Trigger Place - A Game of Sound and Architecture

Matilde Meireles

"Play" was a project developed by Matilde Meireles and Diogo Alvim with the participation of experimental filmmaker Richard O'Sullivan. This multilayered performance was specially conceived for the annex of the Physical Education Centre at Queen's University Belfast, a building composed of several squash courts and an audience area. The project encompassed live music (a brass ensemble), electronics, video projections, and a live squash game, all affecting the perception of the site. This building became the main character of an immersive acoustic experience, where a game of squash was the starting point to explore ideas about architecture and place through sound. The squash courts were subject to acoustic processes extrapolated from two of Alvin Lucier's most important works—"Vespers" and "I am sitting in room". Also the floor markings were manipulated, as a reference to Edward Krasinski's obsession with a never-ending line. These extended beyond the performance space to reveal unexpected connections.

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By transgressing the condition of a representation to that of presentation, PLAY immerses the audience in the present, within a shared situation.This space is not a stage, nor a sports building: it is a place, thought and lived.

PLAY thus explored the site and disclosed its multiple layers in an attempt to trigger place: to enhance and intensify the feeling of sharing a place. The audience was part of a shared experience that transformed the perception of this site. The event added one more, if thin, layer to the building’s history and its collective meaning.

Introduction

Architecture Game

In PLAY, the listener is guided through an apparently linear narrative that reveals the various processes used to reframe the site.

The line is used as a device to work through these processes. It begins by deconstructing the rules of the game and, hence, the use of the space. The line, following Krasiński, is more than the marker of game areas. It is a manifestation of a boundary, that which separates and delimits: a territory, a battle line. In PLAY, the line also emphasises linearity, traversing and connecting the different layers of space, such as physical, sonic, conceptual, socio-political, and temporal. It connects the outside space with the inside of the building, the event with everyday life, and the remote life of the place with the present experience of the audience.

Final Remarks

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