RECAP #2 - "The Sound of Architecture" at Yale School of Architecture

Yale School of Architecture
"The Sound of Architecture"
October 5, 2012 11:00am - 1pm

Puck, Wagner, and the Hollywood Bowl

I’m not sure whether it was my intensifying hunger and/or my craving for a hot caffeinated beverage and/or the thick foreign accents of the next speakers, but I was not as alert during the following presentations and my recaps may suffer as a result...

ON STAGE

Beat Wyss “Simultaneity and Succession: The Stuff of Dreams on Stage”
                Wyss introduced his talk as the joining together of Shakespeare and Palladio via the theater in Vicenza, Italy. If you ask me how in fact he did this, I would be at a loss to say specifically. It was my impression that he used stage direction from the Shakespeare play “Midsummer Night’s Dream” overlaid with images of Palladio’s Teatro Olimpico in Vicenza to illustrate the context for which the “Dream” was created. Overall, it felt as though Wyss only got through half of the intended lecture and was therefore unable to close the loop he had first proposed. How this talk addressed the over arching theme of “sound and architecture” I am still not sure.

Teatro Olimpico

Dorothea Baumann “Gottfried Semper, Richard Wagner, and the Changing Acoustic Conditions for Music Theater in the 19th Century”
               I quite enjoyed Baumann’s talk which covered a wide range of evolving theater structures referring back to the first inspirational trip Gottfried Semper took to Pompeii in the 1830’s. She tracked the influence of the Pompeian theaters from the Sydenham Crystal Palace antique theater reconstruction through several iterations of temporary German structures originally conceived of as provisional theaters for a limited number of debut performances. At this point Wagner appears on the stage (hehe) as he adapts an unrealized project by Semper for a Munich opera house, and supervises its construction in Bayreuth, Germany. This theater incorporates parallel side walls, semi-circular seating, a second proscenium, and a sunken orchestra pit partially hidden beneath the stage itself (an important development in the evolution of theater design). At this point Baumann presented a series of slides which addressed basics of sound behavior within theater spaces. She cited the influential acoustician Leo Beranek and noted the importance of integrated signal reception consisting of the direct signal, wall reflections, ceiling reflections and stage reflections. Her blending of historical information, technical details, and the human characters of Semper and Wagner, made for a rich and well rounded lecture on the topic.

Theaters at Pompeii

Bayreuth Festspielhaus

Craig Hodgetts “The Ear, the Eye, and the Space”
               At this point it was refreshing to have an architect present some realized work, as it became increasingly clear that the majority of speakers did not come from an architectural background and which was, in my opinion, ultimately detrimental to the symposium as a whole. In any case, Hodgetts was straightforward and to the point, walking the audience through three full projects and quickly skimming over a fourth. Hodgetts began with his work on the Grauman’s Egyptian Theater for American Cinematheque, originally built in 1922 and restored and renovated multiple times before Hodgetts became involved. The task was to renovate the theater overall, preserving the original decor and atmosphere of the space while simultaneously improving upon the acoustics for contemporary movie viewing (which requires a very dry/absorptive environment). The solution included a series of moving acoustical panels which were retracted as the audience filed in, but which extended into place at the start of a film. The next project presented was The Wild Beast Music Pavilion at CalArts. The pavilion is a flexible space which is required to accommodate multiple programs (though not necessarily simultaneously) including a recital hall, rehearsal room, outdoor hall, classroom etc. Basically the structure has to perform well acoustically while taking into account a variety of source locations and sizes. Quite a challenge! Dynamic and mechanical structures were once again incorporated into the scheme which included a series of clerestory windows controlled with actuators to open and close according to the type of program being performed. The renovation of the Hollywood Bowl was the last project thoroughly presented. Hodgetts began with a brief history of the Bowl and its evolution (began as a natural amphitheater, then the addition of orchestra shells all the way to Frank Gehry’s sonotube environment). In 1998 Hodgetts + Fung were asked to update the site which resulted in the enlargement of the shell and the incorporation of computer controlled acoustic louvers which respond specifically to the atmospheric conditions in addition to performance parameters. One of the most interesting aspects of this strategy is that the Hollywood Bowl now possesses a database of information which tracks conditions and allows for the optimization of the louvers. To me, this kind of responsive and informed architecture has the potential to be a valuable step in the evolution of buildings.   

