing one blindly.”
We visited The Juke Box this weekend and, unfortunately, there was no music to be found. Instead, there were books inside with wondrous titles such as Chant and Be Happy and Beyond Birth and Death. Now, we turn to you, readers. Go populate this juke box with music (and if you get there fast enough, you may just find an art song mix as well).
