Can music be a kind of architecture experience? 21_21 Design Sight will show you how…
Text by: Fiammetta Cesana
Yugo Nakamura has directed an immersive installation, based on films, web and interface design, where you will be driven into a new perception of music. In this dynamic environment, music pieces – written by musician Keigo Oyamada (Cornelius) – are repeated paired to films over and over, creating a profound connection between sound, video and space.
Any spacial element is intrinsically related to music, making the audio itself an integral part of the whole architecture. Videos, graphics and texts, each with its own identity, co-exist in the space harmoniously thanks to music structures.
“Early last summer, as I was standing in a book store in Futako-Tamagawa Station reading the ladies’ magazine GINZA, I happened upon an essay by Sean Ono Lennon about a new album just released by the Japanese artist Cornelius. In the essay, I encountered a phrase he used to describe the music of Cornelius, “He paints a kind of audio architecture.” Audio architecture! That was exactly the expression I was looking for, and I began to think about a composition of exhibit based on these words; and it became “AUDIO ARCHITECTURE” Exhibition” – Yugo Nakamura
If we think about music indeed, this medium has in itself a specific form of architecture, composed by layers of tones, sonic range and rhythmic motion. The exhibition aims to make visitors conscious of this precise structure by blurring the line between music and the surrounding space.
Music reveals a new architectural reality, not visible through the eyes but experienced through the ears. Differently from other spacial elements, music keeps changing over the time, giving moment by moment always new feelings to the audience.
As it lives only in the present time, music is almost unachievable by any other medium: you can’t explain music in written words, but you have to directly experience it… “Writing about music is like dancing about architecture”.
So this exhibition attempts to find ways to get as close to music as possibile, in order to capture the instantaneous audio existence.
AUDIO ARCHITECTURE
21_21 Design Sight, Tokyo
June 28 – October 14, 2018