RECAP #1 - "The Sound of Architecture" at Yale School of Architecture

Yale School of Architecture

"The Sound of Architecture"

October 5, 2012  9:00am - 11:00am

“One man’s noise is another man’s signal.” - Barry Blesser

On Friday at 8:30am I pulled into the parking garage on York St. in New Haven and headed over to the Yale School of Architecture for the morning session of the symposium entitled, “The Sound of Architecture.” Though I missed the introductory lecture by Brigitte Shim from the night before, the main bulk of the talks were held on Friday and Saturday to a consistent, though relatively modest, audience often made up of other panelists and a few devoted attendees (like myself). I was surprised by this fact as I was anticipating a really large crowd, which only appeared on the Thursday evening keynote lecture given by Liz Diller of Diller Scofidio + Renfro.

The morning portion was presented in the basement auditorium in the Paul Rudolph building on campus and kicked off with the theme “Listening to Architecture”. And so the recap begins:

LISTENING TO ARCHITECTURE

Barry Blesser and Linda-Ruth Salter “Spatial Design Changes the Eventscape”
               Barry Blesser, a short man with a graying beard and suspenders, structured his talk around the position that the “language of aural architecture” is one that is, as yet, unformed and in need of extensive development. His presentation of several terms including: aural mass, acoustic horizon, localization, enveloping reverb, and perceived aural distance, aimed to illustrate that a framework for meaningful discussion of the relations between the behavior of sound and the built environment is necessary and must be addressed. Blesser also stated that while auralization is underdeveloped in our culture it can be improved with formal ear training (similar to that of musicians) as nobody is born with a refined sensory awareness of sound. He was adamant that in order to change the lack of sensitivity to aural environments in the design field, ear training must be introduced into architecture schools. I certainly agree with the need to integrate the auditory dimension into the education of architects who shape the built environment and influence our ways of occupying spaces, however, I can see that is it quite an obstacle particularly as there are currently few programs which even address architectural acoustics in the context of their core courses (this differs from the generally required courses on daylighting strategies). Blesser continued by describing the unique characteristics of sound, for instance: that it flows around obstacles and in openings, that it reveals the interior of objects, and that it is never static, but most importantly (to me anyway), that there is no sound without ACTION. This fact is one that is crucial in order the understand the inherent complexity and unpredictable nature of sound and its perpetual interaction with architectural spaces, namely, that architecture is activated by its occupants and subsequently by the sonic environment produced by those activities. Within the next several slides of bulleted points (quite a dry visual presentation actually, consisting only of text, ugh) I honed in on another concept: that the ears control the direction of visual focus...the ears tell the eyes where to look. While this might seem obvious, I found that the more I thought about it, the more interesting this idea was to me. In a culture that is generally accepted to be dominated by the visual sense, we still depend heavily on the preliminary processing of signals gathered by the ears in order to filter and direct that which is taken in through the eyes. All in all, I was happy to have had the opportunity to hear Blesser speak, as I feel that he has a strong stance and a unique perspective (though not a designer) and through his book “Spaces Speak, Are you Listening” has become an invaluable resource to those of us delving into the study of architecture and its relationship with the sound that is both shaped by it and animates it.

Peter Szendy “Sounding Out”
               My notes for the beginning of Szendy’s lecture include a quote by Adolf Loos (“You can fool the souls of people, but not the souls of material.”) and the observation that for Franz Kafka, a door can have an almost bodily sound (see “Great Noise” by Kafka, 1911). My notes, fragmented as they are, render me unable to reconstruct the thread that tied these together (this will happen from time to time) so I will move on. Szendy soon peaked my interest with mention of “mediate auscultation,” a term first introduced by René-Théophile-Hyacinthe Laënnec. “Mediate auscultation” refers to the listening to the internal sounds of the body using a stethoscope. Laënnec was concerned with diseases of the chest, and by observing and appropriating the ability of a wooden beam to transport the sound of a pin scratching its surface on one end all the way to the other, invented the stethoscope. This new mode of listening (previously “immediate auscultation” required that the physician put their ear directly on the patient's’ body), allowed for the effective and less intrusive auditory penetration of the “thickness of bodies and its constituent elements”. In particular, auscultation was sensitive to the spacing of sounds and effective in discriminating where they occur. This type of analytical listening, or “sounding out” became evident as the theme of the lecture (hence its title) which continued with an engaging sequence that moved to comics (Daredevil’s radar) via military devices for listening, and ended by touching upon the echo-tectonics discussed by Athanasius Kircher, and a brief mention of the cave in Syracuse, Italy, known as the Ear of Dionysus famous for its acoustic properties. Szendy concluded by stating that “space is not a neutral background for hearing” and indeed it is not. Space is actively modulating and augmenting the aural environment that we perceive and as such must be considered as a mediator as profoundly important as the stethoscope.

