Rufus heard Amity before he heard about it. Walking past one day, he was intrigued by a jam sesh happening on the back porch and learned the next day that some of his Amherst College friends were contributors to the noise. From there he convinced Ry that this place was funky, and together they were put in contact with one of the members of the house.
This project was initially conceptualized as an investigation of domestic noise, and how issues of rent in the area influence the lived experiences of local musicians. We imagined the sounds of coffee being made in the morning contrasted with someone doing vocal warmups in the bedroom one floor above. We were particularly interested in capturing Amity in its entirety, with a collection of musicians and bands sharing the same living space. The reality of the space, however, is that there is a flux in occupancy as bands leave and return from tours. Bella’s Bartok make up a significant majority of Amity’s residents, and they happened to be on tour for most of our project. What we first saw as a roadblock was reconceptualized as a definitive part of the lived experience at Amity. In its later stages, the project came into focus as an exploration of professional versus amateur musicianship and how the domestic space both informs and is informed by these concepts.
We had the privilege of working with Zach and the members of his band Grazers during this project. He was incredibly welcoming of us into what is a pretty private space, and he makes some killer kimchi-jjigae. We had a ton of fun working with him and spending time in such a groovy house.
Contact
Contact Ry at rbleckel24@amherst.edu
Contact Rufus at rtaylor24@amherst.edu
Thank You’s
We would like to extend thank yous to the following people for supporting this project:
The members of Grazers – Zach, Chase, Bridget, Pete
Jeffers Engelhardt
The folks at the Amherst College Center for Community Engagement