Methods of Indirection: a trialogue between Patrizia Bach, Howard Eiland, and Luis Berríos-Negrón about Walter Benjamin and translating The Arcades Project
(2020)
author(s): Luis Berríos-Negrón, Patrizia Bach, Howard Eiland
published in: Journal for Artistic Research, Konstfack - University of Arts, Crafts and Design
Walter Benjamin deemed his Arcades Project [Das Passagen-Werk (Mit Bindestrich und Werk mit Capital W)] “the theatre of all my struggles and all my ideas.” As a vast accumulation of materials, it had become for him a literary laboratory for testing social, critical, and spatial ideas. The co-authors here present an exposition where they look to reactivate that ‘theatre’ to search, test, and draw from each other alternative recursions for their respective practices. Their respective discourses are intersected through a voluntary 'trialogue' that plays between three different roles aiming to diverge from the traditional form of a Q&A. The exchanges gravitate around ‘greenhouse’ as the historiographic display structure to the Arcades, as well as to Global Warming. But, the format also triggers ‘indirections’ urging unforeseen aspects that may further research and revisions of the Arcades. For the authors, such indirections actualise and translate, yet again, other dormant aspects of each others perceptions about Benjamin. Ultimately, joined by the attitude to share and reactivate that ‘theatre-laboratory’ with you—the reader and exposition visitor—the actors look for cues that encourage further procedures of experimentation and reflexion.
IN SITU: Sonic Greenhouse. Composing for the intersections between the sonic and the built
(2019)
author(s): Otso Tapio Lähdeoja, Josué Moreno Prieto, Daniel Adrian Malpica Gomez
published in: Journal for Artistic Research
This exposition presents and discusses a large-scale audio-architectural installation entitled "IN SITU: Sonic Greenhouse," which took place at the Helsinki City Winter Garden — or Talvipuutarha — in September and October 2016. Structure-borne audio transducers were employed to drive sound into the glass structure of the greenhouse in order to create an immersive sound experience emanating from the materiality of the building, transforming the site into a macro-scale musical instrument. Compositional strategies were developed in response to the context, emphasising the spatial dimension of composition more than the temporal and narrative ones, exploring an aural metaphor of transparency, as well as pointing towards the concepts of "sonic weather" and "sonic acupuncture." This exposition offers a reflective look at the work one year after its completion, fusing visual, audio, and textual elements to understand the piece’s aesthetic, theoretical, and experiential contributions.