Raj Patel and Alban Bassuet “Acoustics, Architecture, and Music: “Understanding the Past and Present, Shaping the Future”
                Patel and Bassuet, both acousticians at Arup, took us on a whirlwind introduction of the company’s work, quickly moving through images ranging from opera houses (Sydney Opera House, Oslo Opera House) to spatial installations (Serpentine Pavilions, Park Avenue Armory). They then stepped back in time with an image of the cave paintings at Lascaux illustrating that the paintings were specifically placed within the cave to coincide with the sound character of the animals depicted. They then quickly (it always felt “quick” because they both talked so fast!) moved from Tibetan stupas and the pyramids of Chichen Itza to the rooms for which European composers such as Hayden specifically wrote for. I felt as though all of this information had the potential to develop into several separate and rich lectures, however, they pressed on with a presentation of the ways in which the acoustic signature for designed spaces could be visualized. Here they stepped into the present day, discussing the current desire for immersive and multi-sensory experiences and the challenges it poses in terms of technical performance in conjunction with the human experience (illustrated with images of Gehry's Disney Concert Hall in LA, New World Symphony Concert hall in Miami Beach and current projects including the Constellation Center in Cambridge, MA and the Issue Project Room in Brooklyn). To wrap up, Bassuet and Patel spoke about the high-tech Arup Sound Lab, where, through a process of auralization, clients can listen to the “sound environment” of their proposed architecture acting, in a way, like an aural rendering of the site. The “Be Open Sound Portal”, recently seen on ArchDaily here, employs the same technique in order to allow visitors to experience the acoustics of a range of spaces (ie. Sydney Opera House) simply by sitting within their highly engineered pavilion in Trafalgar Square. Somehow I am not so excited by the prospect of divorcing the sound environment of spaces from the very architectures that define them, but that just might be me...
 
Brian Kane “Acousmatic Phantasmagoria”
                Kane presented a well organized talk which argued the interrelatedness of acousmatic phantasmagoria, transcendence, and techne. He laid out several points through which he developed this position, beginning with the definition of an acousmatic sound which is a sound one hears without seeing the source. Kane proceeded with examples including the obscured orchestra pits of mid-19th century German concert halls (an architectural form which came up in more than one presentation over the course of the symposium) as well as the strategically placed choir lofts (with obscuring grills) near the frescoed ceiling at La Chiesa Santi Domenico e Sisto. In this case, the choir loft location, with visual obstruction but acoustic transparency, succeeded in creating the illusion of heavenly voices emanating from the depicted heavens. These examples, Kane argues, illustrate the desire for transcendence, in particular with regards to musical performances, which could effectively be achieved through the splitting of the visual and aural using methods of physical obstruction and spatial placement.

Overall, the initial morning session was intellectually stimulating and quite engaging. I found myself eagerly awaiting the second half of the session, “On Stage,” though I became distractingly hungry early on which was most certainly detrimental to my note-taking and mental focus!
 

notes

Yosa Buson - poet

                 The sound of a bell

struck off center

               vanishes in haze.

"The Sound of Architecture" at Yale School of Architecture

I'm looking forward to attending this symposium at Yale University School of Architecture in a few weeks! Stay tuned for my observations/comments/responses...
 

SYMPOSIUM: “THE SOUND OF ARCHITECTURE”

Thursday–Saturday, October 4–6, 2012

Yale School of Architecture

Architecture is not tone deaf: It can create silent places and eddies of noise, deeply affecting our experience and facilitating or frustrating communication. Buildings have long been thought of in visual and practical terms, leaving their aural dimension largely unconsidered. Today, the ways we listen in built spaces have been transformed by developments in media, music, and art. New design tools are helping architects shape the soundscapes of their buildings, while new audio technologies afford access to previously undetected sonic environments.

This symposium, convened by Kurt W. Forster and Joseph Clarke, will draw on a variety of disciplinary expertise in its quest for an understanding of architecture as an auditory environment. Leading scholars from fields as diverse as archeology, media studies, musicology, philosophy, and the history of technology will converge at the Yale School of Architecture to discuss critical questions alongside major architects, acoustical engineers, composers, and artists. The Sound of Architecture aims to stake out a new set of questions for ongoing scholarly inquiry and to reaffirm architecture as a place of convergence among old and emerging disciplines.

website: http://www.architecture.yale.edu/drupal/events/symposia 
Free registration: http://www.architecture.yale.edu/dmonline/database/symposium/_symposium_registration_add.php.

