Victoria Meyers : Invisible Buildings

Shown:  a detail image of Partch's Chromelodeon, a keyboard instrument with six octaves, and 43 tones to each microtonal octave. This instrument can be directly tied to the ideas of Johannes Itten, whose book on color theory, The Art of Color, defined contemporary color theory.  Itten was a Swiss Expressionist painter, designer, teacher, writer and theorist, associated with the Bauhaus.  Partch notated the micro-tonal intervals between sounds on the Chromelodeon using a color coded system, related to tones.



Partch's Harmonic Canon II shown above, and below, was 6' wide, and built by Partch in 1953. 



My favorite Partch instrument, below:  the Cloud Chamber Bowls, made from old nuclear physics lab equipment. 

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Continuing the presentation of the Sound Urbanism/ Sound Ecology seminar from University of Cincinnati in the Spring semester 2013, I am showing four of Max Neuhaus's projects that were discussed in the seminar.   Passage Works, shown in Neuhaus's sketch above, was a proposal by Max Neuhaus, to install sound installations, so that when people walk or drive down a street to reach a destination, their passage would be marked by various sounds.  These points of sound inflection imply an active role for the listeners, who move through the piece, and set a series of static sound structures into motion.



Max Neuhaus's installation in Times Square is possibly his most famous work.  This was an installation of recordings and speakers, under a subway grate in Times Square. See the following, from 'The Sweet Spot':   http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/02/15/the-sweet-spot-feb-15/. Neuhaus's installation is an important a piece of New York City memorabilia, similar in scope and importance to 'I love New York' logo, by Milton Glaser. 



Max Neuhaus was commissioned to do a Sound Piece at the DeMenil Collection in Houston in 2008.    



In the 1970's, Max Neuhaus organized a series of public walks, around sounds.  Above:  Max Neuhaus's poster for his walk below the Brooklyn Bridge in 1976.

Neuhaus also experimented with other media for transmission of sound.  Above, Max Neuhasus's site specific Sound Work for the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, 'Water Whistle III'. 

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Class 5 was dedicated to Max Neuhaus, following Max's contributions to Sound Urbanism/  Sound Ecology.  The Image above depicts the reach of Neuhaus's Networks, or Broadcast Works.  In 1977 Neuhaus formed 'Radionet' -  initially an area with a radius of 20 miles in diameter around Manhattan:  an open network combinding radio waves with telephone lines, for open on-air communication.  Later Neuhaus expanded to 'Radio Net' - an On-Air forum that combined 190 Radio Stations.

The remaining fragment from Neuhaus's original Radio Net concept is Neuhaus's Aureole:  a 24 hour / day global Entity fostering continuous live INteraction with Sound over the Internet.

Toward the end of his career Max Neuhaus was working on a series of Aural Gardens.  If Max was alive today, we don't know what he would be doing.  But I would hazard to guess that he would have followed up on his Aural Gardens concept.

Above, Neuhaus's sketches and notes for 'Sound Volumes':  Invisible, Highly focused Sound Fields independent of aly Existing Physical structures.

Above:  Intersection I:  Neuhaus's sketch for his entry for the Venice Biennial 1999.  Two oblong Sound Fields placed at angles, to make an 'X' shape, six meters wide, and eight meters long.  A composite sound at the Crossing.  Placed at the Walkway leading to the Italian Pavilion.

Above:  Neuhaus's drawings for an Aural Garden.

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A quick overview of Sound Urbanism / Victoria Meyers architect, to date.  The class has covered works by Stephen Vitiello, including his Light Recordings from the World Trade Center, and Pieces from Marfa, Texas.  John Corigliano, composer, whose piece 'Campani di Ravello', is an attempt to recreate the spatial memory of Ravello, Italy, through bells, and other sounds.  Ravello is a unique place, where five medieval chapels with original Medieval Bells still mark dawn, daily.  A re-cap of the readings from Blesser + Salter's book, especially readings that detail the ideas behind the concept of a 'soundmark'.  We checked in with the Seminar's Cincinnati Sound Sections.

 
Above:  Sound Urbanism's 'logo' image, showing the concept of a civic space perimeter marked through sounds, such as the bells of Ravello.  Next to that, images of Stephen Vitiello's installation space at the HighLine, NYC, and, next to that, an image of Marfa Theater, where Victoria Meyers architect was commissioned to provide lighting design, as well as the layout for the theater interiors.

