Saturday, June 7, 2014

Architecture and Theremin’s Metaphor Aesthetic


 YWS architects: Flammkohle Hotel and Casino


Borovoye-BioCity



The Theremin (left)  originally known as the etherphone (where ether is a hypothetical substance supposed to occupy all space, postulated to account for the propagation of electro magnetic radiation through space) is an early electronic musical instrument controlled without physical contact by the thereminist (performer). The ether phone’s name is about the upper regions of space; the clear sky and the heavens. The founders read into their discovery the metaphor of the creation of its sound as being something they could hear and feel vibrate but came from beyond. It is named after the westernized name of its Russian inventor, Léon Theremin, who patented the device in 1928. The instrument's controlling section usually consists of two metal antennas which sense the relative position of the thereminist's hands and control oscillators for frequency with one hand, and amplitude (volume) with the other. The electric signals from the Theremin are amplified and sent to a loudspeaker. The sound of the Theremin was like that of a person wooing except that the sound could be prolonged and varied in octaves and rhythms. It was the first non-human, “human” sound controlled by design and electronically. A goal which was later described by Peter Alexander and other electronic computer composers whose claim that they have finally been able to eliminate the variable of the human and make pure music. The driving, insistent sound of the Theremin in Spellbound links the excitement of the symphonic traditional sound to the guttural emotion of Rozsa’s composition. Could a human so cry or moan as a wonderful opera between opera singers and orchestra?

