Surprisingly, three out of four chose the same piece! But, they all chose the wrong piece. Which is quite interesting, as the chance of three people choosing that same number, is about 1 in 20.

The pieces were:
Dave Brubeck – Take Five
Beethoven: Mondscheinsonate
Miles Davis: Summertime
Chopin: Nocturne Op. 9 No. 2

Three out of four people have chosen Take Five. The fourth chose Summertime. Both are jazz songs, while the beethoven music is classical.

Based on the argumentation for their choices, I’m changing the ‘rules’ I’ve used for the design. Most prominent elements for choosing the jazz song, is the harsh diference in lighting, and the complete randomness of the columns in some places, associated with improvisation. Also, the composition was perceived as too full, associated with a higher tempo. These aspects will be changed for the next model.

I have designed the space, and modeled it in Maya. The lighting is still a problem, I can’t get it the way I want it.

Rudy has given me some helpful pointers on how I might improve my interpretation. The volumes decribing the melody aren’t as eyecatching as I’d imagined, this could be improved by making them bigger, but that would limit the supposed usability (I’m imagining it could be some sort of exhibition room). Colour might help to make them stand out more. 

An other pointer was the bass line, in the floor. The height difference could be to local, to much focused around the theme objects. Maybe it should be sloped more gently.

Though I think these changes would improve the design, I will do the first test with the current model.

I will finish the lighting as soon as possible, and then go for it. I’ll upload the animation later.

Today, the goal for today is to design a translation, based on a set ‘ method’, which for now only exists in my head. Though it may change during the modeling, I will write a short description, explaining how and why I link the specific elements.

The piece is built on four aspects. First, there is the motif, which runs through the entire piece, stringing the different parts together. It stays the same for a long time, but at the end and around the middle of the piece there is a distinct variation.  The motif is something which is quite regular throughout the piece/space, and becomes dominant when it is varied upon. In architecture, this can be associated with a pattern of windows, columns, etcetera, for example the repetition of window frames in our studio. Though it’s quite obvious, it doesn’t catch the eye. But if someone were to take out several frames, and put in something on big frame, that specific change would certainly be more apparent. In the translation, I will use a grid of columns. thin ones, so they are visible, but won’t dominate the space (hopefully). Then, where the musical motif varies, the grid will be altered.

The second element is the theme/melody. The melody is the most pronounced in the music. It’s what one hums when one hums music. It is also not a constant line, but several somewhat separated parts. The melody in archtiecture can be several volumes, objects, in space, which are the eyecatchers, the things we remember. The exact form and size of the volumes is a difficult subject. I hope to figure this out during the modeling.

The third aspect is the bass line. The bass line accentuates the themes, and variations in the motif. In the architecture, it should do just that, accentuate variations in the column grid, and the theme objects. This could be done with a small, but noticeable, change in floor height.

The final aspect is the dynamics, the loudness of the music. The piece starts really soft (pianissimo), then gradually gets louder (crescendo) and softer again (decrescendo). This happens several times. When the notes are played louder, especially the higher tones which form the melody get more pronounced. In architecture, light has a similar effect. Hard direct light makes shapes more distinguishable then soft diffuse light. So as the music varies in loudness, the space will have a varying lighting.

Some of these aspects aren’t quite clear yet, but they should, during the modeling.

The idea is to take a specific piece of music, which is composed on a set of rules. These rules will be analysed, and an architectural form will be based on the same set of rules. In order to somewhat transfer the mood of the music, determinative elements will be selected as parameters, which influence several architectural elements. This relation will not be a direct one, as two elements will not have the exact same meaning in music and architecture, but serve as an indication.

To test the hypothesis, a questionaire will be used, in which people are presented the design, and have to choose from a number of musical pieces the piece on which the architecture has been based.

The selected piece of music is the Moonlight Sonata, by Beethoven. The sonata form has a strict set of rules, which make it suitable for a translation. A further analysis on the sonata form and the chosen piece is needed, in order to specify the determinative elements.

The scenes where then rendered (in SketchUp, with Podium). The results is are interesting pictures, which otherwise don’t appear to have any relation with the music, except maybe the rhythm which is somewhat noticable. 

So what do we learn from this? When one has the music, he might be able to recognise the link. Or he may not. Either way, it doesn’t really ad anything. It confirms that this (above) isn’t the way to approach this research.

One is presented two doodles of characters. One is pointy, like a star or sun, while the other is round. When asked which of both would be Kiki, and which one would be called Bobo, about 90% (if not more) of the people choose the sharp character is Kiki (keekee), and the round one is Bobo. This is because the sound of the ‘i’ is considered a sharp sound, while the ‘o’ is a round one.

