Scoring: Beirut
This experiment takes inspiration from graphic scores in music as dynamic forms that could offer new models for the relationship between architecture, design practices, and social life: in other words, between scoring and performing urban space.
Over 12 months we propose to host 4 workshops in very different cities, with common challenges: London and Paris, two global cities needing to create flexible space to accommodate rapid economic and socio-cultural change; and Belfast and Beirut, cities marked by conflict needing to find common spaces across sectarian divides. These will invite architects and composers to collaborate to create scores for sites in transition, as dynamic modes of design dealing with time, interaction, and improvisation. The process will culminate in a publication of these scores and a launch event in early 2020.
The project is organised by Gascia Ouzounian (Associate Professor of Music, Oxford University) and John Bingham-Hall (Director, Theatrum Mundi) with support from a Knowledge Exchange Fellowship awarded by The Oxford Research Centre in the Humanities (TORCH).