Above: John Corigliano's Ravello image.  Next to that, Max Neuhaus's image of a Fire Truck, which is a set up to Sound Urbanism, and a discussion around Max Neuhaus's project to redesign civic urban sounds, including sirens.

Above:  Max Neuhaus, working in his sound works for civic spaces.

Above:  Max Neuhaus's diagram of his various interests in sound investigations.  The diagram serves as a formal Organization that shows how Max Neuhaus conceived aural spaces:  Place:  Movemnet;  Walks:  Passage;  Invention:  Sensation;  Performance:  Networks.

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Victoria Meyers' Sound Urbanism /  Sound Ecology seminar at UCincinnati (Spring 2013) looked at the sounds and writings of Toru Takemitsu.  Above, Takemitsu's 'a flock descends into the pentagonal garden'.  Toru Takemitsu was a Japanese composer and writer on aesthetics and music theory.  Largely self-taught, Takemitsu was incredibly skilled in the manipulation of Instrumental and orchestral Timbre.  Takemitsu wrote scores for over 90 films.  He was also known for successfully juxtaposing silence with sound.

Robin Evans is one of the most important writers on architectural theories and aesthtics of the 20th century.  Above, the frontispiece to Evan's essay on numbers, where Evans gives an amazing and masterful overview of numerical proportioning systems and how they relate to architectural forms over the centuries.  The essay can be found in Evan's book:  'The Projective Cast:  Architecture and its Three Geometries'. 

Above:  a qualitative flood plain image, from the Urban Land Institute.  The Sound Urbanism seminar included several classes where the class reviewed and discussed urban plans by other architects, as prototypes for the 'Cincinnati Sound Sections that the class was developing for the final jury.

An SIEESS Diagram, courtesy of Harvard's GSD.

A trash track, courtesy of MIT Planning.

Sound Urbanism // Sound Ecology: Stochastic Patterns and Neumes: Victoria Meyers architect

In probability theory, a stochastic system is one that is indeterminate.  A stochastic system is a system whose behavior is non-deterministic.  When Xenakis came to Le Corbusier's office, he was a trained engineer.  Xenakis brought training in several mathematical forms that LC felt encouraged to apply to his architectural works.  This includes Stochastic systems, which Xenakis first applied to the windows of LC's housing project in Reze, 1950 - 54.



Stochastic window pattern at the Housing Project in Reze, Le Corbusier, with Xenakis. Stochastic systems are also applied to sound, and to urban planning and design.



Ronchamp by Le Corbusier:  Stochastic window patterns.


Stochastic window patterns by Sanaa //  K. Sejima.  Stochastic window pattern, borrowed from Le Corbusier /  Xenakis. 

Neumes: shown above:  Neumes is the basic element of Western and Eastern systems of musical notation.  From the Greek word for breath :  pneuma.  Neume, shown above:  a Gregorian chant.

In the 9th century Neumes became shorthand mnemonic aids for the proper melodic recitation of chant.  Neumatic recitation was first developed in the Eastern Roman Empire (today's sountern Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, and Isreal).  Above:  Gregorian Neumes.  Le Corbusier and Xenakis considered the windows at Ronchamp to have been placed as a 'Neume' - or Neumatic notation of a Chant. 

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Speakers/ Lecturers who presented to the seminar included Prof. Mara Helmuth, who is a Professor at the CCM at University of Cincinnati.  Prof. Helmuth was selected as a presenter because of her broad knowledge about sound, as well as her connection to Harry Partch, John Cage, and David Dunn. 



Le Corbusier and Iannis Xenakis were reviewed in the seminar, as their Modulor established several relationships between architecture, planning, and music and concepts about sound and space.


The class also had its own blog:  http://soundurbanismuc.typepad.com.  Shown above, right, the site of Max Neuhaus's sound installation at Times Square.  Sound Urbanism/ Sound Ecology.


The class looked at sound installations and Landscape Urbanism installations by other programs and other universities.  Above:  ESA Paris:  Landscape Urbanism.


Sound Urbanism /  Sound Ecology UC also looked at Harvard GSD's New Trajectories show, above.


Above:  Harvard GSD:  New Trajectories.

