Invisible Cities:

Concept City, Remote Cities, Nature and Music

Outline

Italo Calvino & The Invisible Cities Your Views? Patterns of the Invisible Cities Other Kinds of Invisible Cities The Music Garden Conclusion?

Italo Calvino

One of the world's foremost postmodern authors;

Calvino is listed alongside Philip Johnson's AT&T building, Disneyland, Monthey Python, Max Headroom, and Donald Bartheleme as the most prominent 'icons' of postmodernism (Pilz)

Structure of

Invisible Invisible CitiesCities

Different Kinds

Cities and memory. Cities and desire. Cities and signs. Thin cities. Trading cities Cities and eyes. Cities and names. Cities and the dead Cities and the sky. Continuous cities. Hidden cities.

Outline of our Reading

Marco Polo’s talk to Kubla Khan

1. a. The invisible will not perish;

b. Description of cities with gestures and language; the emperor’s responses

2. a. The past is always ahead of us; elsewhere is a negative mirr

or

b. From gestures to words and back to gesture; the use of silence

3. a. Cities are made of desires and fears.

Outline of our Reading

1. Cities and memory. 1. –Diomira – past happiness; Cities and memory. 2. – Isidora – past desire; Cities and memory. 3. – Zaira – past connections; Cities and memory. 4. – Zora – described point by point, unmoved till it disapp

ears; 2. Cities and memory. 5. –Maurilla – a postcard city 1. Cities and desire. 1. –Dorothea – 2 ways of describing a cityCities and desire. 2. – Anastasia –describing the city vs. full experienceCities and desire. 3. – Despina -- 2 perception of a city 2. Cities and desire. 4. –Fedora -- with a mental city which turns into a museu

m; 1, Cities and signs. 1. – Tamara – arbitrary signs Cities and signs. 2. – Zirma – The city is redundant, so is our memory, becaus

e they are repetitive.2 Cities and signs. 3. –Zoe – a city which is a mixture of functions.1. Thin cities. 1. – Isaura – a city of wells two religions; ( 東石鄉 ; Venice?)2. Thin cities. 2. –Zenobia – a city of platforms, balcony and ladders; not happy

or unhappy, but one generating desires. 2. Trading cities. 1. – Euphemia – where merchants meet; to buy and sell, but

also to tell stories.

Your views?

Patterns of the Invisible Cities

1. City, memory and the past Desires are memories. Cities contain our

desires. Polo p. 28 – we know more about our past as

we move ahead. A city’s past – pp. 10-11

2. The Concept City vs. the Lived City – Dorothea: p. 9; Also city vs. desert Anastasia: p. 12 describing a city and desiring in

it;

3. City and Desires – Two perspectives. P.17 – Cities are formed by

their opposites and desires.

Patterns of the Invisible Cities

4. Human constructions Religion Buildings – Isidora p. 8;

5. Human Languages Signs – arbitrary (Are there any which ar

e not signs?) Gestures and Signs

Invisible Cities II: Distant Cities

Diomira p. 1: City and Memory: Byzantium underneath Istanbul

Isidora City and Arts: Carpentry at 古川 (a town in a mountain)

Anastasia p. 12 City and Desire/Arts: Kite Festival at Lahore

City and Signs/Postcards

Kite Festival at Lahore

Basant, the festival that marks the start of spring;

Kite with “string coated by hand in a doughy substance which is impregnated with pulverised glass” (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/2750193.stm

)

The Music Garden

What do you think? General Design Efforts – Arts, Business and

Politics Music, Nature and Urban

Space

Bach & Garden PlanSuite#1 I – Prelude II – Allemande III -Courante,

IV – Sarabande, V - Menuet I , VI - Gigue

Bk 5

Toronto Music Garden From Boston’s City Hall Plaza to

Toronto’s Harbor Front

Prelude: An undulating river scape with curves and bends.

Response to the environm

entBk 3

Allemande: A forest grove of wandering trails.

Original plan: Bk 7; adjusted in the new plan Bk 14

Courante: A swirling path through a wildflower meadow.

Bk 11

Sarabande: A conifer grove in the shape of an arc

Sarabande: a poet's corner

the garden's centerpiece is a huge stone that acts as a stage for readings, and holds a small pool with water that reflects the sky.

Bk 13

Menuette: A formal flower parterre. Gigue: Giant grass steps that dance

you down to the outside world.

Bk 8; 12

Efforts – Arts, Business and Politics

Efforts – Arts, Business and Politics

Different concerns of the Boston government: noise, money (to privatize the space to increase more economic interest), tourism, security

To gain financial support: to ‘massage’ the corporate power. Bks 10;

6

Music, Nature and Urban Space

Ma’s intention: to create a space for music without walls. what about traffic? (e.g. Bk 16)

Music, Nature and Urban Space

Julie Messervy: To shape nature in simple forms (Bk 2)

The film’s: Bk 9, 15

Minuette: formal dance Hand-crafted with ornamental steel, a

circular pavilion is designed to shelter small musical ensembles or dance groups.

Music and Nature: The Gigue or "jog" is an English dance, whose

jaunty, rollicking music is interpreted here as a series of giant grass steps that offer views onto the harbor.

Conclusion?

A city can be variously defined, imagined, desired for, and connected to the past.

Concept City does not just belong to the city planners. We also have our concepts in the use of signs, memories and through our desires and efforts in construction.

Reference

Pilz, Kerstin.  ”Reconceptualising thought and space: labyrinths and cities in Calvino's fictions.” Italica, Summer 2003 v80 i2 p229(15)

http://www.juliemoirmesservy.com/pro.htm Toronto Music Garden Photo Gallery---In

spired by Bach: Yo Yo Ma http://www.nakayoshi.org/musicgarden/

Loraine Hunter http://www.garden-time.com/magazine/03september/article_gotw.php