The same might apply for light. Using the same names, I personally would associate Kiki with hard shadows and direct lighting, while Bobo would be more diffuse and soft shadowed. Or in music, Kiki would be a higher tone. I guess the i in Kiki is indeed a higher tone than the o in Bobo. A higher tone would be consistent with a stronger shadow. Continuing on the lighting, a louder tone would be associated with more luminancy, while a softer tone would be less. In a spatial form, for example a curving wall or a series of spaces, a louder tone could be associated with more reliëf, or a larger space.

Though I do not intend to end up with a literal translation, I might try to do this with a light scale and music, just to see what the visual effect will be. It would certainly make a cool windows media player visualisation.

Considering the previous post about Xenakis, a good way in using music/poetry could be to analyse it’s basic elements (rhythm, pitch, etc) and use those to make an architectural form. Not as a direct input-output relation, but as two separate works, based on the same underlying principles. The architecture for instance wouldn’t have the exact same  sequence in pitch, but it could have a similar distribution in high and low tones and abrupt or fluent transitions between them.

A problem which I haven’t mentioned yet, but which I have discussed with my instructor Rudy, is the element of time. In music and (spoken word) poetry, time is an important factor. In architecture it is not, as it is static mostly. A solution could be to make the architectural experience dynamic. A series of spaces, which is experienced in a sequence, can introduce the element of time in architecture. A continuously transforming space can do this as well. But when introducing the element of time in the architecture, there is also the problem of ‘freedom’. When one has time in both architecture as music, it will be more difficult to make architecture which is inspired by the music, rather than a direct translation of it.

too limited a number of elements results in an arid and predictable composition, too many elements make it impossible to aesthetically control the resulting configurations.

…. he considered the problem on a more general level, above the individual elements, by replacing the concept of rhythm by that of density (in the ense of ‘number of events per time or length unit’). Rather than considering the individual distances between the upright casings, he now demarcated zones in the facade where a higher or lower number of casings per length unit would be rewuired and then decided how the transition between these two states would occur: fluently or abruptly. - Muecke, Resonance: Essays on the Intersection of Music and Architecture, p25-26

This compostion wasn’t directly related to a specific piece of music, but more to the underlying principles of composition of music and architecture. I will do a small test on what happens if I try to base it on a specific piece of music. (I probably won’t come anywhere near my research goal, but the idea of linking density to rhythm might prove useful)

the mood of music (and poetry) can to some extent also be achieved by means of architectural devices such as (but not limited to) composition of space and light.

I will do some background research into all elements of architecture, music and poetry which I believe are important in setting the mood, and explore ways to ‘translate’ these from music to architecture. Translation of music to architecture has been tried numeral times by various architects and designers. Usually, an algorithm is used to translate these 1 on 1. By doing so, the goal of my research, translating the mood, is lost, as the link between the music and the architectural form is only recognisable when one knows the algorythm.

The method I will try to develop is not so much focused on a 1 on 1 literal translation, which can be translated back again, but focuses more on the, let’s say, interpretational side. The architectural form will be inspired by the music or poetry. The result will therefore not be a strict formula which acts as a black box that automatically creates a form based on an input, but a set of guidelines on how several elements might be ‘translated’ into architecture. The term translation should maybe be replaced by a term such as transformation or interpretation. During this research, I will primairily be focusing on composition of space and light, because of the limited amoud of time, but other devices won’t be thoughtlessly discarded or ignored.

To test the hypothesis, an interpretation method will be developed, which will be used on ideally several examples, say seven. Through a questionary, people will be presented the seven inputs and outputs, and asked to sort out the pairs. Then, the average score will be calculated and this will be used to determine how succesful the test is. A low score, up to 3 out of 7, can be achieved by random guessing, 4 is already a lot harder to guess, and chances on 5 or 7 out of 7 are very slim. 

Probably there won’t be enough time to do more than one interpretation. To test this, people can be showed the output, and asked to select the right music/poem out of a set. Or vice versa, the music/poem can be showed, and the corresponding architectural form has to be selected.

Resonance: Essays on the Intersection of Music and Architecture -  Mikesch W. Muecke, Miriam S. Zach

Pamphlet Architecture 16: Architecture as a Translation of Music – Martin, Elizabeth

Poetics of Architecture: Theory of Design – Antoniades, Anthony C

Semiotic discipline in architectural design – Turrin, M

Music Notation and Terminology - Karl Wilson Gehrkens

Light-zone(s): as Concept and Tool – Madsen, Merete

So tomorrow will be a day spent mostly in the library.

I will also send an email to Alex Dragulescu, to ask about his method for translating text into ‘architecture’.