Sense of the City: An Alternate Approach to Urbanism, Mirko Zardini(ed), 2005

Product Description

Challenging the dominance of the visual in the urban environment, the exhibition catalogue Sense of the City proposes a re-thinking and re-presenting of the city, and offers a more complex analysis of the qualities, comforts, communication systems, and sensory dimensions of urban life. From darkness and night to urban soundscapes, to the urban air and climate, this book presents a new, “sensorial” approach to urbanism. In defense of public spaces in contemporary cities, writer Cedric Price has observed that “mental, physical, and sensory well-being is required.” Included here is a rich collection of images on the different urban themes addressed in the exhibition, along with a series of insightful and critical essays. Contributors include Constance Classen, David Howes, Norman Pressman, Emily Thompson, and Mirko Zardini. Edited by Mirko Zardini. Hardcover, 6.5 x 9.5 in./320 pgs / Illustrated throughout.

DJ Light, Cinimod Studio, Lima, Peru. 2010

http://www.cinimodstudio.com/dj-light

DJ Light is an immersive public sound and light installation that gives visitors the power to orchestrate an awe-inspiring performance of light and sound across a large public space. It was created for energy company Endesa as the cornerstone of their Christmas celebrations in Lima, Peru.

DJ Light (DJ Luz), Lima 2010 from Cinimod Studio on Vimeo.

http://www.cinimodstudio.com/
http://www.cinimodstudio.com/

Metastasis(Spectral View) , Iannis Xenakis ,1955

Metastasis or Metastaseis (“dialectic transformations”), is an orchestral work by Iannis Xenakis, a Greek composer-architect and a major figure in the postwar development of musical modernism worldwide. He is particularly remembered for the pioneering use of stochastic mathematical techniques in his compositions, including probability (Maxwell-Boltzmann kinetic theory of gases, aleatory distribution of points on a plane, minimal constraints, Gaussian distribution, Markov chains), game theory, group theory, Boolean algebra and Brownian motion.

Metastasis was inspired by Einstein’s view of time (a function of matter & energy) and structured on mathematical ideas by Xenakis’s colleague Le Corbusier. The 1st and 3rd movements don’t have a melodic theme to hold them together, but rather depend on the strength of this conceptualization of time. The 2nd movement does have some sort of melodic element. A fragment of a 12-tone row is used, with durations based on the Fibonacci sequence (1,1,2,3,5,8,13,21,34…)

The preliminary sketch for Metastasis was in graphic notation looking more like a blueprint than a musical score, showing graphs of mass motion and glissandi like structural beams of the piece, with sound frequencies on one axis and time on the other. In this video I tried to display this by presenting the frequency spectrum (0-20.000Hz) of the piece and how Xenakis actually “drew” music.

SWF Symphony Orchestra
Hans Rosbaud, conductor
October 1955