Experience Music Project

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Sign advertising the opening of EMP.

Inside: the Sky Church.

The Experience Music Project (EMP) is a museum of music history founded by Paul Allen, the co-founder of Microsoft, located on the campus of Seattle, Washington's Seattle Center. It is sited near the Space Needle and is by one of the two stops on the Seattle Center Monorail, which runs through the building. Paul Allen's Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame is located within the EMP building.^[1] EMP has provided funding for radio station KEXP in partnership with the University of Washington.^[2] EMP was also the site of the demo and concert program for the first international conference on New interfaces for musical expression, NIME-01 and the Pop Conference, an annual gathering of academic, critics, musicians and music buffs.

The museum contains mostly rock memorabilia and technology-intensive multimedia displays, probably a reflection of Allen's tastes.

The structure itself was designed by Frank Gehry, and resembles many of his firm's other works in its sheet-metal construction, such as Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, Walt Disney Concert Hall and Gehry Tower. Much of the building material is exposed in the building's interior. The last structural steel beam to be put in place bears the signatures of all construction workers who were on site on the day it was erected.

Even before groundbreaking, the Seattle Weekly in discussing the design could refer to "the often quoted comparison to a smashed electric guitar"; indeed, Gehry himself had made the comparison: "We started collecting pictures of Stratocasters, bringing in guitar bodies, drawing on those shapes in developing our ideas."^[3] The architecture was greeted by Seattle residents with a mixture of acclaim for Gehry and derision for this particular edifice. "Frank Gehry," remarked British-born, Seattle-based writer Jonathan Raban, "has created some wonderful buildings, like the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, but his Seattle effort, the Experience Music Project, is not one of them."^[4] New York Times architecture critic Herbert Muschamp described it as "something that crawled out of the sea, rolled over, and died."^[5] Forbes magazine called it one of the world's 10 ugliest buildings.^[5] Others call it "The Blob"^{[citation needed]} or "The Hemorrhoids".^[4].

Monorail tracks going through the EMP building

Detractors have also charged that the museum was primarily "a way for Paul Allen to get a tax break on his rock memorabilia collection" and "a way to sell Microsoft Pocket PCs" (museum visitors were given "MEGs", Pocket PC devices, running Windows CE, that serve as personal "guides" to the exhibits). Supporters defend Allen, pointing to his other philanthropic acts.

An exterior view of the building.

The museum has not been a financial success.^[6]^[7] In an effort to make ends meet, the "blue blob" at the south end of the museum—which originally housed the "Artist's Journey" exhibit, resembling an amusement park ride centering around an elaborate film of a James Brown performance — now houses the Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame.

Permanent exhibits include the Northwest Passage is a hall containing exhibits on the history of popular music in the Pacific Northwest, ranging from Bing Crosby (Tacoma, Washington) to The Kingsmen (Portland, Oregon), Heart (Seattle, Washington), The Presidents of the United States of America (Seattle, Washington), Sir Mix-a-Lot (Seattle, Washington) and Nirvana (Aberdeen, Washington, via Seattle), with detours for such lesser-knowns as Queensrÿche (Bellevue, Washington), and bands far more obscure, such as The Pudz (Seattle). Numerous video clips provide interviews and performance footage, and there is extensive commentary and more recordings available via the MEGs.

There is also a permanent exhibit on Jimi Hendrix; the Guitar Gallery, dedicated to the history of the guitar; a massive sculpture, Roots and Branches by Trimpin made largely out of musical instruments, especially guitars, which are played by electronically controlled devices; the Sound Lab, in which museumgoers can learn the basics of playing various instruments; On Stage, a simulated onstage experience; and Costumes from the Vault, a collection of performers' costumes.^[8]

In an effort to raise more funds, museum organizers are using Allen's elaborate art collection to create an exhibit within the confines of the EMP.^[9] The exhibit, which has nothing to do with music or science fiction, is entitled DoubleTake: From Monet to Lichtenstein. The exhibit includes Roy Lichtenstein's The Kiss (1962), Pierre-Auguste Renoir's The Reader (1877), Vincent van Gogh's Orchard with Peach Trees in Blossom (1888), Pablo Picasso's Four Bathers (1921) and several works of art from Claude Monet including one of the Water Lilies paintings (1919) and The Mula Palace (1908).^[10]

[edit] Notes

^ Official Seattle Center map (accessed online 22 October 2006). EMP, SFM and the Monorail station are numbers 18, 39, and 20, respectively, on the map, all near the corner of 5th Avenue N and Broad Street.
^ Jeff DeRoche, Radio Ga-Ga, [[The Stranger (newspaper)|]], April 12 - April 18, 2001. Accessed online 22 October 2006.
^ Roger Downey, Experience This!, Seattle Weekly, February 18, 1998. Accessed online 22 October 2006.
^ ^a ^b Jonathan Raban, Deference to nature keeps Seattle from becoming world-class city, Seattle Times, April 4, 2004. Accessed online 22 October 2006.
^ ^a ^b Erica C. Barnett, EMPty, The Stranger, June 17 - June 23, 2004. Accessed online 22 October 2006.
^ John Cook, Recent layoffs at local companies: Experience Music Project, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, January 8, 2002. Accessed online 22 October 2006.
^ Associated Press story, Experience Music Project still struggling five years later, USA Today, March 22, 2005. Accessed online 22 October 2006.
^ Permanent Exhibits on EMP's official site. Accessed online 22 October 2006.
^ Sheila Farr, Paul Allen's Experience Art Project, Seattle Times, November 29, 2005. Accessed online 22 October 2006.
^ Full List of Works Announced for Upcoming DoubleTake: From Monet to Lichtenstein Exhibition, press release on the exhibit's official site, March 21, 2006. Accessed online 22 October 2006.