new york NEW YORK
Columbnia GSAPP
Critic: Steven HOLL and Dimitra TSACHRELIA

Assembly of the Ordinary is a museum project for Edgard Varese who is often referred as “the forefather of electronic music”. He wrote a composition for the 1958 Dutch Pavilion designed by Le Corbusier. Similar to Varese’s composing strategy of organizing the ordinary sounds recorded from the streets, we design a soft surface that wraps around and organizes the heterogeneous “ordinary neighborhood”. The “ordinary things” are represented as the volumes of a soda can, a light bulb etc. Each transforms into a designated space such as a balcony for auditorium, a sound booth, an elevator, floating above the auditorium. The large cone above the stage is where the descending light meets the ascending sound and connects different levels visually and acoustically.

sP: What or who influenced this project?
LT & XA: Isamu Noguchi ‘s sculpture is a major influence. Duchamp. Mas Yendo. Enric Miralles’ drawings, the speculative realism theory, and our previous professor Amber Bartosh’s work FACE-tious. I was also reading a discussion between Mark Wigley and Rem Koolhaas on Casa da Musica. And of course Steven Holl’s “bottles of light” in church of St.Ignatius.

sP: What were you reading/listening to/watching while developing this project?
LT & XA: I listened to Edgard Varèse day and night, and was addicted to DOTA 2.

sP: What work is currently on your radar?
LT & XA: Juya Ishigami, 3XN, Ibanez Kim, OPEN Architecture, archdekk