Architecture and Theremin’s Metaphor Aesthetic
By Barie Fez-Barringten
Professor: Global University
Space, its manipulation and occupation is the commonality between architecture and Theremin. The sound is produced by the collision and movement of particulates in the air while architectural space is bounded and subdivided by design. Both reify space. Theremin is the sound of architecture: the making of metaphors. The aesthetic of the Thermion and the architecture aesthetic share the metaphor. They both take you to abstract unseen seeking making of the world of the impossible possible.
It was used in the movie:”The Day the Earth Stood Still”, was one of the precious few presentations of the instrument yet it came to symbolize vague references to the unseen, unknown, and mysterious. For me it represented the future of music, sound and what man could accomplish. It was new and belonged to MY time. I could buy enough of 331/3 records featuring the Theremin as Otto Luning and other experimental works made at Columbia University. The use of the Theremin and its paltry audience opened the door for other forms of electronic and experimental music by composers such as John Cage. But no other sound commanded the heart and mind as the driving big sound of the Theremin. Metaphors talk about one thing in terms of another, and make the strange familiar. As we hear the strange sound of the Theremin we seek the familiar emotion/skill of the theremist, choice of composition or the effect of a crying Whale, haunted spirit, volume of enclosure, etc. At that time few knew what a Theremin looked like but knew its sound. One of Rozsa's most famous compositions, based on the music he wrote for Hitchcock's psychological thriller was "Spellbound" in 1945. It had themes running threw out signaling fear, worry, terror, etc. Rozsa juxtaposed traditional symphonic orchestra to go where the Theremin could not. In so doing the sounds of the Theremin were especially significant of that which was beyond human.
                       Architecture is made up of space, bounded and subdivided by planes. It has shape and form, inside and out and talks about one thing in terms of another. It makes the strange familiar. Theremin volume, amplitude, tone and range occupy space and its sound is made by player moving arms through space and operating hands to make various sounds. Hands can stop and start, subdividing the sound. It is a technology which is enhanced by human use as works of architecture. Unlike works of architecture is not inhabited but does enclose listeners in aura of sound, timber and tone. We know a Theremin is not a building and a building is not a Theremin yet they are is a family of technology which when enhanced with other devices as synthesizers, keyboards, sound effects, Calipees can broaden the experience. Like a building the Theremin has stature and when playing a known melody, emotional tone or emphasis is metaphorical. It has something of value. It changes the ordinary from trivial mundane to images, forms and shapes related to themes of social value.
When constructed, planes, volumes, space and scale have peculiar relationships. Planes limit and bound space. Were a plane habitable it would be a space and were space limiting it would a plane. By their juxtaposition they manifest characteristics they both have in common and some that are different. Each maintains its own property of plane and space just as Richard maintains his humanity and the lion its nature. Each points to a property beyond its own inherent characteristics. They are both the properties that make a volume; a volume in any scale or proportion.
The property that is common to all the planes is the space or sub-spaces which the planes themselves delimit. The planes define, float and/or define space. The space is the reality all planes have in common. The volume of the spaces varies by the way the planes are arranged. Planes that limit and planes within the space modulate and form relationships. Similarly, the facades or colonnades that surround a square, plaza or atrium define the void and make it what it is – ergo, part of the whole. These relationships oppose one another in tension and compression and can be at any scale. They may be symmetrical, or asymmetrical, they may unify or separate.
Scale is the proportion of the planes, space and volume of one sub-space to the whole construction. The planes, spaces, sub-space(s), volume and scale have commonalities and differences between them. They all point to a reality beyond their individual and common nature to their external context and potential occupant(s); occupants whose culture and behavior may vary. The relationship between occupants and context is explored in the properties afforded by scale, volume and plane. The scale and elements of St. Peters, Rome, drafts its structure and decorative elements to a scale beyond any single inhabitant and always suggests accommodating much larger sized inhabitants or crowds. Scale, volume and size are the commonplace demanding references to something beyond any single space or detail. Like its illustrations and characterizations, it is about the universe and the vastness of creation. Scale is the commonality between the proportion of elements within a construction as well as the construction and occupants, particularly an area, room, corridor entry and an occupant. The proportion of one structure to another in an urban setting, or a construction to its surroundings (trees, plains, desert etc.), involves a transfer and carry-over from one side of proportion to the other (people vs. columns, spaces, vistas, scale etc.). When the two achieve equipoise they seem to be right; when one is too large or too small, the scale is off-kilter. In either case it is a metaphor whether aesthetic or not. Theremin sounds are bigger than the sounds of juxtaposed traditional instruments and therefore set themselves apart. The scale of the two is heightens the experience of the space between human and Theremin sound. Normally traditional musical instruments are the sounds of human beings blowing, strumming, banging to make a sound whereas the Theremin is none of the above. Its source is electric reactions to the movements of hands in space and the way they affect the oscillators and are then magnified and transmitted to audio.
Two metal antennas protrude above a box that contains electronic oscillators. The performing musician, sometimes referred to as a thereminist, controls the instrument without touching it by varying the distance between his hands and the two antennas and by subtle movements of his palms or fingers. Sound frequency is controlled with one hand and volume with the other by moving the hands closer or farther away from the antennas. Hands or fingers are waved to create a vibrato effect.
Circuits in the box that are attached to the two antennas sense the positions and other movements of the hands and cause the radio frequency oscillators inside the box to vary their electric current output in a way that responds to and reflects these movements. The electric signals produced by these oscillators are amplified and sent to a loudspeaker.
Theremin was musically inclined and played the cello when, as a 21 year old student at the Physico-Technical Institute in Petrograd in the 1920s, he was assigned the task of developing a vacuum tube alarm device that would work on the principle of human proximity.
While working in his lab, Theremin accidentally noticed that the presence of his body could detune a radio receiver; this accident gave him the idea to develop a variable pitch alarm, which he called the Ether Phone. The Ether Phone led to the theremin.
The context of any metaphoric architectural construction, likewise, is the commonality between the volume and its common scale. The proportion and characteristics of volume and context are always interlinked. They can be limitless or limited. Transformation of the volume of the construction and its sub-volumes to the context is a scale of the metaphor to inhabitants of both contexts. Just as in the example of Richard the Lionhearted - the construction and the context each point to a nature beyond their respective metaphors - and are a bridge by which their respective values are defined. Were the context a construction it would be this volume and were the construction the context, it would be the same volume. Like Richard and the lion’s bravery, the magnitude of the volume is beyond context and construction - and reaches to values intrinsic to both. These values operate independently of anyone who perceives or recites the metaphor but nevertheless these properties are implicit in the distinct nature and sovereignty of what is constructed.
The planes that define the construction may differ from one another as each must be the commonality or difference between its adjacent space, sub-space and context. It may also be affected by the inhabitant’s use of volume and space and itself be the characteristic common to both. As such, its faces may be differently colored, constructed or supported thus forming a bridge for its referents (inhabitants and volumes). As this element becomes a sub-metaphor, so it is with each other plane, volume, space and sub-space. Each links to an adjacent or related element and in so doing makes a metaphor. It’s like the do-se-do movement in square dancing in which two dancers approach each other and circle back to back, then return to their original positions where one partner is exchanged for another. There is a domino effect among the circle of dancers and likewise in construction, where each element bridges and affects the other.
The commonplace of planes in space is their tensional asymmetrical or symmetrical relationships which give them equipoise, equipoise that could fix them in space were it not for gravity or the laws of physics. Hence they need some structure in the form of tensional wires, or skeletal gravity supports such as columns, beams and slabs. Yet equipoise is the commonplace beyond their own sizes, weights and composition, which composes their form and allows them to transfer their properties. It’s the same with the Theremin where its highs and lows counter one another.
Architecturally, they form positive and negative spaces; positive being within any given relationship and negative being without, where there would not be a negative without a positive. The two, positive and negative, transfer there commonality of space and volume between one another. For a literary metaphor it is grammar, syntax and language that are its commonplace. It is the same for a sovereign metaphor – it transfers its original properties from one level to the next to achieve equipoise.
Just as there are agglomerations of words, phrases and sentences, so there are architectural compositions comprised of planes, lines, volumes and spaces which are not metaphors. However chaos, dissonance and vacuity are also ‘qualities’ associated with language. Line and volumes transfer their opposition to one another in tension and through this tension balance not by symmetry but instead by asymmetrical yin opposition to one another.
The commonplace of the lines is their opposition and tension in space. For example, the two rooms of the log cabin are joined by the fireplace; the common fireplace which removes the smoke and fumes of the fire common to both rooms. The rooms which are formed by logs are common to both the interior construction and the external context – a context filled with trees and nature. The planes of logs forming the wall divide the interior warmth from the attack of wind, temperature, snow and rain. The upper diagonal planes form the roof and keep out the elements as well as retain the heat generated by the fireplace. Metaphorically it is easy to see how the single double flue model could be adapted to accommodate a second floor using the common fireplace. This model gave way to the lower floor kitchen/living rooms and upper bedrooms. In the US example, a "log cabin" was usually constructed with round rather than hewn or hand-worked logs and often it was a first generation structure which could be erected quickly as frontier settlement required.
A corridor enclosed by walls implies adjacent rooms, a beginning and end to the corridor - and in the case of a multi story building - connecting stairs and elevators serve as ambulatories (transfers and connections). The space limited by horizontal and vertical planes in the context of a school carries over into adjacent spaces. Bound and limited spaces characterized by a matrix of connected spaces of varying or equal volumes collectively form a beehive-like metaphor or interrelated and connected “cells”. Multiple horizontal planes forming building floors when stacked become a “high-rise” whereas adjacent vertical planes separated by volumes can become a shopping center. The program for buildings with multiple areas such as hotels, schools, shopping centers, offices, apartments and prisons, is basically conditioned by a core of vertical and horizontal transportation, utility links and service areas supporting apartments, guest rooms, class rooms, shops, cells etc. Owner -occupied, specialty buildings differ uniquely in their uses, functions, occupants, adjacencies, pedestrian and vehicular access and each begets a singular and paired transfer as regards the condition of structure, utility and support systems. The ideals of such a structure will influence the scale of the operation and the segregation of differing types and classes of operations from administration, executive, staff, patients, guests, workers, etc. This is not so with the Theremin. It is a fine and not an applied art.
Yet, the ideal is the characteristic of bravery in the Richard the Lionhearted metaphor and is the value people bring to the creation of the structure which determines its scale, selection of materials, structural, mechanical and electrical systems, etc. It is easy to see how operations would transfer to structure influencing its volume shape and form permuted by an ideal toward some overall goal; goal being typified by the ultimate function of the structure (residence, hospital, office, factory, school, etc.).
Just as the hanging of furs and skins on cut branches transferred to the log cabin, so the European models of the country house, the hacienda and the vernacular transferred to the frontier shack, workshop, cabin or colonial mansion. Similarly, the same process applies in the case of the factory and the office. This development saw the visual extrapolation from a one-story structure to a multi-story version complete with elevators, plumbing and air-conditioning shafts and stacks. The replication of floors is not a metaphor but it is analogous of the lift-inspired move to develop higher and higher structures.
The lift became the medium for the skyscraper because without it few buildings if any would have risen much above 100’ and our cities wouldn't have developed in the way that they have.  This development might be considered as a classic case of the tail (the utilities) wagging the dog (the building). These structures – may differ in volume, space and scale but they reflect a broad array of goals, which transfer from one to the other. Conditioned by zoning, city ordinances and statutes, they form a complex matrix of metaphors able to make their commonalities and differences in the context of areas, sub-area, nodes (known as cities), neighborhoods and blocks. The theremin raises the sound of music out of the human to pure electric sound. Yet vibrato is as the quivering hands of the theremist.


