Sound Objects to Hear & Handle

UNION TABLE

Union Table is a game object and art instrument permanently installed in the St. Paul, Minnesota, Union Depot station. The table was created by an team of three artists; Noah Keesecker, Andrew MacGuffie, and Peter Haakon Thompson. It was commissioned by Ramsey County Regional Railroad Authority Funding made possible by the Federal Transit Administration. Union Table is made of 500+ pounds of steel with an aluminum net and is mounted on heavy duty casters so it can be played anywhere inside Union Depot. The tables visual design was created to reflect the architecture of the building. In conjunction with the materials chosen Union Table activates the Depot's unique acoustical characteristics. Union Table is built to regulation measurements according to the International Table Tennis Federation stocked with paddles and balls so anyone is free to play at any time.

Visitors and players can also connect to Union Table via Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.

Noah Keesecker is a composer and multimedia artist who creates works that are equally at home in the concert hall as they are in the dance club. He is made of video, installations, literature, science, interactive performance art, animation, ping pong, sawdust, synthesizers, and bicycle grease. He is driven by an insatiable curiosity, a mercurial imagination, and an enterprising spirit, all aimed at the goal of forging sound and sight with physical, tactile, interactive and object-oriented approaches to music. Among his grants and awards are a 2008 McKnight Composer Fellowship, Jerome Composer Commissioning Grant and a Jerome Club 416 commission from the Cedar Cultural Center.

Outside of the studio, Noah is Director of Artist Development at Springboard for the Arts, where he takes a strategic, energetic, and very human approach to building Springboard’s professional practices curriculum for creatives of all stripes. He serves on the board of directors for Minnesota Citizens for the Arts, one of the premier arts advocacy organizations in the country, and on the advisory committee for Slam Academy, a digital arts music lab in downtown Minneapolis.

Noah lives in Minneapolis with a cat, a dog, and a librarian, and is currently building his first boat, albeit a small one.