The Sound of Space
From 8 to 18 November 2024, the garden space at Tokyo’s Sogetsu Plaza, designed for the presentation of ikebana, will be filled with unusual sounds. The work 'Keeping Flowers Alive – Acoustic Ikebana' by Katarzyna Krakowiak-Bałka will be showcased there. This is not the first time that art is being integrated with architecture through sound.
At the Faculty of Media Art of the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts, the Sound Performance Space Studio (Pracownia Przestrzeni Działania Dźwięku, PPDD) has operated for years. The idea of the founders of the studio was to conduct research into the nature and functioning of sound in the context of issues of space and architecture. This is because they are convinced that ‘sound – both pure and that which is mediated and defined by other media – provides us with tools for exploring and creating architecture’. The studio has a number of projects on the borderline of art, many works based on the study of sound and its recording, but also actions in space. This is because an important task for the artists associated with it is to introduce sounds into the built-up, urbanised context. In 2021, the Sound Performance Space Studio made sound interventions in the surroundings of a former school on Emilii Plater Street in Warsaw, which houses the Komuna/Warszawa theatre. Seven young artists developed activities inspired by an unusual object: a modernist school that is now a living cultural site, a small building hidden in the shadow of glass skyscrapers, a space for various artistic events taking place in the middle of a bustling and commercialised downtown, and at the same time a building that evokes memories and experiences of school time. At the Komuna/Warszawa headquarters, with the help of sound, young artists explored the nooks and crannies of the school and its surroundings, analysing all the specific contexts of the existence of this location in the centre of Warsaw.
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‘Keeping Flowers Alive – Acoustic Ikebana’, acoustic installation by Katarzyna Krakowiak-Bałka in Sogetsu Foundation, Japan, rehearsal photos, photo: Jakub Celej / AMI
Creators from the Sound Performance Space Studio at the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts say:
We describe the model and structure of our activities with sound and space through verbs: we zoom in on sound, we magnify it, we dissolve it, we remove it, we erase it, we copy it, we distort it, we crush sound and expel it from space.
The supervisor of the young artists at PPDD is Katarzyna Krakowiak-Bałka, an artist who for years has focused her work on the relationship between sound and architecture. What is very important is that each of her works is created for a very specific place; they are works that have no justification when transferred to other rooms. The integration between sound and space in Krakowiak’s works should be understood very literally: they are the result of an analysis of one specific place, building, interior.
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‘Keeping Flowers Alive – Acoustic Ikebana’, acoustic installation by Katarzyna Krakowiak-Bałka in Sogetsu Foundation, Japan, photo: AMI press materials
On 8 November 2024, Katarzyna Krakowiak-Bałka will present her latest project in Tokyo. Her electroacoustic installation was created for a particular interior: Noguchi Garden. It is an interior-sculpture designed by the Japanese sculptor Isamu Noguchi and used primarily for the presentation of ikebana. The Noguchi Garden is part of the Sogetsu Art Centre complex, a very important place for teaching, presenting, supporting the art of ikebana in Japan; it combines the character of a self-contained stone sculpture with the features of an exhibition space which is, moreover, created for works as unique as ikebana. Katarzyna Krakowiak-Bałka wants the space of the ‘stone garden’ to become ‘a stage for living interaction with the sound installation by organising concerts and acoustic interventions in its space’. In addition to the 16-channel sound composition (which is based on an analysis of the geometry of ikebana and the recorded sounds of nature, insects and flowers), the three-day presentation in the space of the Noguchi Garden will also feature dancers and singers who will interact with the installation, adding their voices to it and enlivening the space with movement.
What modernism sounds like
In August 2020, Katarzyna Krakowiak-Bałka created an architectural and sound installation for the Mies van der Rohe Pavilion in Barcelona. The project It Begins with One Word. Choose Your Own was created for one of the most iconic spaces for global modernism. Again: combining the sense of artistic performance with architecture was no accident. The artist herself said that she wanted to raise questions with her work ‘about the condition of the human individual and about the main features of contemporary societies’. She decided to ask these questions in a building whose form is the materialisation of an idea dating back to the beginning of the 20th century that grew out of a desire to create new architecture and urban planning for a modern society shaped by the era of the industrial revolution. In 2012, the same artist offered visitors at the Venice Architecture Biennale to experience this major international exhibition through sound. In the Polish pavilion, she created an installation that allowed visitors to hear conversations or sounds from other pavilions in Venice’s Giardini.
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NOSPR headquarters designed by Konior architectural studio, photo: Bartek Barczyk / NOSPR promotional materials
Most of us associate the phrase ‘sound in architecture’ with concert halls or the issue of acoustics. And rightly so, as it is an extremely important part of the design process and a phenomenon which strongly influences the comfort of those using the building. Architects often talk about the importance of creating the right acoustic conditions in concert halls. Particularly when it comes to shaping the interiors of philharmonic halls or opera houses, it is difficult to say whether it is the architect or the acoustician who has the most influence on its appearance. Tomasz Konior, who has to his credit such significant projects for music lovers as the building of the National Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra in Katowice (NOSPR), the Symphony Science and Music Education Centre in the same city, or the seat of the State Music School Complex in Warsaw (with a large, modern concert hall), prides himself on his cooperation with Nagata Acoustics, regarded as one of the best teams of acoustic experts in the world, and makes no secret of the fact that they have a great influence on the shape of the buildings they design. Similar recollections apply to Romuald Loegler, creator of the Łódź Philharmonic and Kraków Opera buildings, among others.
