Kendall Band, Sound sculpture in Kendall/MIT station, US.
Kendall Band is a sound sculpture made of aluminum, installed on the subway platforms of Kendall/MIT Station in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It is divided into three sections, each containing a different metal instrument: a set of bells, a large metal ring, and a steel sheet.
Paul Matisse created the work as part of Arts on the Line, a program that brought public art into the Boston subway system. It was completed in the late 1980s and became one of the earliest examples of interactive sound art in American public transit.
Each of the three sections has its own name drawn from the history of science: Pythagoras, Kepler, and Galileo. Pulling the handles on the platform activates metal instruments that ring out across the tracks, turning a transit stop into a place where people pause and listen.
The instruments are on both the inbound and outbound platforms and are easy to spot by the metal handles attached to the walls or structures. Visiting during off-peak hours gives you more time to try each section without the pressure of rush-hour crowds.
The Kepler section produces a tone that continues to ring for several minutes after being struck, which is unusually long for a subway environment. This happens because the steel sheet in that section was shaped to hold vibrations longer than a standard flat surface would.
The community of curious travelers
AroundUs brings together thousands of curated places, local tips, and hidden gems, enriched daily by 60,000 contributors worldwide.
