Professors:
Nigel Whiteley
Vinko Penezić
Krešimir Rogina
Time:
9–17 August 2008
Liquid Frames: Architecture and Music
In the past, the relationship between architecture and music has been indistinct and fuzzy. The idea that architecture is frozen music was just a metaphor, referring to the commonality of orders, rhythms and ratios. Architecture once provided an enabling framework for music – concert hall or nightclub – but it could not respond to, or interact with, music. Now, music has exploded out of particular places designed to house and regulate it because of the mobility of music through Walkmans, followed by MP3 players and iPods. Laptops and mobiles link us to music libraries, and YouTube puts us in touch with performances and events.
Our relationship to music has changed in the last quarter century: music is now everywhere and nowhere: ubiquitous, placeless and intense. It can be private and personal, an interior sound to a silent soul; or it can be public and shared, an exterior expression of active bodies. Music can be planned, shuffled or spontaneous; created, recreated or imitated; performed, acted or mimed.
This transformation in music must have profound repercussions for architecture, but we have hardly begun to think of them. The Symposium will explore the connections and complexions between architecture and music. For example, if architecture used to be “frozen music” in the age of classicism, what is it now in an age of individualism?
How can new forms of music shape styles of architecture? Is there an architectural equivalent to John Cage, Philip Glass, Radiohead? [or whoever you like!]
How can architects and designers respond to new modes of experiencing music?
Can public and private space actively interact?
Does digital design offer an active architectural experience of music?
Does the privacy and placelessness of music negate architecture, or liberate it?
As Grožnjan has been the city of music for years one find it the perfect place to investigate the complex relations of Architecture and Music in an exceptionally relaxed atmosphere.
JMI CENTRE GROŽNJAN
Umberta Gorjana 2, 52429 Grožnjan, Croatia
groznjanschoolofarchitecture@gmail.com