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Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw, photo: Marta Ejsmont
Piotr Z. Kozłowski, acoustic designer and head of the PAK Pracownia Akustyczna Kozłowski office, once explained on the pages of Builder Polska magazine:
The priority in acoustic design should be to look for solutions that respond to the visions of the interior developed by the architect. Designing acoustics does not have to be about choosing products from the catalogue of a manufacturer of ‘acoustic materials’. Creating acoustics is an activity based on extensive acoustic knowledge that allows us to create finishes using classic building materials [...]. Mixing materials with different acoustic parameters also allows large glass or concrete surfaces to be used without compromising acoustics.
The term ‘sound in architecture’, taken in its most literal sense, is already quite complicated, as it has to take into account how sound is projected where it is needed (for example, in meeting rooms) and how it is suppressed in places where it can be disturbing (this also applies to technical installations outside buildings, which can cause harm to users and neighbours alike). The subject is important even in an underground car park, which should muffle engine noise but at the same time allow the sound of, for example, a fire alarm to be projected. An even more complicated acoustic layer is to be found in railway stations or… popular museums. The designer of the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw, which opened at the end of October 2024, had to take into account both the noise generated by large groups of visitors and the sounds associated with the works of art presented in the building.
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VIBE office building, Warsaw, Ghelamco investment, photo: Ghelamco Poland
Sound in its broad sense can be not only a technical requirement to be met by architects but also an inspiration. This is evidenced, for example, by a strictly commercial project, the Vibe office building, erected in the business district of Warsaw’s Wola, at the intersection of Towarowa and Kolejowa Streets. Designed by the PIG Architekci team, it was created in collaboration with… composer Wojciech Urbański. According to the investor, the building, consisting of two structures, is to have its ‘own sound identity’, developed jointly by the architectural team, the composer and specialists from the creative and musical industries. One of them was Krystian Berlak, art director of Super Super Studio, who told us on the occasion of the presentation of the building’s design:
Our ambition was to design a unique audiosphere for the building and a whole set of acoustic and visual experiences that would accompany visitors. We used a range of media, from 3D graphics to motion design, parametrics and sound design to create an immersive and flexible platform that would tune itself in real time to the pace and rhythm of life inside the building.
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‘Meandry’ sound installation by Marcin Dymiter in Młyny Rothera, photo: A. Hilbrecht / Młyny Rothera
Using sound as an ‘attraction’ to enhance the commercial appeal of a site is not the same as introducing artworks into an architectural space, creating them in a way that is integrated into a space. Such works are able not only to be intriguing to viewers but also to carry messages or tell stories. Gerard Lebik’s music installation Anti Elevator Music Riot was presented in Wrocław in August 2013. It referred to the ‘background music’ that accompanies us in many places and is meant to affect our consciousness. The artist thus wanted to critique the audiosphere created mainly to support consumption choices in the space of shopping centres, airports and lifts. In early 2024, the third floor of the multifunctional Młyny Rothera (Rother Mills) on Wyspa Młyńska (Mill Island) in Bydgoszcz was filled with a sound installation by Marcin Dymiter. The work titled Meanders was intended to use sound to tell the story of the changes that have taken place in this part of the city from the 19th to the 21st century. As part of the festival Katowice Street Art 2019: Urban Sound, the panGenerator group created ‘sound graffiti’ on one of the city’s walls – bringing electronic music-making tools (a sequencer and a sampler) into the public space and putting them in the hands of passers-by. Artist and researcher Joanna Przybyła created a sound installation (music was emitted from speakers but also created live) in the foyer of the Szczecin Philharmonic in 2018. It was not, however, a concert, which one would expect in this venue, but a work that gave the audience a chance to experience the building in a completely different and new way. Also encouraging people to consider the relationship between architecture and music was Pokój do słuchania (Listening Room), a music and space installation prepared by pianist and composer Hania Rani and architects Łukasz Pałczyński and Jan Szeliga (representing Zmir architecture and crafts studio). Presented in the summer of 2022 at the Zodiak Architecture Pavilion in Warsaw, the installation was an object in which one could hide and, according to one’s own needs, if only while lying down, experience architecture through sound and vice versa.
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‘Keeping Flowers Alive – Acoustic Ikebana’, acoustic installation by Katarzyna Krakowiak-Bałka in Sogetsu Foundation, Japan, rehearsal photos, photo: Jakub Celej / AMI
The fact that modern buildings are filled with sound is so obvious that we stopped paying attention to this phenomenon long ago. Meanwhile, a properly created audiosphere can phenomenally complement architecture and help us feel and experience it differently. Sound projects related to architecture are works that touch many senses, including those we use somewhat less often in our contact with both art and space. At the same time, the artistic value of sound installations is gradually being recognised more and more. Already in 2010, the Turner Prize, an extremely esteemed laurel awarded to visual artists, went to the Scottish sound artist Susan Philipsz. Three years later, for the first time ever, the Museum of Modern Art in New York hosted an exhibition presenting the work of over a dozen artists who use sound in different ways in their work.
Written in Polish by Anna Cymer, 6 November 2024
Translated by Patryk Grabowski