Invisible Cities:
Concept City, Remote Cities,
Nature and Music
Outline
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Italo Calvino & The Invisible Cities
Your Views?
Patterns of the Invisible Cities
Other Kinds of Invisible Cities
The Music Garden
Conclusion?
Italo Calvino
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One of the world's foremost
postmodern authors;
Calvino is listed alongside
Philip Johnson's AT&T building,
Disneyland, Monthey Python,
Max Headroom, and Donald
Bartheleme as the most
prominent 'icons' of
postmodernism (Pilz)
Structure of
Invisible
Cities
Different Kinds
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Cities and memory.
Cities and desire.
Cities and signs.
Thin cities.
Trading cities
Cities and eyes.
Cities and names.
Cities and the dead
Cities and the sky.
Continuous cities.
Hidden cities.
Outline of our Reading
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Marco Polo’s talk to Kubla Khan
1.
a.
b.
The invisible will not perish;
Description of cities with gestures and language; the
emperor’s responses
2.
a.
b.
The past is always ahead of us; elsewhere is a negative
mirror
From gestures to words and back to gesture; the use of
silence
3.
a.
Cities are made of desires and fears.
Outline of our Reading
Your views?
1. Cities and memory. 1. –Diomira – past happiness;
Cities and memory. 2. – Isidora – past desire;
Cities and memory. 3. – Zaira – past connections;
Cities and memory. 4. – Zora – described point by point, unmoved till it
disappears;
2. Cities and memory. 5. –Maurilla – a postcard city
1. Cities and desire. 1. –Dorothea – 2 ways of describing a city
Cities and desire. 2. – Anastasia –describing the city vs. full experience
Cities and desire. 3. – Despina -- 2 perception of a city
2. Cities and desire. 4. –Fedora -- with a mental city which turns into a
museum;
1, Cities and signs. 1. – Tamara – arbitrary signs
Cities and signs. 2. – Zirma – The city is redundant, so is our memory,
because they are repetitive.
2 Cities and signs. 3. –Zoe – a city which is a mixture of functions.
1. Thin cities. 1. – Isaura – a city of wells  two religions; (東石鄉; Venice?)
2. Thin cities. 2. –Zenobia – a city of platforms, balcony and ladders; not happy
or unhappy, but one generating desires.
2. Trading cities. 1. – Euphemia – where merchants meet; to buy and sell, but
also to tell stories.
Patterns of the Invisible Cities
1.
City, memory and the past
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2.
The Concept City vs. the Lived City –
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Desires are memories. Cities contain our
desires.
Polo p. 28 – we know more about our past as
we move ahead.
A city’s past – pp. 10-11
Dorothea: p. 9; Also city vs. desert
Anastasia: p. 12 describing a city and desiring in
it;
City and Desires –
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Two perspectives. P.17 – Cities are formed by
their opposites and desires.
Patterns of the Invisible Cities
4.
Human constructions
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5.
Religion
Buildings – Isidora p. 8;
Human Languages
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Signs – arbitrary (Are there any which
are not signs?)
Gestures and Signs
Invisible Cities II: Distant Cities
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Diomira p. 1:  City and Memory:
Byzantium underneath Istanbul
Isidora  City and Arts: Carpentry at
古川 (a town in a mountain)
Anastasia p. 12 City and Desire/Arts:
Kite Festival at Lahore
City and Signs/Postcards
Kite Festival at Lahore
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Basant, the festival
that marks the start of
spring;
Kite with “string coated
by hand in a doughy
substance which is
impregnated with
pulverised glass”
(http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wor
ld/south_asia/2750193.stm )
The Music Garden
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What do you think?
General Design
Efforts – Arts, Business and
Politics
Music, Nature and Urban
Space
Bach & Garden Plan
Suite#1 I – Prelude II – Allemande III -Courante,
IV – Sarabande, V - Menuet I , VI - Gigue
Bk 5
Toronto Music Garden
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From Boston’s City Hall Plaza to
Toronto’s Harbor Front
Prelude: An undulating river
scape with curves and bends.
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Response to
the
environment
Bk 3
Allemande: A forest grove of
wandering trails.
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Original plan:
Bk 7;
adjusted in
the new plan
Bk 14
Courante: A swirling path
through a wildflower meadow.
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Bk 11
Sarabande: A conifer grove in
the shape of an arc
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Sarabande: a poet's corner
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the garden's centerpiece is a huge
stone that acts as a stage for readings,
and holds a small pool with water that
reflects the sky.
Bk 13
Menuette: A formal flower
parterre.
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Gigue: Giant grass steps that dance
you down to the outside world.
Bk 8; 12
Efforts – Arts, Business and
Politics
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Efforts – Arts, Business and
Politics
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Different concerns of the Boston
government: noise, money (to privatize
the space to increase more economic
interest), tourism, security
To gain financial support: to ‘massage’
the corporate power.
Bks 10;
6
Music, Nature and Urban
Space
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Ma’s intention: to
create a space for
music without walls.
 what about
traffic? (e.g. Bk 16)
Music, Nature and Urban
Space
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Julie Messervy: To shape nature in
simple forms (Bk 2)
The film’s: Bk 9, 15
Minuette: formal dance
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Hand-crafted with ornamental steel, a
circular pavilion is designed to shelter
small musical ensembles or dance groups.
Music and Nature: The Gigue
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or "jog" is an English dance, whose
jaunty, rollicking music is interpreted
here as a series of giant grass steps that
offer views onto the harbor.
Conclusion?
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A city can be variously defined,
imagined, desired for, and connected
to the past.
Concept City does not just belong to
the city planners. We also have our
concepts in the use of signs, memories
and through our desires and efforts in
construction.
Reference
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Pilz, Kerstin. ”Reconceptualising thought
and space: labyrinths and cities in
Calvino's fictions.” Italica, Summer 2003
v80 i2 p229(15)
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http://www.juliemoirmesservy.com/pro.htm
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Toronto Music Garden Photo Gallery--Inspired by Bach: Yo Yo Ma
http://www.nakayoshi.org/musicgarden/
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Loraine Hunter http://www.gardentime.com/magazine/03september/article_gotw.php