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ABOUT

PEDAL POWER NYC is an arts-driven response to the encroachment of hydraulic fracturing on New York City’s water supply.

BIKES POWER CONCERTS

Beginning with the concept ‘Powered By Natural Ass,’ we created a system of bicycles with generators capable of powering concerts.

AUDIENCE RIDES BIKES

Audience members join musicians on stage to power all the musical gear, amps, PA, and recording equipment.

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PRODUCTIONS

NATURAL ASS SESSIONS

Bushwick, NYC | June 4-5, 2011

Pedal Power NYC debuted as a part of the Bushwick Open Studios series. The Natural Ass Sessions invited art-goers, volunteers, and passers-by to power the rehearsals and performances of favorite local musicians: Masa, Gordon Voidwell, The Jason Lindner Band, Vanessa Bley, Tony Tixier, Patrick Higgins, The Impromptubes, Cradle Duende, and Tom Chess.

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NYC CELEBRATES WATERFEST

Union Square, NYC | June 26, 2011

As a celebration of human will, ingenuity, and the NYC music scene, the free concert and festival at around Union Square Park called attention to the volatile energy/water nexus: E=H2O. The main stage featured soulful performances by Tom Chess, Masa (Didi Gutman of Brazilian Girls and Hector Castillo), Robert Granata, Vanessa Bley, and Gordon Voidwell. Check out the recordings from the concert here.

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DIAMOND

Gowanus, NYC | June 26, 2012

On the one-year anniversary of the NYC Celebrates Waterfest, the team produced Diamond as a gift to newlyweds Simon Luethi and On Megumi Akiyoshi, two members Pedal Power NYC team. Attendees danced in the center of the bicycle-powered LED diamond to the ass-powered recordings from the Waterfest.

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INDUSTRIANCE

Gowanus, NYC | July 28, 2013

A collaboration between Rooftop Films, XO Projects, Bradford Reed, and Pedal Power NYC – the theme of the night, energy. Our contribution – a human-powered sound-system takeover. Audience members and volunteers provided the natural ass and amplified all of Bradford Reed’s musical equipment and PA. Groovin to the tunes, hundreds of guests and riders took in a night of contextual, inspiring programming.

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Recordings

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We Record Off the Grid

What does ass-powered music sound like? Check out this live EP from NYC Celebrates Waterfest.

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We Record Off the Grid

The live tracks below were recorded in Union Square Park at NYC Celebrates Waterfest in June 2011.

The free concert was 100% human-powered: audience members joined performers on stage to pedal and generate the energy needed to amplify and record the music. The recordings were captured, mixed, and mastered by Carl Barc of The Distillery, and represent a selection of NYC’s finest local musical talent.

All proceeds go towards protecting NYC’s drinking water and the development of sustainable sound systems.

LISTEN

also available on

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Recordings Third Panel

Technology

Technology First Panel

Pedal Power NYC is supported by a wide range of technology.

Technology Second Panel

What it takes

Bicycle mechanics, microprocessor programming, and power conversion all play critical roles behind the scenes of a successful show.

The Pedal Power NYC system does not store power in batteries. Rather, the power runs directly to the stage so the bikers experience a one-to-one relationship with the music being played. When the music gets louder, the bikers have to work harder….when the pedals stop spinning, the music cuts-off.

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From Pedal to Ear

A walk-through of our energy-management system

Each bike is mounted with the rear wheel raised off the ground to make it stationary. The bikes are similar to the electric bikes sometimes used for food delivery, except the hub acts a generator instead of a motor. The generators create 3-phase AC with widely varying amplitude and frequency, which is not particularly useful, so a rectifier on each bike converts the electricity to DC, which makes the energy easier to store and use.

The DC output from each bike feeds into a large bank of capacitors which smooths the erratic levels and acts as an energy buffer. The electricity travels from the bikes and capacitors to a large inverter which converts DC into 120V wall-socket AC which can power all the equipment.

This is all simple when there’s a constant supply of energy from the bikes and an equal amount being used, but in practice this balance rarely occurs. Our energy management system is designed to address energy imbalance. For example, when the bikers generate more energy than is being used, there is a danger of damaging the equipment. The energy needs to go somewhere, like water overflowing a tub. The system monitors for this condition and, before it occurs, safely diverts (or shunts) away just enough energy to keep the power levels constant.

