Presentation & Performance 'Architectures of Silence'
This presentation/performance of Guy Livingston, currently writing his dissertation on Musical and Architectural Markers for Silence, examines some architectural and spatial possibilities of silence.
George Antheil's Ballet mécanique is used as a case study. Composed in 1923, and based on sketches made in 1919, this unique percussion piece shocked audiences at its premiere in Paris due to its loudness, its brashness, and its mechanical intensity. The artwork was meant to engage with a new concept of space-time, inspired by Antheil's own utopian dreams, the architectural drawings of the Italian futurists, and the writings of Ezra Pound. Towards the end of this radically noisy composition, Antheil incorporates silence in entirely new ways.
This presentation will delve into the complex intensities of those noisy silences.