Thursday, Oct 4

6:30 pm Welcome
    Yale School of Architecture Dean Robert A. M. Stern
Overture
    Kurt W. Forster (School of Architecture, Yale University)
Lecture: “Ways of Seeing Sound: The Integral House”
    Brigitte Shim (Shim-Sutcliffe, Toronto)

8:30 pm Reception
 
Friday, Oct 5

9:00 am Session 1: Listening to Architecture
The audibility of space is introduced and key questions are raised about its phenomenological manifestations, opening up the intertwined histories of architecture and listening.  Moderator: Mark Jarzombek (Department of Architecture, Massachusetts Institute of Technology)

“Spatial Design Changes the Eventscape”
    Barry Blesser and Linda-Ruth Salter (Blesser Associates, Belmont, Massachusetts)
“Sounding Out”
    Peter Szendy (Département de Philosophie, Université Paris Ouest)
“Acoustics, Architecture, and Music: Understanding the Past and Present, Shaping the Future”
    Raj Patel and Alban Bassuet (Arup Acoustics, New York)
“Acousmatic Phantasmagoria”
    Brian Kane (Department of Music, Yale University)

11:00 am Break
11:15 am Session 2: Sound on Stage
Architecture’s channeling of social forces through aural and visual experience is often founded on paradigms of musical and dramatic performance.  Moderator: Ariane Lourie Harrison (School of Architecture, Yale University)

“Simultaneity and Succession: The Stuff of Dreams on Stage”
    Beat Wyss (Staatliche Hochschule für Gestaltung, Karlsruhe, Germany)
“Gottfried Semper, Richard Wagner, and the Changing Acoustic Conditions for Music Theater in the Nineteenth Century”
    Dorothea Baumann (Musikwissenschaftliches Institut, Universität Zurich)
“The Ear, the Eye and the Space”
    Craig Hodgetts (Hodgetts Plus Fung Design and Architecture, Culver City, California)

1:00 pm Lunch Break

2:00 pm Session 3: Architecture Mediating Sound
When architecture assumes a form of media technology, the functions of aural communication and isolation are registered in a culture of sonic controls.  Moderator: Mario Carpo (School of Architecture, Yale University)

“Constructing Silences in the Ancient World: Identifying Acoustical Seclusion and Detachment in the Archaeological Record”
    Graeme Lawson (McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, University of Cambridge)
“Sound Networks and the Public Sphere”
    Carlotta Darò (Ecole nationale superieure d'architecture Paris Malaquais)
“Making Sense: New Media and Social Space”
    Joel Sanders (Joel Sanders Architect, New York)
“The Mormon Tabernacle as Theologically Embedded Soundspace”
    John Durham Peters (Department of Communication Studies, University of Iowa)

4:00 pm Break

4:15 pm Session 4: Representing Acoustic Environments
While sound is often a defining characteristic of space, its representation notoriously defies the limits of traditional architectural discourse. Is there a notion of ambient sound and what does it represent?  Moderator: Jack Vees (School of Music, Yale University)

Projection: “Alcatraz”
    Ingram Marshall (School of Music, Yale University)
“Sampling Space: A Simple Theory of Convolution Reverb”
    Jonathan Sterne (Department of Art History and Communication Studies, McGill University)
“Constructing an Acoustic History of Vancouver on Film”
    Randolph Jordan (Department of Cinema Studies, Simon Fraser University)

6:15 pm Break

6:30 pm Lecture: “B+/A-”
Elizabeth Diller (Diller Scofidio + Renfro, New York)

7:45 pm Reception

Saturday, Oct 6
9:00 am Session 5: Civic Noise
The economist Jacques Attali wrote that “any organization of sounds is [...] a tool for the creation or consolidation of a community.” What powers do sounds project and how do they create a definable auratic sphere? How does sound draw together a collective of listeners in space and articulate social fault lines in the city?  Moderator: William Rankin (Department of History, Yale University)

“On the Aural Creation of Urban Communities in Early Modern Italy”
    Niall Atkinson (Department of Art History, University of Chicago)
“The Architecture of Victorian Oratorio”
    Timothy Barringer (Department of the History of Art, Yale University)
“Noise and Public Privacy in the Stethoscopic Era”
    John Picker (Literature Section, Massachusetts Institute of Technology)
“Listening to Carchitecture”
    J. D. Connor (Department of the History of Art, Yale University)

11:00 am Roundtable Discussion: Designing Architectural Soundscapes
Moderator: Michelle Addington (School of Architecture, Yale University)

Alban Bassuet (Arup Acoustics, New York)
Craig Hodgetts (Hodgetts Plus Fung Design and Architecture, Culver City)
Karen van Lengen (School of Architecture, University of Virginia)
Raj Patel (Arup Acoustics, New York)
Joel Sanders (Joel Sanders Architect, New York)

