Anti-Stage Architectural Proposal

ANTI STAGE

PORTFOLIO . SPRING 2021

NAVID GHAFOURI

“

A ll th e wor ld’ s a stage, A n d a ll th e men and w om en merel y pl ayers;

”

WIL L IAM SHAKESPEAR E

S TU DI O 1 1

TUTORS: Daniel Movilla Vega Mette Harder Lluís J. Liñán Carla Collevecchio

wo rk i n p r o c e s s : so c i o - sp atial sce na r io s an d a r c h i t e c tu r al e x pe r i m e n t s .

anti-

The project investigates musical stage as a ground for exploration of new possibilities that can alter our understanding of musical performance.

stage

URBAN EXPLORATIONS INTERIORS TRANSPORTABILITY THE ARTEACTS ANTI STAGE

CONTENTS

LYNETTE BESTER, Cathedral I, 2016 Steel Scaffolding, Steel G-Clamps, Wooden Components From 1930›s Stand Up Piano Donated by Ian Burgess-Simpson

where is the stage? who is the performer?

As giant artists in the history of art, Rembrandt and Pollock had their unique forms of expression in their paintings. Today, their paintings are both exhibited in museums on vertical walls. But not all of them were vertical while being created. Apart from what we see as their finished artworks today, the process of creating the artworks is something underlying the way they each looked at the canvas while paiting. Rembrandth standing outside the canvas, looking at his painting and controling the compositions; Pollock stepping inside the canvas, inhabiting himself inside the horizontal painting and dripping the colour in a way that makes the “action of painting” part of the performance itself.

How can we create new interactions with music by shifting the boundaries of performance space?

This Project investigates musical performance stages as a ground for speculation to challange the conventional ways of interaction between performer and the audience. Through mixing different mediums such as 2D documents (sketches, collages, etc.) and 3D models (physical, digital), I tried to unravel the underlying potentials existing in different urban conditions to introduce new dynamics for the city and the performance. As a result of my investigations, I propose a set of different transportable structures to collect and utilize donated pianos in Umeå that can respond to different urban pockets and performing conditions, trying to argue that sound as a medium carries a rich set of meanings in staking a claim to public space, as the process of sound accruing meaning is in itself a spatialized process.

ANTI STAGE

TEXT

MAIN CONCEPTS

PUBLIC PIANOS IN UMEÅ

My intial investigations started with an interest in donated pianos and the possibility to get one of them to work. Thinking about moving a piano and locating it in different urban public spaces, I started to imagine how would the interaction with music be changed in different urban topographies.

Considering adjacancies and ground conditions by observing and documenting the movements of people around specific sites, I tried to analyse and illustrate the different ways that people could gather around and create spontaneous stages.

The locations that I found interesting are places that can be found in the daily routes of people in Umeå.

SKETCHES

URBAN EXPLORATIONS

Pianos in Domesctic spaces

Investigating performance through domestic spaces, I found a substantial precedent that encouraged me to explore the relations between interior qualities of space and the organization of human bodies in relation to it. A Jazz music event called “Smokin’ Jazz Sessions” in Umeå took place in Birgit Lindberg’s living room. This drawing illustrates how the interior boundaries and opnenings of the living room can give a new feature to a domestic space, so that it can be converted into a public performance space.

Given the fact that piano instruments are objects that are constantly experiencing different lives through domestic spaces made me explore interior spatial typologies and tracing back the interactions between the instrument and the actors around it.

SKETCHES + MODELS

DOMESTIC EXPLORATIONS

HORIZONTALITY Different interioir conditions through a set of itterations was investigated to understand the possible ways that a piano can organize human bodies around it. From narrow corridors to wide rooms, from dancing to standing and singing, I tried to investigate how human bodies can fill the space and organize their moves in relation to this object.

VERTICALITY An underlying potential in vertical movements was met as a new dimention to performance. As Jackson Pollock could change the way he looked at canvas by lying it on the floor, I tried to speculate the ways that verticality can reveal and broaden the domain of performance.

Technically, moving a piano is a highly choreographed job.

Depending on the weight, size and the context where a piano is being moved to, it requires certain number of work forces that can do the job. Through this sketch I tried to explore the different conditions where a standard

upright piano might face while being moved. Whether it needs to be fit through a door Or to get up to the fifth floor via stairs, there are specific actions and movements in the space which makes piano moving is a highly spatialized set of actions.

Can we make the action of piano movement an urban performance itself? Can we have public spaces that are able to be transported?

COLLAGE

TRANSPORTABILITY

transportable public s p a c e _

Piano object as the interior and exterior space, moving in public spaces and creating new types of interaction with an instrument.

Dealing with the interplay between a performer and a piano instrument, I tried to investigate the possible way where an upright piano could be the both interior and exterior space thorough some ideas. A piano furniture that can be folded; A stair case that can have a piano underneath; A mysterious room with a piano in it, lifted above the ground by long shafts connected to wheels that can make the whole object transportable in public spaces.

ARTEFACT /ˈɑːtɪfakt/ noun Something observed in a scientific investigation or experiment that is not naturally present but occurs as a result of the preparative or investigative procedure.

Within 3 different urban pockets I started designing transportable wireframe spaces that can make a dialogue with the context, while challenging the conventional relation between the passengers, audience, performers and the instrument itself.