Some of the more famous Theremin works follow:

          Rachmaninoff: Theremin "How Fair This Spot" by Peter Pringle;

Giant Theremin by Martin Kennedy;

           Glass Harmonica by John Tamaro;

Beowulf: Hurdy-Gurdy & Theremin (male voice singing with sounds;

Pitch Bending Thumb Piano- Jamoflage percussion;
             Two people playing "House of the Rising Sun" on the hydraulophone
          (Water pipe organ flute which is the fountain outside the Ontario Science Center);     Lydia Kavina, Theremin
The Radio Science Orchestra
        Theme from film Doctor Who, composer Ron Grainer
        Live Recording from TED Global Conference
Oxford 2009;  Satenik Hakobyan-Ulikhanyan - theremin
Martin Ulikhanyan - composer
         "Space Vocalize" for theremin and orchestra
        .Armenian State Chamber Orchestra
         Conductor,  Zaven  Vardanyan Yerevan, Armenia 16.03.2013;
Bob Moog, pioneering the synthesizer,
Theremin is a metaphor of the spiritual world created by God. It is an enigma faced to man explained in a verse in John 3:8:”The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”.” And Acts: Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting.They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues[a] as the Spirit enabled them. The below are shown Theriministic metaphoric futurists works of architecture. 

Fungia-skyscraper: Skyscraper is possible to grow continuously through vertical construction of units which consists pair of joints and horizontal expansion of plates. Each boundary plate between the pair of joints which is located in the middle of each unit works as public garden, maximizing the whole shape line of the building itself.

They are able to form a city in air by forming links with neighbor plates continuously. Skyscraper which is located between the boundary plates expands to most appropriate scale according to the population of users. Each and every user of this building is allowed to own ground with in a 100m in radius. We can think of skyscraper as a column as well as boundary plate as a slab. They construct a gigantic city in air, generating integration of function and maximization of working efficiency.

 

Anti-Conditionalism

 

Lego

 Futurist architecture began as an early-20th century form of architecture characterized by anti-historicism and long horizontal lines suggesting speed, motion and urgency. Technology and even violence were among the themes of the Futurists. The movement was founded by the poet Felipe Tommaso Marinetti, who produced its first manifesto, the Manifesto of Futurism in 1909). The movement attracted not only poets, musicians, artist (such as Umberto Boccioni, Giacomo Balla, and Fortunato Depero.

The theremin was to movie makers, architects and artist of the turn of the twentieth century as was BIM (Building Information Modeling is a process involving the generation and management of digital representations of physical and functional characteristics of places); computer virtual design and graphics are to the twenty first. The Emirates Shanghai, Singapore and Hong Kong now have architectural towers which turn and emulate the “futuristic’ imaginations of the early twentieth century. As metaphors they validate those cultures with a world that is set apart from the mundane of this world. As the Theremin’s electric rectification into sound so the utterly bombastic design’s of  Avanti Architects, ARUP, Shiguru Ban, Zaha Hadid, Norman Foster, Ram Koolhass, Renzo Piano, Aldo Rosi, Frank Gehry, Kenzo Tange, Richard Meier, and James Sterling

Skyscraper with Rotating Floors Architect: David Fisher.The Da Vinci Tower (also known as Dynamic Architecture Building) is a proposed 313 m (1,027 ft), 68-floor tower in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. The tower is expected to be architecturally innovative. Uniquely, each floor will be able to rotate independently. This will result in a constantly changing shape for the tower. Each floor will rotate a maximum of one full rotation in 90 minutes 

The entire tower will be powered by wind turbines and solar panels that will also provide electricity to five other buildings in the vicinity. The turbines will be located between each of the rotating floors and could generate up to 1,200,000 kilowatt-hours of energy.  
             It will also be the world's first prefabricated skyscraper.  90% of the tower will be built in a factory and shipped to the construction site.  This will allow the entire building to be built in only 18 months.  The only part of the tower that will be built at the construction site will be the core.  Part of this prefabrication will be the decrease in cost and number of workers.  The total cost will be 23% less than a normal skyscraper of the same size, while only 90 people will work on the construction site.   The majority of the workers will be in factories, where it will be much safer.  



