INspiration: Looking toward music for concept/site/programming ideas

In the 1950’s, composers such as Earl Brown and Gyorgy Ligeti questioned the linearity of musical scores, where the composer would recite the score perfectly without any improvisations, and sought out a flexible score that could offer both the performers and the composer choices rather that a set path for a musical work. Their choices may be dependent on their current moods, and the atmosphere in which they are currently in. This flexibility was obtained through the use of sections and fragments within the score, where rearranging the parts was not only endlessly possible, but encouraged. This lead to a measure of unpredictability in the final work of music. Traditional logic, predictability and linearity was exempt from the music process. Ligeti looked at Calder Mobiles (shown below) for analogies to this idea, where the color, shape, and elements of the pieces were fixed, while the movement of these pieces and thus the compositions were constantly in motion.

This idea is similar to architecture in which for several decades, architecture was communicated without a sense of interpretation. The building (musical work) was communicated through building plans (scores) that were to be performed exactly as planned regardless of the current mood or atmosphere of the site or the user.

The mobile idea of the music center follows the question of linearity Brown and Ligeti performed in music, where the architect (composer) cannot always predict the final outcome. The construction of the center is communicated through building plans, each with a sense of flexibility in the final outcome. This flexibility is sought out to let the current site conditions (mood/ atmosphere) and the users be the determining factor in the building’s composition, thus making it site specific, just like a static building. The static element in a music score, being the staff, and the shape and color of the calder mobile's pieces, is architecturally analogous the building frame, while the sections and fragments will be the panels used to wrap the frame, offering a series of options. The chosen configuration will be relative to the site to account for sun paths, access points, weather conditions, views, and context.