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PIerre Boulez, in his studio in IRCAM, the International Institute for Research and Coordination in Acoustics and Music.  IRCAM is one of the world's largest public research centers dedicated to musical expression and scientific research.

IRCAM:  Above:  IRCAM's International Conference on Mathematics and Computation in Music, 2011.  Pierre Boulez, and Alain Connes, with Gerard Assayaz overviewing the discussion.  The relationship between mathematics, music, sound, architecture, and urban space were part of the Sound Urbanism / Sound Ecology course at the University of Cincinnati, Spring 2013.




The seminar looked at the writings on sound by Blesser and Salter.  Above:  Spelunkers, or people who explore caves, use aural signals to read the spaces that they investigate.




From Blesser and Salter:  In the contemporary world, our sense of space as related to and read by sound, is disrupted by headphones.



Above:  Professional musicians and acousticians us the 'hand clap' as a rough test for room acoustics.

Below:  Cathedrals are fabulous spaces for experiencing sound, as the hard surfaces, with high ceilings, combine to create enormous reverberation times, and create overtones, also referred to as 'echoes'.  It has been stated that in some cathedrals, there is so much reverb, that sounds can continue for ten minutes after an orchestra or choir have stopped performing.

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Shown above:  an anechoic chamber -  a space without any echo.  A room designed to absorb reflections of sound.  Next to that -  a diagram of two parabolic mirrors, facing each outher.  Parabolic mirrors are capable of fusing spaces that are separated by up to a quarter mile -  using echo, and reflected sound.

Both of these are tools to use for understanding sound, sound waves, sound ecology, and sound urbanism.

Above:  installations by artist Erwin Redl.  Erwin is an internationally known installation artist who also composes soundworks, and frequently for his LED light installations.  Sound Urbanism and Sound Ecology.

Above:  Le Corbusier and Iannis Xenakis developed 'the Modulor', an intelligent proportioning system.  Edgar Varese worked closely with Le Corbusier and also with Xenakis, developing a score for their Phillips Pavilion. 

Phillips Pavilion was a beautiful form, designed to project sound.  We will never know what the Pavilion was like.  As an idea, Phillips Pavilion has effected change in architecture, incluiding contemporary movements such as sound urbanism, and sound ecology.

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Physics written on Glass // Urban Design and Woven Fabric // Victoria Meyers architect

Process:  Duchamp:   Framed Glass.   This refers to architects hMa's process (Victoria Meyers architect) in designing DWi-P :  Digital Water i-Pavilion.  The building was designed around ideas about how glass can have a presence that exceeds its physical thickness.  The thickness can be determined through its intellectual ideas, which can greatly exceed the physicality of the glass thicnkess.  In the case of Marcel Duchamp's Large Glass, that thickness was processed and presented as a physical rendering of Einstein's Theory of Relativity, cut into the glass surface.  In the case of hMa's WaTER wall, that thickness could be seen as an exposition about the thickness of current ideas about physicality, as related to digital technologies;  and the presentation of a social critique about the increasing scarcity of clean water, even as the world's water levels rise, due to melting ice caps. 



In both cases:  hMa's glass wall, as well as the Duchamp glass, the result was Physics, but also a social critique, written in (on) glass.  These critiques and their 'thicknesses', increase the intellectual thickness of the glass.



hMa's ideas about sound and space, are applied to buildings, as well as to urban spaces.  As master plan architects for Battery Park City's North Neighborhood, hMa overviewed the development of over one-million square feet of LEED certified green construction.  We also overviewed the development of a park system that was linked together by a concept hMa describes as : woven space, as well as by sound, in the installation (not yet achieved) by Ann Hamilton in Teardrop Park, in the Water Wall at Teardrop Park,  and in hMa's digitally interactive wall, at DWi-P.

Above:  Teardrop Park.  This project was conceived as a collaboration between hMa, Michael van Valkenburgh, and the artist, Ann Hamilton.

Above:  Woven Fabric:  hMa conceived the site plan of BPC's North Neighborhood as a 'woven fabric'.  This fabric consisted of a series of parks and buildings that weave together as a single physical fabric, both in terms of their Green Construction, but also by offering several occupiable Green Roofs for public use, including the Irish Hunger Memorial by artist Brian Tolle (below) as well as hMa's Green Roof over their building, DWi-P, publicly accessible from North End Avenue.