Wings over the world:"Things to come"


Shown above is: Gavin Rothery- Concept-VFX-Blog- Jacques Fresco Architectural Models

Theremin architecture by Gavin Rothery what he calls "concept art". This is one of many of his works which are inspired by the very thought of the future where the Theremin’s sound, idea is not natural, not of human making but mechanical; It is the sound of electric, sound of energy harnessed. Energy harnessed and adapted where we make this strange (very strange) familiar by playing classic and religions songs. The images come alive with the sounds of  "waterphone,synthesizer,therimin the images come alive

“The shape of things to come” (  The 1936 movie.was based on the book by H.G.Wells) 
H.G.Wells postulates that science will someday be the only alternative to one world government to stamp out war, end famine and political struggles. Posing nature against science, what the Greeks and Romans posed as order over chaos of nature. Such a solution would give time to cure all disease, perfect health , and the pursuit of happiness. Startrek's Gene Roddenberry continued the thought of a universal order policing the universe and "going where no man has ever gone before" To Roddenberry and Wells "Space was the final frontier"; even "Things to come" ends by them sending their two children into space as they were being confronted by a rebellious society (as the Israelite s in the time of Moses) .
Vast open spaces, power generators going for hundreds of stories beneath the earth, a world ruled by scientist because politicians blew-it, video  image broadcasts in a variety of shapes and forms, holograms of figures, long span beams, undulating forms made of super strong materials, sky walks predating the ones much later built by Federated in Cincinnati, The theremin and architecture were make-over’s of traditional human and conventional know laws of science, strength and properties of materials and sound making instruments. Both went above and beyond the known and feasible to the realms of potential. You only need to see the spans, thickness and textures of materials to see these are not possible with today’s technology, to hear the sounds of the Theremin you know no known natural being could make such sounds.
Vladimir Lenin loved the Theremin when shown it in 1922 (and wasn't at all bad at it according to Theremin): Communism, he said, was Socialism plus Electrification. He took lessons, and sent the young inventor around the world to promote it. Theremin was living in Manhattan with his dancer wife when—in a turn of events that might have been accompanied, in a film version, by a Theremin portamento —he was allegedly abducted by the KGB and returned to the Soviet Union, where he was imprisoned for seven years. He then took a job with the KGB cleaning up recordings that were hard to decipher, and invented the soviet bug, whose importance Stalin so appreciated that he personally assured that Theremin was given the first level Stalin Award, the most prestigious prize in the country at that time. The inventor then spent ten years at the Moscow Conservatory of Music, teaching and making Theremins, electronic cellos and terpsitones (a variation of the Theremin whereby sound is created by dancing on a metal plate). But after he spoke to a New York Times journalist, he was fired and his instruments axed to pieces.
Meanwhile in the West, the Theremin was launching electronic music via Moog. The Beach Boys used it in Good Vibrations. Jimmy Page played it in Led Zeppelin’s Whole Lotta Love, and it featured in music by Simon and Garfunkel, Supergrass, Marilyn Manson, and Goldfrapp. But the main significance of the instrument came with its adoption by makers of horror and science fiction movies between the 1940's and 1960's. Lending itself well to rapidly shifting keys, vibrato, and gliding shifts of pitch, it was the perfect expression of sudden loss of control or consciousness, of the intrusion of the alien into everyday life, and of impending narrative shifts into the inexplicable. Its position as a signifier of the uncanny was cemented by such films as Hitchcock’s Spellbound (1945) and The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951). It strikes up during a Simpsons episode as Homer is about to go to the attic to investigate the presence of ghosts: In a brilliant piece of literalism, he complains: “its one thing for ghosts to terrorize my children, but quite another for them to play my Theremin!”
Brian Roettinger has adapted the theremin from a musical instrument into an instrument of non-musical notation. Any musical instrument could be used to represent letters of the alphabet; (one could imagine a Morse code-like adaptation of say, the piano, to represent words, and how that might sound). This, however, is not a code whereby a short note followed by two long ones denotes, say, a “D”. Instead, he has devised a system based directly on letterforms and their anatomy, and the way they sound when drawn in the air next to the Theremin. Reversing (and perverting) the order of things whereby the spoken word came first, to be followed by the written word, here the written word is, as it were, given a voice—returning to the Theremin the “vox” that was once removed, and making of it electronic vocal chords, with the hands acting as the mouth. It is an adaptation both rational in its conflation of the visual with the aural, and absurd given the existence of speech as an effective system of communication. (a vox is a device in certain types of telecommunications equipment, as telephone answering machines, that converts an incoming voice or sound signal into an electrical signal that turns on a transmitter or recorder that continues to operate as long as the incoming signal is maintained.
Like any language, Theremin would evolve. First would come a moment similar to the point at which a child starts to inflect and modulate read-out-loud sentences, rather than enunciating each word as a separate entity. What started as a rational code would become, through use, emotive, expressive. The musical instrument, first deprived of musicality, could then take on the musicality of language. 
It is of course highly unlikely, given our faculty for speech that theremin languages will catch on. The idea will remain an idea, but by giving the Theremin a useless purpose, Brian Roettinger has followed John Cage’s recommendation, quoted in McLuhan’s The Medium is the Massage (message) , that “the highest purpose is to have no purpose at all.” 
Leon Theremin






