How Music can impact an Architectural Space.
When sounds are linked up by the passage of time, they are called music. But if you capture every single note and freeze them all at one moment in time, they become architecture. I believe music is more than just bliss to the ear; it has a physical body that can serve for the pleasure of the eye, too, if you listen with your heart and try to grasp the shape of the flowing melodies and throbbing rhythms. I feel tremendously inspired by the idea of music visualization, how it sheds light on the possibility to break down sequences of sounds into paralleled pieces that share their being at the same moment in time. There is a band I admire very much called Tame Impala, who has always been devoted to creating music that has a strong sense of visual aesthetics. In my opinion, the summit of their artistic exploration came upon the birth of their third studio album, Currents. Lyrically, the album deals with the theme of time and the consequent anxiety, depression and relief; musically, it has a psychedelic sound that matches its artwork series designed by Robert Beatty. In a nutshell, my project is focused on the visualization of the music on Currents.
The final product of this project will be a cardboard architecture about the size of something a little bit larger than a smartphone. Its scale may appear relatively small due to the limited set of tools I have on hand and the sizable amount of detail required to bring the design to its fullest form. Structurally, the architecture will consist of a polygonal-shaped roof and a long, thin body with, ideally, a smooth, metallic looking sphere embedded on one side. I plan to approach the building process part by part, cutting cardboard into small pieces that can be folded and glued together like puzzle pieces making up a complete picture. For example, the roof will be made up of small triangular cardboard pieces, while the main body will be made up of many long, straight cardboard stripes standing next to each other.
A considerable amount of research has come before and led to the building of the project. Inspired by the Tame Impala album, whose genre falls into the larger category of psychedelic art, I took a close look at the history of psychedelic art in general and familiarized myself with its characteristics. Undoubtedly, another significant part of the research process was focused on the album itself, from aspects including but not limited to its artwork design, music composition and lyrical contents. In order for my project to better embody the idea of music visualization, the research touched upon some fundamental concepts in music theory, such as time signature, tempo, chords and mode, every one of which was used to study each of the thirteen songs on the album. Moreover, given that the album already came with a rich visual context, I also delved into the art of Robert Meatty, the artist that created artwork for not only Currents but also a handful of other outstanding albums. In terms of building with cardboard, I also learned from existing cardboard architects and tried to integrate the special characteristics of this material into my very own design.
