URBS 370 - Seminar in Architectural History

Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)

(Same as ART 370 ) Topic for 2020/21b: Frozen Music, Fluid Architecture: Art, Music, Architecture and Masquerades. Goethe once said that architecture was “frozen music,” in other words capturing in stasis forms that were fluid, lyrical and mobile. Many arts do the opposite; creating art and architecture in motion. Nigerian masquerades such as the Egúngún, Ijele and Igunnuko for instance, transform cityscapes into theaters of performance. Patterns of onlookers watching the spectacle on the streets; the colorful fabrics of the costumes on display and the music that the masquerades dance to, comingle to form a “total work of art.” This course explores how the spectrum of “frozen music” and fluid architectural forms embedded in examples such as Louis Kahn’s architecture, Arvo Part’s seemingly architectonic music among other examples; bridge the chasm between stasis and motion. Adedoyin Teriba.

One 2-hour period.