The inside of a Theremin
                Angels and demons alike can and like to play instruments like the Theremin, It’s an apotheosis revested by an ethereal sound, able to invade the body and break the soul into small pieces. It's magic. It's a musical instrument that can't be touched. Better: it's touched with no touch. The Theremin player, or the theremist, looks like a maestro with no baton, a commander of an invisible orchestra, inebriating the listener with ether. Theremin sounds like the wind coming inside through the window, like the hypnotic chant of a mermaid, like the invisible presence of a phantom. Both the human body and the therimin are instruments affected  by unseen force between theremist and perhaps angels, demons and the spirit. As we play the theremin so we may be played. From time to time we all realize that someone  or some thing out side of ourselves is affecting our thinking and behavior. The nature of the theremin is spiritual which explains its affect on its use and application in futuristic architecture, movies and plays. Today so many electronics are controlled remotely through unseen space yet it is still the theremin which is unique in that human dexterity of hand and body motions, strength, tension vibrations, flexure, and motion that can vary the tones, volumes, pitch,etc of the theremin's sounds. The aesthetic of the theremin in perceiving and making metaphors of sound and of making works of architecture is well illustrated in the futuristic therimin architecture shown above. There is an affect!
           Probably owner of an uncommon sensibility, Mr. Theremin was surrounded by the almost surreal sonorous beauty which came from such an annoying interference. In front of him, there were two oscillating metal antennas of high frequency where the electrical stream passed through. When his hand got closer of one of the antennas, modifying its frequency, this mysterious and endless beautiful sound came up crossing him, like a shiver through the spine, as a soft and pleasant flow. However, he perceived that, with one hand, he could control the frequency; with the other, the amplitude or the volume. So, he decided to amplify these brand new sounds and turn on the instrument to a column. Then, the delight came -- the sonorous orgasm.
  In the middle of Russian Civil War, the inventor Léon Theremin was leading an investigation supported by the Russian governs about proximity sensors. It was basically a study about the interference of the hands at the radiophone transmissions which modified the frequencies and irritatingly damaged the communications.
           At the beginning, Theremin was conceived to play classical music and even to substitute entire orchestras with its "ethereal music". (It is extremely delicate and light in a way that seems too perfect for this world) Such a thing didn't happened and fell into oblivion after the Second World War, when the bombs were shut up and a new wave of electronic instruments came along. Where was Theremin during all that time? A little niche of affectionate people was using the instrument on their compositions along the years, and even resurgence happened during the 1960s and the 1970s with bands like, for example, Led Zeppelin. In 1993, when the documentary directed by Steven M. Martin, Theremin: an Electronic Odyssey, was released, allied with the revival characteristic of the contemporary music, the ethereal frequencies of Theremin started to be used often. At this documentary, we can watch several interviews with legendary figures of the musical industry and, peculiarly, an interview with Léon Theremin.
Coincidentally at the same time as the Theremin, electronic music was invented so was the Bauhaus reinvented design; interrelated all arts and crafts with common vocabulary of dominance, sub-dominance and subordinate points and counter-points.  A new aesthetic was born; science, engineering, electronics and the digital, age was born.
 Both architecture, theremin, aesthetic and metaphor profoundly reminds us that what we can see with the five senses, know with our human minds is often deceptive, decaying, temporary, and unreal. The reality is what we what makes the sail blow, the sound and space. The metaphor makes the strange familiar.
Plexiglas sculpture by Christina Fez-Barringten make in 1964 in NYC.

Post  the therimin the following below are just some of the characters and sources of the sound effects of many science fiction films.  The electronic sound field has grown exponentially. 
                                                                        Dragon Wings Flapping Dark Smile Productions
Bredin Nicolas Alien Breathing Bredin Nicolas
Brenda Elthon Lost in Space Ghost Countdown Brenda Elthon
DJ D-Nyed Organic Spaceship DJ D-Nyed
SAE Hunter Killer B SAE
Stevie Gold Time Machine Stevie Gold
BHM Freaky Factory BHM
CMMP Sound FX Cute Alien Gibberish Mno CMMP Sound FX
Audi_Yo Low Throbbing Hum Audi_Yo
ProSoundFX Stage 4 - Outer Space ProSoundFX
Pehr Meldert Alien Radio Station Pehr Meldert
Sound Jay Laser Beam Hit 05 Sound Jay
Ultimate Sound Magic Wand Cast a Spell Ultimate Sound
Michael Meenderink Alien Soundscape Michael Meenderink
Cedric Hommel Spaceship Ambience / Strange Planet Atmosphere - Sci-Fi Background - Seamless Looping Cedric Hommel
The Sound Experience Cosmic Winds The Sound Experience
KeyChain Music Alien Crusher Roar 1 KeyChain Music
Fear Productions Spooky - Kinda Ufoish Fear Productions
Andrew Smith Lift Off to Planet Zorgon Andrew Smith
Collin Scudder War Drum Orc March - Bpm 110 Collin Scudder
Craig Dodge Spaceship Control Room Loop Craig Dodge
Martin Laflamme Loopable Warning Alarm 1 Martin Laflamme
Lukasz Stasinski Alien Laser Gun Shots - Game Effect Lukasz Stasinski
Robot Metro 10 to 1 Countdown - Deep Male Vocal Effect Robot Metro
KeyChain Music Alien Crusher Roar 3 KeyChain Music
Colin Willsher Wormhole Colin Willsher
Morning Sky Sound Accellerando 2 Jo Morning Sky Sound
Simon Stockhausen Radioactive Landscape Simon Stockhausen
John M. Peters Flying Saucer Lands John M. Peters
Alan McKinney White Noise Effect With Flange Stereo Alan McKinney
Jonathan Geer Shimmering Crystal 1 Jonathan Geer
Quarterstep Productions Spaceship Hatch Quarterstep Productions
Alan McKinney UFO Hovers Alan McKinney
Juan Pablo Zaragoza Explosion Elect Multi Layer SFX Juan Pablo Zaragoza
Bredin Nicolas Mysterious and Dark Ambience Bredin Nicolas
Michael Meenderink Gusty Winds Michael Meenderink
Worldstage Music Roiling Sun, Planet Or Spaceship Slows Down, Stops and Explodes! Worldstage Music
SFXsource Alien Warning 4 SFXsource
Petros Sarhosidis Strange Choir Petros Sarhosidis
Bjorn Lynne Underwater Or Deep Space Dark Ambience Bjorn Lynne
Blazznet Talking Box Countdown With Echo Ten to Zero - 2 Synth Ambiance - Voice Colin - British Male Blazznet Talking Box
CMMP Sound FX Sci-Fi Engine Power Up-Idle CMMP Sound FX
Black Dog Sound Drone, Deep, Slow, Pulsing, Tonal Black Dog Sound
Aaron J Curtis Light Speed Jump 2 Aaron J Curtis
Soundtrack Tools & SFX A Passing Thing - Lush Sci-Fi Efx Soundtrack Tools & SFX
Jonathan Geer High Alert 5 Jonathan Geer
Ian Hubball Light Saber On Ian Hubball
D. Silverstone Spaceship Machine Room D. Silverstone
Music And SFX Robot Arm Music And SFX
Andrew GCN Fleming Starfleet Countdown - British Female Voice Andrew GCN Fleming
Pete Bax Robot Countdown Space Sounds Educational Pete Bax
Cedric Hommel Big Space / Galaxy Soundscape - Deep Drone, Long, Bassy - Huge Starship - Seamless Looping Cedric Hommel
Ivan Paunovic Zapper Ivan Paunovic
David Wilsoni Repetitive Thump - 100bpm David Wilsoni
Andrew GCN Fleming Countdown - British Female Voice Andrew GCN Fleming
Ahrdee Very Bassy Rumble (Like Rocket Or Earthquake) Stereo Ahrdee
Music And SFX Laser Beam Power On, Oscillate, Power Down Music And SFX
SAE Sub Bass Drone SAE
SourceCodeX UFO 00 Best Seller SourceCodeX
Robot Metro Wind Galaxy Low Rumble 1 Robot Metro

