- Next alliances
John Cage published ‘Notations’ with A.Knowles in 1968. Inviting interdisciplinarity between various artistic expressions and techniques in the sonic realm introduced various methods of communicating Sound, such as Graphic Scores. Sound Art took a major leap when combined with visual arts; also architecture has been presented as a visual art form. The developed hegemony of vision in Western culture has been one of Juhani Pallasmaa’s reflection and analysis on his book ‘The eyes of the skin’.
Through my shared vision in Pallasmaa’s concern on ‘the consequent disappearance of sensory and sensual qualities from the arts and architecture’, as well as his thoughts on architecture working as a medium for a phenomenological experience, SonuScape arose. This is a project study that explores the combination of sensorial awareness, where abstract sonic systems are transferred into an architectural realm, driven by the cross-pollinating, collaborative and integrative attitude introduced by Cage.
DESIGN AND SONIC ANALYSIS PROCESS_From sketches to audio forensic maps
The first case study used is an excerpt (60 sec) of Edgar Varèse and Iannis Xenakis sound work ‘Poème Électronique’ premiered in 1958 at the Brussels World Fair. Supported by DAW software you are able to forensically analyse the spectrogram and sonograph of the sonic work, as well as its panning. After gathering all the material and data we can design an abstract hypothetical graphic score for ‘Poème Électronique’ excerpt.
“Music is not a language. Every musical piece is like a complex rock, formed by ridges and designs engraved within and without, that can be interpreted in a thousand different ways (...) By virtue of this multiple exegesis, music inspires all sorts of fantastic imaginings, like a Crystal catalyst.”
Iannis Xenakis in Ditatope 2006, p.216
Shifting this 2D design into a 3D apparatus was the result of studying and examining few precedents: such as urban furniture, art sculptures, post-war playgrounds, (…) enabling to scale, structure, distribute and map out objects in an hypothetical landscape.
For each piece designed in SonuScape project corresponds a sound from ‘Poeme electronique’ excerpt. One will be able to interact with each piece and trigger it synthesizing a playful learning system.
“All in all, the creative act is not performed by the artist alone; the spectator brings the work in contact with the external world by deciphering and interpreting its inner qualifications and thus adds his contribution to the creative act.”
Marcel Duchamp in ‘The Creative Act’- Lecture at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, October 19, 1961
