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FIG­MENT Mini Golf Returns This Weekend!

May 31, 2017 5:54 pm

For the past 9 sum­mers, FIG­MENT has pro­duced an Artist-Designed Mini Golf Course on Gov­er­nors Island in New York City that is free and open to the pub­lic. This year’s theme is ​“New York City Has the Beat.” We are for­tu­nate to live, work and play in one of the world’s most musi­cal­ly vibrant cities. This year’s Mini Golf holes relate to the sounds of the city or its music scene of the past, present or future.

Below are the 9 win­ning hole designs of 2017. Come out this sum­mer to play them all! FIG­MEN­T’s Mini Golf opens on Sat­ur­day, June 3 and is locat­ed behind the Library build­ing across from Cas­tle Williams.

2017 Mini Golf Sea­son
June 3‑August 24^th
Week­days: 10am ‑5pm
Week­ends: 10am — 6pm

Hole #1: MIN­I­mal­ist GOLF by Night Mul­ti­me­dia Art


MIN­I­mal­ist GOLF is an homage to the New York­ers who trans­formed our expec­ta­tions of music through two musi­cal move­ments known as min­i­mal­ism and seri­al­ism. Com­ing out of New York’s ​“down­town scene” of the 1960s, com­posers includ­ing John Cage and Philip Glass have repeat­ed­ly rein­vent­ed con­cepts in music, step­ping away from the west­ern clas­si­cal tra­di­tions in favor new­er exper­i­men­tal forms. We com­bine these musi­cal ele­ments with visu­al art by using elec­tron­ic sen­sors pow­ered by a micro­con­troller (a small, pro­gram­ma­ble com­put­er) to trig­ger the per­for­mance of dif­fer­ent seg­ments of music com­posed by con­tem­po­rary New York musi­cians.

Hole #2: Putt & Peal by Ron­nie Kata­ki, Alice Song, Edward Wang


Bells are an essen­tial part of the New York City soundscape.Their sonorous pres­ence atop church spires dis­rupts and reg­u­lates our day, remind­ing us to take pause and reflect. We make ref­er­ence to these bells with a land­scape of 65 hand-made ceram­ic bells that will be mount­ed on a soft and vibrant topo­graph­ic land­scape. Mini golfers will putt their golf balls across undu­lat­ing col­ors and clus­ters of ceram­ic flora that will chime when bounced against, pro­duc­ing an impromp­tu music for Gov­er­nors Island. 

Hole #3: Honk Honk! Beeeeeep! Get out of my way! It’s SHOOOWWW­TIME! by Lexy Ho-Tai

New York City streets cer­tain­ly have a beat of its own. It’s exhaust­ing and over­whelm­ing. It’s excit­ing and ener­giz­ing. It’s unapolo­get­i­cal­ly New York City. Putt your way through peo­ple rush­ing about, angry traf­fic jams, street per­form­ers, and all the won­der­ful and weird nuances and nois­es of New York City.

Hole #4: Drop the Beat! By Can Vu Bui & Lane Rick


The boom­box — the ulti­mate throw­back sym­bol to the best music scene New York has ever cul­ti­vat­ed. If Grand­mas­ter Flex played mini-golf, this would be his jam. This boom­box is a lit­tle bit dif­fer­ent from what the b‑boys might expect. Cas­sette tape obsta­cles lay in the bal­l’s path and a hid­den PLONK! lies some­where on the way to the hole!

Hole #5: Feel­in’ Groovy by Tad Philipp and Pam Tuck­er


Inspired by the 59^th Street Bridge Song, also known as Feel­ing Groovy. Putt across a xylo­phone bridge to a hap­py place where 60’s style flow­ers are growin’ and all is groovy. PEACE.

Hole #6: Chim­ing in with Cham­ber Music by The Cellos

Make res­o­nant con­nec­tions to New York City’s musi­cal her­itage when you send your golf ball through chimes tuned to clas­si­cal mas­ter­pieces. Lis­ten for the notes of Bach, Mozart and New York City’s own George Gershwin!

Hole #7: Here Ears Hear by Antho­ny May


Noise can annoy the most cav­a­lier of city ears, so here’s to pleas­ant sounds for near ears to hear. Steer sheer right for sin­cere chimes of cheer or dis­ap­pear after spin­ning round a hemi­sphere tier. Veer from leery inter­fer­ing to per­se­vere over jeers of ping­ing and turn the smears of drea­ry blear into more dear melodies of revere.

Hole #8: Hit It! By Cat Chiu Phillips and Andrew Q Delaney

Hit It is inspired by the diverse and immense musi­cal tal­ent of the city includ­ing the leg­endary streets of Broad­way and the Tin Pan Alley. Tee the ball across the course through the glock­en­spiel ramp through the vinyl records tun­nel and down the large sheet music. Hit it to make some beats!

Hole #9: The Lion Dance by Ricky Nguyen

Wel­come to Chi­na­town! Fol­low the lion dance troupe through this his­toric neigh­bor­hood. Bang and drum your way down Mott Street and end your jour­ney under cel­e­bra­to­ry fireworks. 

For more infor­ma­tion about FIG­MENT, vis­it http://​newyork​.fig​ment​pro​ject​.org, and be sure to check out the annu­al FIG­MENT fes­ti­val on Gov­er­nors Island Sat­ur­day, June 3‑Sunday, June 4.