YOU’LL GET SWEATY

What a participant can expect

The difficulty for the rider depends on many factors such as how many other people are helping and how loud the music is, but generally people work up a sweat quickly. An average person can sustain the production of 80-90 watts of power. At our Union Square show, sixteen bikers flanked the stage and powered a flown PA, 2 subwoofers, all monitors, amps, pedals, laptops, turntables, front-of-house board, and recording equipment.

FEEL YOUR POWER

The show stops without an audience

When the audience is simultaneously powering and listening to a concert, participation and attention is mandatory, or the show stops. The dynamics of the Pedal Power system become a contractual feedback loop between the band and audience which can both succeed or fail. It’s a balance between exertion and stamina for the audience, and the band must consider this when performing. The pedal power technology creates a fundamentally symbiotic connection between the band and the audience.

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E=H20

E=H2O First Panel

Our hunger for energy competes with our thirst for water.

E=H20 Second Panel

Water is Truth

Pedal Power NYC is an arts-driven response to the encroachment of hydraulic fracturing on New York City’s water supply.

In July of 2011, the Governor’s Office of New York was set to decide whether a moratorium on hydraulic fracturing in the state should be upheld until further science was considered. Pedal Power NYC stepped in with a musical poke to engage people turned off by the polarizing debate.

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The First Drop

How we got started

NYC didn’t always have clean drinking water. It took the vision and ingenuity of individuals working together to create a system that delivers clean water to millions every day – it took a paradigm shift.

After watching the acclaimed documentary film Gasland, Ariel Agai realized that once again we would need to unleash our collective creativity to face the emerging challenge to our water. But instead of coming together, people were divided and turned off by the polarizing debate that erupted around the issue. Believing that humor and great music could break in and revive our spirit, Ariel dreamt of a concert ‘Powered By Natural Ass.’ With his sight set on an ass-powered festival in Union Square, Ariel brought local musicians, engineers, and others together to form the Pedal Power team that would create the technology, design the show, and record the soundtrack to celebrate our water.

Celebrate Water

With creativity, we have more options.

Without water, who would we be? It’s fundamental to us biologically, a metaphor that has captured our imagination throughout time. It’s not hard to see why some turn to depressing realities and doomsday scenarios to get our attention when something so valuable to us is being destroyed, but it’s not always the song we want to hear.

With some of New York’s finest local talent and an energized crew of engineers and music production specialists, the Pedal Power NYC team knew we could put on a great show— but would it get people thinking about water differently? We hoped to get people thinking about how water relates to energy production and the threat it is under as a result of unsafe methods of extraction and to spark a willingness to engage with the problem. Our concert at Union Square put our idea to the test with the extension of the moratorium on hydraulic fracturing in New York State only a month away. By the end of the concert, renewable- and environmentally-focused organizations received over 1500 signatures without petitioning concert-goers to sign a thing.

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E=H2O Third Panel

COVERAGE

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Our Story Spreads

  • Art will only be able to explore and speak to the sustainability of culture if it finds ways to sustain itself.

    Creative Resistance

  • This could be your leg’s big break.

    Gothamist

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Our Story Spreads

  • Hanging on to old habits, hoping for new means, humanity begets change through technology and industry, labor and artistry.

    Industriance

  • [Pedal Power NYC] will harness your body’s energy as you amplify some of New Yawk’s sickest musicians

    Arts in Bushwick

  • It’s such a collective experience and you instantly become a participant in the show by being on the bike on stage. Every time someone would get off they had this look of ‘I just did something.’

    Inhabitat

  • We have a feeling Bradford Reed’s music is going to sound even sweeter through natural-ass-powered speakers.

    Rooftop Films

  • Here’s an idea for a better way to harness the power of stationary bike workout: use the resultant energy to fuel the electricity-sucking equipment for a banging outdoor concert.

    Grist

  • We burn through entire power plants’ worth of output to move water from one river—the Colorado—to bring deserts into bloom.

    Riders: E Adesso Pedala

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