Internationally Acclaimed Sound Artist Stephen Vitiello Devises Site-Specific Arrangement for United Technologies Corporation’s First European Public Art Project

LONDON, England, June 3, 2007 -– United Technologies Corporation (UTC) has commissioned Stephen Vitiello to create a sound art installation in London’s Broadgate Arena from June 4 – 8, 2007. This is the third installment of UTC’s ongoing Public Art Project, launched in 2005 to celebrate the corporation’s 25 years of arts support.

Presented outdoors in Broadgate Arena, a terraced public space near Liverpool Street Station, Stephen Vitiello’s The Smallest of Wings will be staged in the heart of the City. Vitiello’s piece, which will run continuously for the duration of the installation, will create an environment of sound built on field recordings of bird and moth wings from locations including the Amazon, upstate New York and Virginia.

As visitors walk through Broadgate Arena, they will experience a three dimensional audio environment. A 22 speaker, multichannel sound system, designed by Arup in collaboration with Vitiello, will be housed in an open air, geodesic dome, immersing visitors in Vitiello’s work.

“I try to make people think about their surroundings with my work, to slow them down. I'm bringing these sounds in to penetrate the iron and steel of the City, but no one sound will be fighting another. Where tension arises between London’s noises and the sounds in the piece, there exists the possibility for balance and the creation of something unique and powerful,” said Vitiello.

"UTC's products support cities,” said UTC Chairman and CEO George David. From Otis elevators to Carrier air conditioning to Chubb and Kidde first security systems, we work to make buildings safe, efficient and comfortable. Cars and busses powered by our fuel cells are just coming to market and will take absolutely all of the harmful emissions out of these vehicles. Public art celebrates cities and is its own reason for why we participate.

Smallest of Wings continues UTC’s Cities in Transition theme that was explored in photography with artists Chuck Close, Mitch Epstein, and Dayanita Singh, who turned their lenses in 2006 on New York, Boston, and Hartford, Connecticut. The artists created new work that captured America’s urban evolution, ranging from immigrants’ experiences to the impact of automobiles to the dynamics of urban decay and renewal. In 2005, UTC commissioned painters Alex Katz, Gary Hume and Lisa Sanditz to create works displayed on billboards throughout New York City.

The Vitiello installation will open at 07:00 on 4 June and will close at 14:00 on 8 June and will be open continuously during that time. Visitors to the installation at Broadgate Arena will be able to download a digital sample of Smallest of Wings to a wireless device via Bluetooth technology. Additionally, an MP3 sample and more information about the installation will be available online at www.utc.com/curious.

About Stephen Vitiello
Born in New York, Stephen Vitiello is an internationally acclaimed sound artist who currently resides in Richmond, VA, where he is surrounded by forests and wildlife. His most recent awards include those from Creative Capital (2006) and the New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship (2003). Vitiello has had recent solo exhibitions at Museum 52 in London, the Project in New York, and at Galerie Almine Rech in Paris. Vitiello’s work has been presented at the 2006 Sydney Biennale, the 2002 Whitney Biennial, the Tate Modern, and the Spirit of the Forest at the Cartier Foundation in Paris. Vitiello is also an Assistant Professor in the Department of Kinetic Imaging at Virginia Commonwealth University.

About UTC
UTC is a 50 billion dollar company providing a broad range of high technology products and services to the building systems and aerospace industries worldwide. Its businesses include Carrier, Hamilton Sundstrand, Otis, Pratt & Whitney, Sikorsky, UTC Fire & Security, and UTC Power. In 2007, UTC was named for the third consecutive year as one of the 100 Most Sustainable Corporations in the World at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. In 2006, Americans for the Arts granted UTC its Corporate Citizen for the Arts award. Fortune magazine has ranked UTC first in its annual Most Admired survey for aerospace/defense for seven years running, and Barron’s magazine last year ranked the company 11th on its Most Respected Companies worldwide list.