12:30 pm Lunch Break

1:30 pm Session 6: Acoustic Space
How do acoustic phenomena “resonate” through the character of the spatial environment? This session considers how sound affects the social and aesthetic qualities of space itself.  Moderator: Kurt W. Forster (School of Architecture, Yale University)

“Infinite and Intimate Space”
    Sabine von Fischer (Institute for the History and Theory of Architecture, ETH Zürich)
“Acoustic Shadows: Macbeth and the Civil War, Washington, D.C., October 17, 1863”
    Alexander Nemerov (Department of Art & Art History, Stanford University)
“Biology, Environment and Sound: Jakob von Uexküll Revisited”
    Veit Erlmann (School of Music, University of Texas at Austin)
“Shared Space”
    Brandon LaBelle (Artist, Berlin)

3:30 pm Coda
Joseph Clarke (School of Architecture, Yale University)

4:00 pm Closing Reception

Facial Vision - John Hull

At one point in his book, Touching the Rock: An Experience of Blindness, John M. Hull recounts the phenomenon that became particularly noticeable to him a few months after his descent into complete blindness.  In the following passage he describes 'facial vision' or 'echolocation,' when the body senses the presence of a nearby obstacle neither with sight, nor deliberate listening:

"The experience itself is quite extraordinary, and I cannot compare it with anything else I have ever known.  It is like a sense of physical pressure.  One wants to put up a hand to protect oneself, so intense is the awareness.  One shrinks from whatever it is.  It seems to be characterized by a certain stillness in the atmosphere.  Where one should perceive the movement of air and a certain openness, somehow one becomes aware of a stillness, and intensity instead of an emptiness, a sense of vague solidity.  The exact source of the sensation is difficult to locate.  It seems to be the head, yet often it seems to extend to the shoulders and even the arms.  Awareness is greater when the environment is less polluted by sound, and in the silence of my late evening walk home, I am more intensely aware of it.  In a crowded noisy street, the experience is less noticeable, and if I am travelling on somebody's elbow, I never seem to notice the experience at all.  Presumably, I just switch off whatever it is."  (pg. 27)

In addition to this sensitive description of the phenomenon, what I find fascinating is that Hull specifically states that the 'echo location' only becomes apparent when there was absolutely no visual input.  It is a sensing skill that is deeply embedded within the body which emerges only through the complete suppression of the visual sense, almost as a backup guidance system.  Concurrently, the ability to perceive one's environment in such a way is dependent on movement, and the continually shifting relationships between the body the space he inhabits.  Hull also describes that this type of sensing had a definitive spatial range.  At first, his ability to sense presence would only extend 3-5 feet from him, however, with time, and the body's calibration to increased sensitivity, that space stretched to 6-8 feet. 

"I gather from conversations that this experience is essentially acoustic and is based upon awareness of echoes. This certainly fits in with my experience, but at the same time it is important to emphasize that one is not aware of listening.  One is simply aware of becoming aware.  The sense of pressure is upon the skin of the face, rather than upon or within the ears.  That must be why the older name for the experience was "facial vision" (pg. 28)

This description immediately reminded me of the Alvin Lucier piece "Vespers" (1969) in which performers with Sondols (sonar-dolphin), hand-held pulse wave oscillators, explore the acoustic characteristics of given indoor or outdoor spaces by monitoring the echoes of the pulse waves off the walls, floors and ceilings, as well as any objects or obstacles in range of the sound waves. Over time, the listener receives an acoustic signature of the room.  Though the method is both imposed and much more coarse in the composition than in the similar phenomenon that occurs within the body, the concept is the same. 

Abbaye du Thoronet

One of the most acoustically stunning architectural spaces I have ever experienced.

Abbaye du Thoronet
83340 Le Thoronet

http://thoronet.monuments-nationaux.fr/en/

Suspended Sound, Stair - installed!

North Stair, Gund Hall
Cambridge, MA

May 5, 2012 - August 23, 2012

Suspended Sound, Stair is a spatio-phenomenal intervention that challenges occupants’ perception of a particularly reverberant stairwell by creating a gradient of sound absorption and accentuating color temperatures of existing light conditions through the accumulation of semi-transparent fabric.  

This project, which spans four floors, was successfully funded by a Kickstarter campaign and completed with the help of a structural engineer, acoustical engineer, and the Harvard Graduate School of Design Building Services.

 

 

Check out some installation photos here:  http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mkandh/suspended-sound-stair/posts/229768