What does the Millennium Tower sound like as it sinks? These artists have an idea – San Francisco Chronicle

The Point of Final Collapse co-creator Cristbal Martinez sits at the top of the San Francisco Art Institute tower with the speakers that will broadcast his art installation. Photo: Scott Strazzante, The Chronicle

You cant hear the sound of the Millennium Tower creaking and sinking, but you can hear the anxiety it is causing in a sound installation in North Beach.

The four-minute sonic immersion blasts forth from the top of the bell tower at the San Francisco Art Institute, under the ominous title The Point of Final Collapse. It makes its debut at 5:01 p.m. Friday, Nov. 15, and will continue every day at the same time until either the building is fixed and it stops sinking, the building is demolished or the building collapses, said its co-creator Cristbal Martinez, chair of the schools art and technology department.

The Point of Final Collapse is conceptual. It takes some effort on the part of the listener to even hear it above the city din, and a strong imagination to equate the muddled sound of the composition to the 58-story condo Millennium Tower, as it settles into the sand beneath it. But there is science behind the installation.

The art collective Postcommodity took the raw data from court documents filed in multiple lawsuits and built software to convert that data into a soundscape of deep relaxation intended to relieve stress.

The Millennium Tower is sinking at a rate of a little over an inch a year, said Martinez, catching his breath after climbing 130 steep concrete steps into the campus tower to check his equipment. What we are doing is taking that data of the sinking tower and translating that data into a sonic experience.

The effect is a whispered word mix of affirmations like everything is going to be OK, and youre going to get through this, overlaid with the sounds of whales and dolphins, cats purring, chakra tones and binaural beats.

A legal settlement was recently announced in the main lawsuit, with a repair of the leaning tower that will cost $100 million. But the artists are assuming the worst. They are prepared for the building to continue to sink. As it does, information is being fed into the software daily, so the four-minute sound blast will be ever-changing.

One of the plans to stabilize the building may take 50 years, said co-creator Kade Twist, who runs the art and social practice program at Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles. Were doing this piece so that it can play every day for 50 years and never repeat itself.

Representatives of the Millennium Tower did not respond to a request for comment.

The Chestnut Street campus is open and everybody is welcome through the gates and into the courtyard to gather beneath the 99-foot tower. But that is not the best place to hear The Point of Final Collapse. The two disc-shaped speakers use a high frequency to transmit a signal a great distance, with the quiet tones and whispers flowing through North Beach, Telegraph Hill and across to Treasure Island. Any spot will work to take a listen, so long as there is a direct a line of sight with the eastern top of the tower.

On a clear day, in good weather, the sound can travel up to 5 miles, said Martinez. You go out on Chestnut Street or Powell Street and you will hear it.

One place it cannot be heard is from the top of the Millennium Tower.

Were not trying to broadcast back to the Millennium Tower, says Twist. Were trying to broadcast back out to the taxpayers who are footing the bill for this thing.

The piece was commissioned by the art institute under a Harker Fund grant and took two years to build, during a campus residency. The sound is transmitted through Long Range Acoustic Devices, which are designed for military use.

Were using sonic weapons to deliver whispering relaxation, said Twist. Those things cost $30,000 each.

The military devices make a statement and so does the use of sounds employed, which are a nod to the popular trend known ASMR, autonomous sensory meridian response.

The relaxation and self-care field is a billion-dollar industry, largely unregulated, Twist said, and it has evolved to mitigate the complexities caused by late capitalism, which is driving our present social crises of anxiety and depression.

One irony Twist pointed out is that prices at the Millennium Tower have stabilized and even risen after the announcement of the legal settlement.

That is a sinking ship that is accruing value as it sinks, said Twist. That could describe the state of late capitalism.

Postcommodity describes itself an indigenous art collective. Martinez is mestizo, from New Mexico; Twist is Cherokee from Bakersfield. They have exhibited at the Whitney Biennial in New York and the Biennale of Sydney. Just a day before their San Francisco debut during their first automated test, Martinez admitted to being nervous.

One minute later, as soon as the neighborhood church bells stopped, The Point of Final Collapse began with an almost imperceptible whisper of the word happiness that built during the four-minute performance. Among those hearing it for the first time during this test run was art institute President Gordon Knox.

Its a haiku, a collage and assembly of sounds and intentions generated by the actions of the developers of the Millennium Tower, said Knox.

It sounds complex and difficult, but its not. Its a chance through your ears and through your recognition of the distribution of the sound to think about how were connected as a people and how we are suspended in complex systems, many of which tear us apart.

The Point of Final Collapse: Sound art installation. 5:01 p.m. daily. San Francisco Art Institute, 800 Chestnut St. 415-749-4563. sfai.edu

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What does the Millennium Tower sound like as it sinks? These artists have an idea - San Francisco Chronicle