About the author
“Architecture: The Making of Metaphorsis his latest book which can be ordered at Amazon.com  and/or  Cambridge Scholars Publishing Ltd ,England. And most national book stores such as Barnes and Noble.
           Currently Barie is researching, writing and speaking on architecture, urbanism and Saudi Arabia including monographs on architecture: the making of metaphors; and, recently published two books: Gibe and Legend which may be purchased on Amazon.com.  Barie is often invited to present his inspiring life’s story to students in colleges and universities.
In 2008, he was Design Manager for Barwa City in Qatar and twenty years as an  architect, business manager and project manager; and  in Saudi Arabia including teaching for five years at KFU. While as professor at King Faisal University he wrote over twenty monographs on metaphors and architecture, which were widely published in Turkey, Saudi Arabia, England, America, Finland and Lebanon.  All his writings were based on his lecture series he presented 1968 at Yale University called “Architecture: the making of metaphors”  which was then published in part by  “Main Currents in Modern Thought”, and various research into the works of Paul Weiss, Andrew Ortony, David  Zarefsky and W.J.J. Gordon;  and most recently others were published by the MIT Press, the Journal of Enterprise Architecture by the University of Syracuse; Cardiff University, Brunnel University, Reconstruction, University of Alaska Fairbanks; University at Brighton;  and published by Springer of London and New York.
Earlier in Houston, Texas where he was Director of Special Projects for the Gulf Oil Corporation he wrote the policies and procedures for all of Gulf Oil’s non-oil design and construction activities which was then published by John Wiley and sons in a book called Project Manual Standards(PMS).  In Saudi Arabia he founded a chapter of the American Institute of Architects,. He is a Registered Architect in the State of Florida and certified by the National Council of Architectural Registration Boards.
Born and raised in New York City, Barie has completed his memoir of the first 21 years of his life called Bronx Stardust” which includes his early years as a radio broadcaster at Pratt Institute Radio Station, which he founded while studying design.   To support his studies at Yale University he worked as an announcer at WLAE-FM in Hartford and owned his own design business in New Haven. He earned his Masters of Architecture degree at Yale University and is now a trustee of the Yale Alumni association of Southwest Florida formerly helping new aspiring students to apply for education of that prestigious university.
His monographs include: Schools and metaphors"; User's metametaphoric phenomena of architecture and Music"; Metametaphors and Mondrian; The metametaphor theorem"; Multi-dimensional metaphoric thinking"; "Metaphors and Architecture."; Teaching the techniques of making architectural metaphors in the twenty-first century.”; Urban Passion”:;Metaphor as an inference from sign”; "A partial metaphoric vocabulary of Arabia";"The Aesthetics of the Arab architectural metaphor";“Framing the art vs. architecture argument; An architectural history of metaphors”: and The sovereign built metaphor”.
Recently he received The Florida AIA’s Presidential Honor Award “for volunteerism over multiple years to inform, guide or contribute to board’s mission “and his lecture is available at this link: http://globaluniversity.academia.edu/BarieFezBarringten/Books/1449761/Architecture_The_Making_Of_Metaphors
For more about his various  monographs, careers, art work, building designs, and city plans please visit many links by his name on the www and his website location www.bariefez-barringten.com               





Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Relations between metaphors, creative thinking and 3D structures


Design , drawing and model of Virgin Island Beach Pavilion by Barie Fez-Barringten  



Relations between metaphors, creative thinking and 3D structures ©
By Barie Fez-Barringten
www (dot) bariefez-barringten  (dot) com
bariefezbarringten (at) gmail (dot) com

As the literary metaphor, works of architecture are made with technical and conceptual metaphors which combine to become an architectural metaphor. Buildings are the products of programming, design and construction. You can look at the profession of architecture as the process or product.
Architecture: the making of metaphors is concerned primarily with the process.
Buildings seen by users, public and scholars are incidental and as beauty in the eyes of the beholder. As anything in the landscape can be received as a metaphor and perceived metaphorically. But primarily they are the result of a metaphoric process and as such are metaphors; perceived or not.
            According to (2.0) M.Gelernter in “Teaching design innovation through design traditions” he wrote learning is a kind of trial and error activity culminating in a successful solution to a pursued goal.  The process encountered in the pursuit are remembered by the learner as a kind of program, what Piaget calls a mental schema.  Now when this same person applies this same mental schema to solve another problem Piaget says the problem has been assimilated by the existing schema.  Inducing this kind of association of the familiar (2.0)mental schema for the unfamiliar is the work of (3.1)William J.Gordon (Synectics: The metaphorical Way of Knowing") .  If the (2.0)mental schema does not work and the learner evolves the original (2.0)mental‑schema to cope with the new problem Piaget says it has been accommodated to the problem.  This is the transforming characteristic of the metaphor and the metaphoric process.

