Mondrian, Broadway Boogie Woogie, 1942-3
Bebop SPACES is inspired by the performance entitled Leap Frog, by Charlie
Parker and Dizzy Gillespie. The project is a series of architectural
improvisations or “takes” that spontaneously transpose, manipulate, and
articulate various links, connections, joints and transitions present in
jazz music. The improvisations start with an underlying source that is
developed into an extension line network. This vehicle is played as a series of
chromatic encodings which take multiple trajectories. The bebop SPACES
video is an attempt to represent the tonality of this poetic design process as
actions instead of words. Initially, the designer records the live action on the
computer screen. The video footage is sped up and edited into a rough
demonstration, set to a short out take track of Leap Frog. Through illusory
animation and time compression, the video represents what is occurring in the
mind of the designer as he creates these works. A second take is created
with newer, more extensive footage, as a mostly intuitive and subliminal
response to the master take of Leap Frog. The main devices used are speed
and repetition with slight variation. The third take attempts to consciously and
precisely link the events of the visual compositions to the improvisational
structure of the music, building on the knowledge gained from the previous
intuitive video takes.
-- Bennett Neiman
The project is a series of
architectural improvisations or
“takes” (fig.1) that
spontaneously
transpose, manipulate, and
articulate various links,
connections, joints and
transitions present
in jazz music.
The bebop space
improvisations start
with the construction
of a simple tracing,
that in effect,
translates the bitmapped information
of the underlying
source image (fig. 2)
…into vectors. (fig. 3)
A period of practice precedes an
established direction. Numerous
variations of the extension line
drawings are generated before
arriving at the refined base
structure. There is a negotiation
between individual moves in the
drawing, and the reconciliation of
figures relative to other elements
and the extension line network.
(fig. 4)
The underlying extension-line vehicle is
played as a series of chromatic
encodings that take multiple
trajectories. (fig. 5)
Selected elements and regions
are filled with different colors.
Each color type (red, blue,
black, and gray) represents
subliminal systems, sometimes
metaphoric, other times
structural. The chromatic
encoding process does not
follow a strict recipe or formula.
It is an exploratory search to
define primary, secondary and
tertiary precincts within the
given underlying order. There
are numerous experiments
produced moving from the
original source image to the
base extension line drawings to
the chromatic encodings. These
studies test orientation
constants and variables. Other
drawings explore figure and
ground. (fig. 6)
The work proceeds for a certain
period of time, such as fifteen
minutes, or a couple hours, or until a
sense of balance occurs. At that
moment, the improvisation is printed
and declared as a take. Then it is put
away. (fig. 7)
A new one is started from
memory. No attempt is
made to replicate a
previous improvisation or to
consciously redesign it.
Each subsequent
generation is started
entirely
from memory with the
underlying drawing as a
base. (fig. 8)
Bebop spaces is about a construction process. It asks the question of
improvisation as a design process. Access to the detail is in the richness of
the interpretation. It becomes a question of scale. The designer can interrupt
the process at any time to extract ideas into three dimensions. It is seductive
and at the same time it provokes you into what it might be or what can be
read. (figs. 10, 11, 12)
Wen-Hua Hu, Seeing Music
;
Mies van der Rohe, maquette of Glass Skyscraper Lake Shore Drive Apartments, Chicago
Philips Pavilion, Brussels Expo, 1958