On January 2nd 2003, Po Shu Wang erected a 42 foot high, fully function tuning fork at a corner of Shattuck and Center as commissioned by the City of Berkeley:

"Wang Po Shu’s deep-red painted steel sculpture 'An Earth Song for Berkeley' is proposed for placement on the sidewalk in front of the new Kaplan Building on the commercial block called Berkeley Square, north across Center Street from the pedestrian median separating Shattuck’s northbound and southbound lanes. Mr. Wang is a student of f'eng shui and ancient earth sciences, and 'An Earth Song for Berkeley' will invite viewer participation with a metaphorical blending of art and science. The approximately 40'-high sculpture will resemble a giant tuning fork, positioned at the point where Shattuck splits into two streets. The steel 'fork' will be, in the artist’s words, 'tuned to the oscillating frequency of the Earth,' an extremely low frequency at a pitch far below audible human (and animal) range. At its base, it will be only 14 inches wide, narrowing as it extends upward splitting into two 'tines' of the fork. At approximately 4' above the sidewalk the metal shaft will be encircled by a small steel gong, tuned to a higher pitch audible to humans, which passersby can activate by hand, creating interaction with the sculpture and encouraging the viewer to linger and contemplate the sculpture's conceptual underpinnings. Flush with the sidewalk, black granite pavers composed to create a base for the sculpture will be etched with text explaining the factual scientific basis of Mr. Wang’s concept."





The plaque (I particularly like the instructions:
To Sample the 'Earth Song'
Please knock on the bell. It is tuned to the 21st octave of the Earth's Tonal Center, at the frequency of 323.634 hertz.):


Bonus - This is where Shattuck actually splits into two roads:


Call it a hunch, but we thought this might be a good place to start, so we begin discussing start/end points and a few logistics:


We decide that the end point is going to be across the street from the tuning fork (the Entrance to the Downtown Berkeley BART station), and what's going to make us take seperate paths is the fact that we must all return with a fork of our own.

So, beginning at the proverbial "fork in the road" we set off...


Rubin and I figure we can try and collect as many unique forks as we can, one of the most unique being the infamous "spork". We thought we'd totally be the envy of the ball if we returned with one of those.

So we run around downtown berkeley for a while, looking for open, cheap take-out eateries that would have disposable utensils. We find a few...




While looking through the commercial area, we ran into some other art commissioned by the city of Berkeley:



My best fork came from Brazil Cafe, where one of the workers hooked Rubin and I up with these Brazilian good luck cloth bracelet. It was promptly fastened to the fork.


Once we gathered sufficient forkage, we decided to head to the endpoint, but not take back the same streets we took to find our beloved forks. We ended up leaving the urban sprawl...



...and looked towards a greener landscape, so we decided to walk along the Berkeley campus on the way to the meeting point...

...it was a much nicer walk than the commercial streets just a few blocks away.


Vector and I (vladypus) took the east end of the Shattuck Ave split. We walked down University Ave toward campus and past a closed for the day hardware store. We headed north and somehow got the idea that the only way to do this task righteously was to return with a pitchfork. So we doubled back to the hardware store and Vector negotiated with the dude inside until he opened the door and agreed to sell us a pitchfork. Unfortunately the price was too high for righteousness and we hung our heads in shame. We shuffled back onto Shattuck and kept heading north. We stopped to talk to some crazy dude that sang prince to us for a few minutes and then described the importance of leading a life free of sin. Vector decided he needed a veggie burger and I decided that I needed to sin, so we went to a burger place where we picked up some burgers and some metal forks in just enough time to make it back.

-vladypus


At the meeting point, we all compared our physical mementos) which included: chop sticks, real metal forks and a toy castle:


I also made sure to get in the pic, since I don't think im in very many of them... holding my fork (the wristband was then on the hand that took the picture). -cunning linguist