(2.0)     Gelernter, M., "Teaching design innovation through design traditions from 1988, ACSA Proceedings of Seventy Sixth Annual Meeting.  (School of Architecture and Planning ‑ University of Colorado at Denver.)

(3.1)     "Synectics: The metaphorical Way of Knowing"


                               
(3.2)The metaphoric process is based on a literary term which means "carrying‑over"; it associates meanings and emotions which would otherwise not have been related. Essences known to have a preferential or primary use (the original (2.0)mental Schema) in one context are explicitly employed in another.  Piaget claims that once the new schema has been developed it is retained as a repertoire of possible solutions to problems.  These mental (2.0)repertoire include not only material solutions to physical problems but to problems of comprehension as well.  Their is then a repertoire of solutions that provides the individual with competence to act in the world.  Examples are plenty in architecture.  Formulas, for stair's risers and tread relationships; furniture sizes; drafting techniques; indexes to information; prices; quantities; estimating tools; engineering techniques; heating, ventilating and air conditioning technologies; manufacturing sources; consultants, etc.  This list goes on and on of the many facts, figures and concepts remembered and brought to bear by the practicing architect and before, to a lesser extent, by the learning architect.  In any approach to creative work or learning the individual in process of creation encounters problems for which he either already has an  existing (2.0)schema or evolves a new one.
           
Creativity though is not always a "problem-solving" event.  It may be a creative one which uses the past, present and vision of the future (in the form of analysis of program) to create a work. It is an inclusive "information gathering" perceiving and reifying process. 

(3.2)     Weiss, P., "The metaphorical process"

(2.0)  Gelernter, M., "Teaching design innovation through design traditions"


           
Which concretises and forms by juxtaposing the conditions, operations, ideals and goals (C.O.I.G.) of a project.  It is the synapse, transformation and interrelationships of these (C.O.I.G.) which creates the composition we call metaphor.  The content of the work of architecture is the experience with these program elements that are brought about by the (4.1)technique of creativity.  "Technique reveals what content itself cannot".  These are the remembered mental schema where a prior experience is accumulated nurtured and encouraged.

"Learn with Metaphors":
            Architects learn to learn; and, learn to research, program, analyze, develop sources and resources, dimension, scale, volume, limits, boundaries, scope, depth, movement, context, etc where none existed before.  The maker of architectural metaphors sees in an "open-ended" seamless situation very specific parameters where the inexperienced fails.  It is in the phenomena of his 1a prior; holistic experience with (4.1)techniques of making that the individual with all the elements is able to take a new content into yet another metaphor.  A new metaphor which never did exist before yet is based upon every known experience of architects, his or her's profession, the school they attended the way they learned and knowledge they accumulated.  Each is unique yet well related by the commonality of the uniformity of the information, the contexts, etc.  experiences, contexts, teaching foundation, schools of philosophy, family and social.
 (4.
1)    Dodds, G., "On the place of architectural speculation"
1.      a priori: from the former, deductive; relating to or derived by reasoning from self-evident propositions; presupposed by experience; being without examination or analysis.  Formed or conceived beforehand.  Presumptive as compared do a posteriori : from the latter, inductive, relating to or derived by reading from observed facts.
The exercise prepares future architects to be in their own time, with their own history, venues and contexts and yet be able to originate works of architecture which are both peculiar, particular, tailor-made, and indigenous.  Such transcends but adapts well to culture, tradition and heritage.

               
(4.1)It is the metaphor that reveals the content.  It is the metaphor that was composed of the content that has all the cues, limits, bonds, and sense stimulants so organized on the basis of the program that, when perceived, recalls the content to users.  This remaking is a restoration of knowledge that does not resemble the original so much as it leads to the essential condition of the 1referent.   The 1referent may include every experience of the architect, the process of creating this very project, and all the elements which form the building.  Indeed the process is 2heuristic as a restoration or remaking of a condition that is no longer present.  The metaphor too reveals whatever does not bring itself forth.  This is the mission of the composer which is endued in the residue of his experience: the metaphor.  It all is an extension of his identity and the vehicle by which he is (manifests, asserts, confirms, tests, and again becomes) the architect.

(4.1)     Dodds, G., "On the place of architectural speculation"

1.         referent: the "thing" that a symbol stands for.

2.         heuristic: to discover; as an aid to learning, discovery, or problem-solving by experimental and especially trial and error methods.  It is exploratory self-educating, and improves performance.

"The metaphor's correlations"
Collage by Christina Fez-Barringten
                        
Can a metaphor composed by one be read by another?  If both have been similarly cultured by the same experiences the reader and composer may communicate through the work.  No two people, even in identical situations perceive and retain in the same way.
            Mark Gelernter explains that (2.0)the individual culture gives explicit guidance about which solutions work and which solutions other members of the culture will understand.   Certainly this is true for the standard expectations any society values its' neighborhoods, building types and styles.  These become the measures by which an individual values his or her success and accomplishments, and by which he or she can compare him or herself to others in society.  It is a primary function of any metaphor and the metaphors in a society which cue us toward our relative positions.    This is a function of both art, architecture and all other metaphors. It enters the culture's general repertoire.  (2.0)Cultural traditions provide rapid competence when recurring and familiar problems are faced, and when new problems emerge they provide the essential base of knowledge from which new ideas are derived.
                       
