The Poème électronique was a unique experience, originated from the request made by Philips to Le Corbusier for the design of the company’s pavilion at the Brussels World Fair in 1958. The whole project was initiated and directed by Le Corbusier, who also created and/or selected the images for the audiovisual show, with the organized sound composed by Edgar Varèse, and the stunning surfaces of the building designed by Iannis Xenakis. The result was a ground breaking immersive environment, since the space of the Pavilion hosted the audio and the visual materials as integral parts of the architectural design.
Unluckily, such a visionary synthesis of innovative ideas could not stand with its times, and the paradigm was never repeated, or even attempted, again: the Pavilion, notwithstanding the incredible number of spectators (2 millions), was turned down a few months after its inauguration, at the end of the Exposition. The disappearance of the Pavilion makes the Poème électronique a destroyed masterpiece.
What we stl have today are only fragments of the various components (i.e. photos and drafts of the architecture, the projected video in videotape from the Philips archives, a stereo reduction of Varèse’s and Xenakis’ musical pieces).
Virtual Electronic Poem (VEP) is a project realized as a virtual reality (VR) environment that reproduces the experience of the dismantled masterpiece through an accurate philological reconstruction of the original installation. The website looks a bit out of date but the first of two films in this post shows the results of the work. The second shows the Poème électronique as a film rather than in its architectural context. Perhaps someone out there would be good enough to bring the building into a public setting on Second Life?
Urban Screens Melbourne 08 is the third, ground-breaking international conference and multimedia exhibition in a series of worldwide Urban Screens events. It will mark the official launch of the International Urban Screens Association and will take place 3.-8. October at Federation Square, Melbourne.
There are 2 calls for the event which can be found here
Atelier Färbergasse, Vienna
26th March to 4th April
Opening ceremony 25th March, 19:00
One of Gordon Pask’s own installations Colloquy of Mobiles exhibited at Cybernetic Serindipity 1968, ICA, London
“Dancing robots, singing sculptures and growing metal tentacles are just some of the bizarre exhibits that will feature in an exhibition of work inspired by eccentric scientist Gordon Pask, one of the forefathers of cybernetics. Gordon Pask (1928-1996) was a British scientist and artist, whose work was key to the development of cybernetics – the study of systems of communication, control mechanisms and feedback. He worked in academia, the arts and industry, producing poetry, plays, interactive sculptures and teaching machines.”
Usman Haques Evolving Sonic Environments III will be one of the works presented
Focused on the influence of Gordon Pask today, the exhibition’s works range from the practical to the bizarre and include pieces by established artists, architects, designers, academics and students. Work has been inspired by many aspects of Gordon Pask’s work, including his interest in analogue computing and his experiments with electrochemistry.
Roman Kirschner’s Roots (2006)
Co-curator Richard Brown, research artist in residence at the University of Edinburgh’s School of Informatics, said: “In many ways Gordon Pask was too far ahead of his time – many of his ideas about cybernetics are only just coming into fashion now. Most computer scientists have a different way of thinking compared with him and don’t necessarily understand his ideas – they tend to see computers as machines which are told what to do, whereas Pask was much more interested in having a conversation with the computer.”
Richard Roberts ‘Hearing a Reality’ (2007)
The ‘Pask Present’ exhibition follows the ‘Maverick Machines’, held at the University of Edinburgh last year, the first exhibition of art work inspired by Gordon Pask. It will be held at Atelier Färbergasse, Färbergasse 6, A-1010 Vienna, from 26th March to 4th April, open daily from 13:00 to 21:00. (The opening ceremony will take place on 25th March, 19:00)
Without question, my favorite blog. Geoff Manaugh of BLDGBLOG is talking at the Bartlett this coming wednesday. It is open and free to the public. Arrive early to avoid disappointment.
6.30pm Wednesday 23 January 2008
Darwin Lecture Theatre, UCL
Gower Street
London WC1 Map
Architects ‘The Living‘ did a great presentation on their design approach to rapid low cost prototyping of interactive environments and construction techniques last year at the ‘Interactive Architecture & Media’ symposium I organised at Eyebeam last February. They’re currently having an exhibition at the Van Alen Institute gallery in New York running till January 18th, so if your in the area I recommend having a look. Below is a synopsis on their research. Using three parallel tracks of research they are exploring three definitions of the Living City.
1. The living city - a platform for the future when buildings talk to one another
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“In the future, buildings will talk to one another. In the era of ubiquitous computing—as sensors disappear into the woodwork and all kinds of data is transferred instantly and wirelessly—buildings will communicate information about their local conditions to a network of other buildings. Architecture will come to life. Living City is an ecology of facades where individual buildings collect data, share it with others in their social network, and respond to the collective body of knowledge.”
2. An exploration of the vitality of the city through new forms of public space—air and facade
“In the future, public space in the city will be everywhere. Air will be public space. Building facades will be public space. Both will belong equally to everyone in the city, no less valuable than the traditional fixed public space of parks and streets. At the intersection of air and facade, public space will be distributed and dynamic. Architecture will come to life. Living City is a definition of air as public space and building facades as public space.”
3. A prototype facade that breathes in response to air quality
In the future, walls will breathe. Construction materials and systems that have been inert for thousands of years will respond in real time to the dynamic conditions of their surroundings and to a larger network of data. Buildings will host public interfaces to air quality and make visible the invisible conditions of the environment. Architecture will come to life. Living City is a full-scale building skin designed to open and close its gills in response to air quality.”
Here’s a last minute plug for “Capture & Context“, an exhibition opening at the Bartlett in London tomorrow. The exhibition presents the work of current EngD students at the Bartlett exploring innovative approaches to Virtual Environments, Imaging and Visualization. It will show work in progress towards their individual research goals, representing a cross section of multi-stranded concerns, ranging from computer vision and real-time rendering to simulation and design optimization, overlaping fields of expertise in computer science, architecture, engineering and complex systems science. Exhibitors include Mojtaba Bahrami, Erica Calogero, Sean Hanna, Katrin Jonas, Chris Leung, Karen Martin, Abel Maciel, Alastair Moore, Jamie O’Brien, James Tompkin. Check out the website for more details.
