Mirages - Translation between Music, Landscape, Architecture

Translations ARC411

Mirages Designed and presented by: Henrik Cheung

Background Venice, the city of mirage Venice is a sinking city. My design idea is to propose a superimposed self-organized city above the existing island.

Cultural layer and human involvement As now I’m zooming in into building and human scale, I would like to integrate this opportunity to explore the interactions between people and architecture.

01

Italian cultural layer Italian music and architecture will be used as drivers

02

Interactivity Human interaction with architecture is another main exploration focus in this project

Concepts Park Guell by Gaudi (1909) “One of the most cybernetic structures in existence� Gordon Pask

Background, ceramic tiles, people Background is always changing; like any always-changing landscape. The ceramic tiles are sourced mix of wastes and arts. Architecture is another layer of experience. People are also part of the scene, the third part of the scenery.

01

Landscape and arts Landscape

and

art

piece

are

considered together as a system, just different layers.

02

Participants and observers Instead of only concentrating on what participants can see, observers/tourists should both be considered equally

Methodology – 3 elements Park Guell provides a “tri-element framework” for this translation project. (1) Background scenery = Landscape; (2) Ceramic tiles = Music; (3) Tourists’ derives = Architecture

element 1: landscape

element 2: music

element 3: architecture

1. landscape I chose Venice’s underwater topography as my Landscape element as water city is the main theme of my studio project.

landscape: Venice

underwater topography

translation: music

Venice bathymetry

Pixelize and analyze

Extraction

2. Music (superseded idea) I initially chose two pieces of two Italian composers Domenico Scarlatti and Ennio Morricone. One piece serves as a structure while the second piece’s intentional wrong notes will be played as texture to create visuals. However, this is disconnected from previous step.

Scarlatti: content

Morricone: texture

translation: visuals

2. Music Instead of a piece of music, I referenced Scarlatti’s Cat in which motion composed a music. After discussion with Aven, I integrate participant’s motions into the Venice topography transformations, thus, the music changes, followed by an added layer of music.

Scarlatti’s cat

motion

translation: Venice & music

Try!

3. Architecture (selection) I chose Musmeci Bridge as the architecture element. At first, I simply think the rhythmic elevation is an obvious baseground to start with iterations. After discussion with Carlos, participant perspective is a much more interesting to explore.

Musmeci Bridge

rhythmic elevation

participant perspective

Construct

Deconstruct

Interact

3. Architecture (ss idea) I then started exploring ways using hands as attractor points of interacting with the architecture. Or an attractor curve can be remotecontrolled by external observers. After experiments, we found it is difficult to comprehend and technically unstable (intranet needed).

interactive inspiration

Electrified, 2012, David Blaine

hands as points

remote control curve points

3. Architecture At last, I try to combine aforementioned elements together. There are average 4 notes being played from the landscape generation.

What if two participants’ two hands are connected to form an attractor curve to control the bridge point cloud?

average 4 points

form a curve

interactive transformation

Try!

Points

Lines

Faces

Result In conclusion, Venice underwater topography is transformed into music, and human motion as a “Scarlatti’s cat” will transform the landscape, thus the music changes. At last, Musmeci Bridge serves as an interactive scenario for more than a people to perform.

landscape > music

music > landscape + music

architecture > journey

Conclusion I think last time the AI is like asking “What do you think about it?” from “designer” perspective. This time, we are thinking from a “participant” standpoint.

How have you used it as design approach?

As we are now working on an urban project, I haven’t been “absorbed” into my own design yet. This exercise in parallel of the building scale design reminds me the potential interactivity between human and architecture.

How are important interdisciplinary approaches in Design ?

Potentially, it is more “necessary” in the future rather than “important”. It is because design is a discipline that welcomes misunderstanding. And it echoes the question by Cedric Price “Technology is the answer, but what was the question?” Therefore, more experimental and interactive approaches, more architectural possibilities can be explored.

Mirages Designed and presented by: Henrik Cheung

Mirages Designed and presented by: Henrik Cheung

Mirages Designed and presented by: Henrik Cheung

Mirages Designed and presented by: Henrik Cheung