Indeed there are many published standards for graphics, layouts, detailing, design organization, specifications, contracting, management and construction.  These are never meant to be copied, but along with manufacturer, context, site, program and personal specific information metaphorically 1created to produce the appropriate and relevant metaphor.  They can be emulated.
For any one individual “Architecture: The Making of Metaphors” is predicated by a personal encounter of both sense and mind.  Kant’s phenomenon philosophy and Berleant’s approach to aesthetics-view object as it is perceived by the senses. So after having derived and developed the ideas of architecture as the making of metaphors it still behooves readers to realize the phenomenon and epiphany enjoying both the process and read of design and the environment.  Architecture: the making of metaphors is more than an idea but phenomena and as such is the immediate object of awareness in experience. In earlier monographs I quoted Husserl and others noting the Dasein of the metaphor and the epiphany of the revelation that architecture: the making of metaphors.  However, without the combination of life experience of perception and design that transforms; where neither time, neither space nor substance matters except the sanctified and set apart aesthetic experience of creation. It is that special awareness during design and inhabiting buildings where the phenomenon of the architecture and metaphors lives. When you get it you know that you know, when there is an eclipse of the process with a product that achieves program:metaphor.  So are the relations between metaphors, the creative thinking and 3D structures.

 


Barie Fez-Barringten is the originator (founder) of “Architecture: the making of metaphors(architecture as the making of metaphors)"
First lecture at Yale University in 1967
First published in 1971 in the peer reviewed learned journal:"Main Currents in Modern Thought";
In 1970, founded New York City not-for-profit called Laboratories for Metaphoric Environments (LME) and has been widely published in many international learned journals including Springer publications, MIT, and Syracuse University.  
The book “Architecture: the making of metaphors" has been published in February 2012 by Cambridge Scholars Publishing in New Castle on Tyne,UK..




Researched Publications: Refereed and Peer-reviewed Journals: "monographs":

Barie Fez-Barringten; Associate professor Global University

1. "Architecture the making of metaphors" ©
Main Currents in Modern Thought/Center for Integrative Education; Sept.-Oct. 1971, Vol. 28 No.1, New Rochelle, New York.
2."Schools and metaphors"
Main Currents in Modern Thought/Center for Integrative Education Sept.-Oct. 1971, Vol. 28 No.1, New Rochelle, New York.
3."User's metametaphoric phenomena of architecture and Music":
“METU” (Middle East Technical University: Ankara, Turkey): May 1995"
  Journal of the Faculty of Architecture
4."Metametaphors and Mondrian:
Neo-plasticism and its' influences in architecture" 1993                               Available on Academia.edu since 2008
5. "The Metametaphor© of architectural education",
             North Cypress, Turkish University.     December, 1997

6."Mosques and metaphors"                         Unpublished,1993
7."The basis of the metaphor of Arabia"      Unpublished, 1994
8."The conditions of Arabia in metaphor"   Unpublished, 1994
9. "The metametaphor theorem"                  
Architectural Scientific Journal, Vol. No. 8; 1994 Beirut Arab University.    
10. "Arabia’s metaphoric images"                Unpublished, 1995
11."The context of Arabia in metaphor"      Unpublished, 1995
12. "A partial metaphoric vocabulary of Arabia"
“Architecture: University of Technology in Datutop; February 1995 Finland
13."The Aesthetics of the Arab architectural metaphor"
“International Journal for Housing Science and its applications” Coral Gables, Florida.1993
14."Multi-dimensional metaphoric thinking"
Open House, September 1997: Vol. 22; No. 3, United Kingdom: Newcastle upon Tyne
15."Teaching the techniques of making architectural metaphors in the twenty-first century.” Journal of King Abdul Aziz University Engg...Sciences; Jeddah: Code: BAR/223/0615:OCT.2.1421 H. 12TH EDITION; VOL. I and “Transactions” of 
Cardiff University, UK. April 2010

16. Word Gram #9” Permafrost: Vol.31 Summer 2009 University of Alaska Fairbanks; ISSN: 0740-7890; page 197
           
17. "Metaphors and Architecture."© ArchNet.org. October, 2009.at MIT 


18. “Metaphor as an inference from sign”;© University of Syracuse
    Journal of Enterprise Architecture; November 2009: and nominated architect of the year in special issue of  Journal of Enterprise Architecture explaining  the unique relationship between enterprise and classic building architecture.

19. “Framing the art vs. architecture argument”; Brunel University (West London); BST: Vol. 9 no. 1:  Body, Space & Technology Journal: Perspectives Section

20. “Urban Passion”: October 2010; Reconstruction & “Creation”; June 2010; by C. Fez-Barringten; http (colon) //reconstruction.eserver (dot) org/;

21. “An architectural history of metaphors”: ©AI & Society: (Journal of human-centered and machine intelligence) Journal of Knowledge, Culture and Communication: Pub: Springer; London; AI & Society located in University of Brighton, UK;
AI & Society. ISSN (Print) 1435-5655 - ISSN (Online) 0951-5666 : Published by Springer-Verlag;; 6 May 2010 http://www (dot) springerlink(dot) com/content/j2632623064r5ljk/
Paper copy: AIS Vol. 26.1.  Feb. 2011; Online ISSN 1435-5655; Print ISSN 0951-5666;
DOI 10.1007/s00146-010-0280-8; : Volume 26, Issue 1 (2011), Page 103

22. “Does Architecture Create Metaphors?; G.Malek; Cambridge; August 8,2009
Pgs 3-12  (4/24/2010)

23. “Imagery or Imagination”:the role of metaphor in architecture:Ami Ran (based on Architecture:the making of metaphors); :and Illustration:”A Metaphor of Passion”:Architecture of Israel 82.AI; August 2010 pgs. 83-87.

24. “The sovereign built metaphor” © monograph converted to Power Point for presentation to Southwest Florida Chapter of the American Institute of Architects. 2011

25.“Architecture:the making of metaphors”©The Book;
Cambridge Scholars Publishing
Published: Feb 2012

Newcastle upon Tyne

United Kingdom
Edited by
Edward Richard Hart,

Glasgow

Lecture:

Continuous line drawing with wash by Barie Fez-Barringten
Also, “Gibe” which documents his founding of international Earth Day along with John McConnell (deceased Oct 20 2012).