I found the facade condition of a house in Umeå profoundly potential to be further explored. Dealing with the ways that the artefact can adopt to dimensionality of architectural elements such as balcony, roof and windows, I tried to make different conditions where people can gather and use the space in different ways.

> INVESTIGATION : MODELS

DETAILS

Timbe

COMPONENT SYSTEM >TELESCOPIC STANDARD

> MT ACCESS DECK

6.8

15

min 15 max 105

28.4

> T2 SINGLE BASE

.8

1 0.5

15

120

> BASE PLATE 20

15

> T1 SCREW JACK

> BASE LEDGER > HORIZONTAL DIAGONAL BRACE

> HORIZONTAL DIAGONAL BRACE

Ad 120

For the tectonic aspect of the artefct, a modular scaffolding system is proposed. This shoring system comprises prefabricated modular components that fit together and lock without using couplers or bolts. The Mills Tour shoring system is constructed so that that each vertical face, including the telescopic level, is fully braced over the whole height.

> T1 ADJUSTABLE HEAD

Ac Sc

> MT 240 LADDER

13

,5

29

FEATURES

255

Telescop > T2 DOUBLE FORK

> T2 TRIPLE FORK

13

> Can be moved by crane.

9.5

13

27

Ø 10

Ø 10

Fixed he

L OCKING JOINTS

Fixed he

Horizonta

> Lightweight components (9.4 kg max) to limit manual handling injuries. > Moving and telescopic adjustment for re-using without reassembly.

Telescop & locking

> TROLLEY

19

> Maximum load capacity per standard: - MT 65: 6.5 tonnes - MT 100: 10 tonnes

M

120

> FIXED HEIGHT FRAME 120

Adjustment 20.5 cm

9.5

> Runs and blocks of towers can be erected without using tube and coupler systems.

> MT 240 LADDER

> T2 ADJUSTABLE HEAD min 12.2 max 32.7

> General assembly using automatic locking without special tools or pins.

Ø 10 hole

B

S Swivel

Locking

AD JUSTAB IL ITY

Connector

Timber Frame Piano

15

min 15 max 105

28.4

OPIC STANDARD

NTAL DIAGONAL

Adjustable head Access deck Scaffold plank

0 LADDER

MT ladder 255

Telescopic standard & locking pin Telescopic frame and pin

9.5

FORK

Ø 10

Fixed height standard Fixed height frame Horizontal diagonal brace Base ledger Screw jack

2

.2

0

m

or

1

.0

0

-

1

.6

0

-

Troley

1.

00

-

1.

60

-

2.

20

m

ANTI-STAGE I. Project: A. Description This project investigates the potentials of urban temporary artefacts in creating new types of interaction between the performer and the audience. Proposing a set of different transportable structures to collect and utilize pianos in different urban pockets and performing conditions, the project tries to argue that sound as a medium carries a rich set of meanings in staking a claim to public space, as the process of sound accruing meaning is in itself a spatialized process.

B.

Scope of the Project

1. Designing a series of artefacts that can activate different urban conditions in Umeå by incorporating donated pianos in second-hand markets. These artefacts must be able to conduct spontaneous public performances and should be able to make a meaningful dialogue between the city and its residents. Providing the spaces for public interaction with music, this project should be looked at as temporary installations that can ease the transportation of public pianos within the city while making this action a playful urban performance that can later on become a part of the urban culture of Umeå.

2.

As self-sustaining structures, these artefacts must be considered as pieces of puzzles that provide the chance to be assembled, mounted and moved with the help of the residents. The design of the pieces of this puzzle must maintain a simplicity that people from different walks of life could actively participate in the process of working with it.

3. As a public project that aims to gather a considerable number of people, this project must ensure the safety of every individual who is incorporated.

> From Winding towers to the Artefacts By collaging and manipulating a series of windtowers and attaching them to a panaromic photo that I took from four house blocks in a row in Storgatan street, I tried to envision different types of interactions with exteriors of buildings when it comes to scaffolding structures.

I further developed the concept of vertical and horizontal dialogue through designing four different artefacts with a certain complexity that can challange the edge conditions, inbetween spaces and the interaction with inside and outside.

> CHARACTERS Defining different roles for these urban artefacts, I tried to assign each of them a certain feature, making them charactrized in the city by the way they can interact with buildings.

The Extractor Being attached to the facade of a buiding, this artefact can be best used for a vertical performance in a balcony, providing spaces for sitting and a pulley system for assisting piano movement.

The Penetrator Is able to penetrate to buildings through a long and narrow staircase, creating a circulation from outside to inside and making a semi closed performance space in the middle.

The Framer It acts as a frame and it’s able to devide an inbetween condition into two different spaces, by facing the performers in one side and the audience on the other side.

The spinner A circular staircase with a sheltered space underneath it that can spin and change its direction.

These artefacts can get together and be attached to each other in different configurations to create new typologies of event spaces.

The sectional scenography of the extractor is illustrated in this drawing. I tried to reveal the underlying potential of simoltineus horizontal and vertical performative conditions, which is not only activated through music, but also through the choreography of human bodies who are interacting with these artefacts; And by moving and placing these structures on the edge conditions, blurring the boundary between inside/outside, domestic/public and performer/ observer.

The radicality of this proposal is not on the structure, nor the movement of the paino. In fact, the structure with the piano needs human bodies to complete the stage.

further information: navid.ghafouri@gmail.com