invisible cities: concept city, remote cities, nature and music
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Outline
Italo Calvino & The Invisible Cities Your Views? Patterns of the Invisible Cities Other Kinds of Invisible Cities The Music Garden Conclusion?
Italo Calvino
One of the world's foremost postmodern authors;
Calvino is listed alongside Philip Johnson's AT&T building, Disneyland, Monthey Python, Max Headroom, and Donald Bartheleme as the most prominent 'icons' of postmodernism (Pilz)
Different Kinds
Cities and memory. Cities and desire. Cities and signs. Thin cities. Trading cities Cities and eyes. Cities and names. Cities and the dead Cities and the sky. Continuous cities. Hidden cities.
Outline of our Reading
Marco Polo’s talk to Kubla Khan
1. a. The invisible will not perish;
b. Description of cities with gestures and language; the emperor’s responses
2. a. The past is always ahead of us; elsewhere is a negative mirr
or
b. From gestures to words and back to gesture; the use of silence
3. a. Cities are made of desires and fears.
Outline of our Reading
1. Cities and memory. 1. –Diomira – past happiness; Cities and memory. 2. – Isidora – past desire; Cities and memory. 3. – Zaira – past connections; Cities and memory. 4. – Zora – described point by point, unmoved till it disapp
ears; 2. Cities and memory. 5. –Maurilla – a postcard city 1. Cities and desire. 1. –Dorothea – 2 ways of describing a cityCities and desire. 2. – Anastasia –describing the city vs. full experienceCities and desire. 3. – Despina -- 2 perception of a city 2. Cities and desire. 4. –Fedora -- with a mental city which turns into a museu
m; 1, Cities and signs. 1. – Tamara – arbitrary signs Cities and signs. 2. – Zirma – The city is redundant, so is our memory, becaus
e they are repetitive.2 Cities and signs. 3. –Zoe – a city which is a mixture of functions.1. Thin cities. 1. – Isaura – a city of wells two religions; ( 東石鄉 ; Venice?)2. Thin cities. 2. –Zenobia – a city of platforms, balcony and ladders; not happy
or unhappy, but one generating desires. 2. Trading cities. 1. – Euphemia – where merchants meet; to buy and sell, but
also to tell stories.
Your views?
Patterns of the Invisible Cities
1. City, memory and the past Desires are memories. Cities contain our
desires. Polo p. 28 – we know more about our past as
we move ahead. A city’s past – pp. 10-11
2. The Concept City vs. the Lived City – Dorothea: p. 9; Also city vs. desert Anastasia: p. 12 describing a city and desiring in
it;
3. City and Desires – Two perspectives. P.17 – Cities are formed by
their opposites and desires.
Patterns of the Invisible Cities
4. Human constructions Religion Buildings – Isidora p. 8;
5. Human Languages Signs – arbitrary (Are there any which ar
e not signs?) Gestures and Signs
Invisible Cities II: Distant Cities
Diomira p. 1: City and Memory: Byzantium underneath Istanbul
Isidora City and Arts: Carpentry at 古川 (a town in a mountain)
Anastasia p. 12 City and Desire/Arts: Kite Festival at Lahore
City and Signs/Postcards
Kite Festival at Lahore
Basant, the festival that marks the start of spring;
Kite with “string coated by hand in a doughy substance which is impregnated with pulverised glass” (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/2750193.stm
)
The Music Garden
What do you think? General Design Efforts – Arts, Business and
Politics Music, Nature and Urban
Space
Bach & Garden PlanSuite#1 I – Prelude II – Allemande III -Courante,
IV – Sarabande, V - Menuet I , VI - Gigue
Bk 5
Sarabande: a poet's corner
the garden's centerpiece is a huge stone that acts as a stage for readings, and holds a small pool with water that reflects the sky.
Bk 13
Menuette: A formal flower parterre. Gigue: Giant grass steps that dance
you down to the outside world.
Bk 8; 12
Efforts – Arts, Business and Politics
Different concerns of the Boston government: noise, money (to privatize the space to increase more economic interest), tourism, security
To gain financial support: to ‘massage’ the corporate power. Bks 10;
6
Music, Nature and Urban Space
Ma’s intention: to create a space for music without walls. what about traffic? (e.g. Bk 16)
Music, Nature and Urban Space
Julie Messervy: To shape nature in simple forms (Bk 2)
The film’s: Bk 9, 15
Minuette: formal dance Hand-crafted with ornamental steel, a
circular pavilion is designed to shelter small musical ensembles or dance groups.
Music and Nature: The Gigue or "jog" is an English dance, whose
jaunty, rollicking music is interpreted here as a series of giant grass steps that offer views onto the harbor.
Conclusion?
A city can be variously defined, imagined, desired for, and connected to the past.
Concept City does not just belong to the city planners. We also have our concepts in the use of signs, memories and through our desires and efforts in construction.
Reference
Pilz, Kerstin. ”Reconceptualising thought and space: labyrinths and cities in Calvino's fictions.” Italica, Summer 2003 v80 i2 p229(15)
http://www.juliemoirmesservy.com/pro.htm Toronto Music Garden Photo Gallery---In
spired by Bach: Yo Yo Ma http://www.nakayoshi.org/musicgarden/
Loraine Hunter http://www.garden-time.com/magazine/03september/article_gotw.php