<<

HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE

A Symphony of Sensations in the A B S T R A C T Spectator: ’s Poème This essay seeks to historicize the technological production of artistic virtual space, which is électronique and the Historicization often misconstrued as having originated with contemporary new media art production. The of New Media Arts author critically investigates Le Corbusier’s Poème électronique, a 1958 automated multimedia performance commissioned by the Philips Corporation for its Katie Mondloch pavilion at the World’s Fair in Belgium, as a paradigmatic example of much earlier at- tempts to create a spatialized, virtual experience in the specta- tor. The author argues that the highly disciplined spectatorship conditions of the Poème élec- ontemporary artists working with new media immersive, virtual engagement on tronique have many suggestive C parallels with those of contem- (such as net art, virtual reality, interactive installation, digital the part of the spectator , yet the video, etc.) have enjoyed unprecedented levels of support 17th-century subject of an emerging porary artistic production in new media, thus offering a theoreti- when compared to those of previous art media. Whether in modernity and the decentered sub- cal and historical foundation for the quantity of grants awarded or in the number of places se- ject of postmodernity remain dis- art-historical discourse regard- cured in prestigious contemporary museum exhibitions, the tinct in their differing relationships ing the proliferation of immer- economic and institutional encouragement of artists working to the body and to forms of institu- sive multimedia artworks in contemporary practice. with new media technologies has been as conspicuous as the tional and discursive control. More critical attention devoted to assessing this condition has been relevant historical examples for inadequate. Indeed, this sweeping popularity belies wide- thinking about contemporary new spread misunderstanding of the historical and cultural con- media arts may be found in the automated multimedia archi- text of the artworks’ formation. tectural experiments of the mid-20th century, which envisioned Recent critical art-historical formulations regarding arts a spectator that we are familiar with today—a postindustrial sub- made with new media technologies tend to fall into three over- ject routinely immersed in highly designed and carefully con- lapping camps: the Žrst locates new media art in the “techno- trolled technological manifestations of virtual space. logical” arts of the past, such as video art, Žlm or photography; Le Corbusier’s 1958 automated multimedia performance the second emphasizes commonalities with the collaborative event commissioned by the Philips Corporation for its pavilion and multimedia art practices of the late 1950s–1960s, such as at the World’s Fair in Belgium, the Poème électronique , preŽgured those inspired by John Cage’s experiments at Black Mountain the “virtuality” of certain computer-reliant works made with new College; and the third downplays the artistic precedents, stress- media. The Poème électronique ’simmersive environment strove ing instead new media art’s connection to the advent of per- to create a sense-overloaded observer who would experience a sonal computing and digital technologies. Taken individually, spatialized virtual event. Both the corporate sponsor and Le any one of these three models is inadequate. This essay will pro- Corbusier intricately controlled the spatialization of the ob- pose a hybrid approach to providing a historical and cultural server’s visual and aural experience toward this end. Anticipat- context for arts made with new media technologies, one that ing a tendency in contemporary new media artistic production historicizes virtual artistic experiences produced for the spec- that has thus far been unaccounted for in historicizations of the tator by means of a technological spectacle. same, the Poème électronique utilized phenomenological effects Within the discourse of new media arts, the concept of virtu- and the production of virtual space to control the spectator. ality, an imagined or simulated immersive space that does not While I do not want to suggest that Le Corbusier’s Poème élec- exist in reality, is often written about as a phenomenon speciŽc tronique served as a direct inuence on subsequent artists work- to computer-reliant technologies. Nevertheless, the complete ing with new media technologies, my concern here is to immersion of the observer into virtual surroundings has a rich demonstrate how the Poème électronique—an immersive multi- (art) history ranging from Baroque chapels to Wagnerian media technological environment orchestrated by a master- gesamtkunstwerks to 1960s experiments in expanded cinema. How ful author—has many suggestive parallels with contemporary might one begin to open up a space for a more meaningful his- new media art practice. In investigating the Poème électronique, toricization of the virtual and immersive experiences engendered we not only recover an interesting multimedia event of the by certain artworks made with new media technologies? mid-20th century, we also gain a better understanding of our While a multitude of historical precedents could potentially current moment. be invoked, it is important to recognize the fundamental dis- continuities between the observing subjects in each case. New media artworks and Baroque chapels may both presuppose an THE PHILIPS CORPORATION, THE PHILIPS PAVILION ANDTHE POÈMEÉLECTRONIQUE

Katie Mondloch (art historian, critic), Department of Art History, University of California How did the Philips Corporation directors conceive of the at Los Angeles, 100 Dodd Hall, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1417, U.S.A. E-mail: , mondloch@ pavilion, and what sort of observer did they hope to fashion? humnet.ucla.edu . . L.C. Kalff, the corporation’s cultural liaison, approached Le

© 2004 ISAST LEONARDO, Vol. 37, No. 1, pp. 57–61, 2004 57 Corbusier in late 1956 to design the For the pavilion’s visitors at the 1958 garde pavilion under the direction of Le Dutch Ž rm’s “spatial-color-light-music World’s Fair, the spectacle unexpectedly Corbusier could outweigh the potential production. ..using the most advanced appeared as a virtual space surrounded gain of having their products fore- technical means” (i.e. Philips’s equip- by changing images, colors and sounds. grounded in a mundane way. In a fash- ment) for the 1958 World’s Fair in Bel- The performance repeated automatically ion, Kalff and Philips credited the fair’s gium [1]. The nearly 70-year-old every 8 minutes. Xenakis rather poeti- visitors with more intelligence and dis- architect accepted with resolve: “I will not cally described what awaited the public cernment than did the designers of the make a façade for Philips, but an elec- in the Poème électronique spectacle: blatantly ideological and didactic Cold tronic poem. Everything will happen in- War agendas represented in the U.S. and During the eight minutes of the perfor- side: sound, light, color, rhythm. Perhaps U.S.S.R. pavilions also on display in Brus- mance, all of these innumerable means a scaffolding will be the pavilion’s only and effects make the public shift from sels. PreŽguring the numerous instances exterior aspect” [2]. Although Le Cor- uncertainty to sudden understanding of corporate support for new media art busier agreed to the commission, he and transport them into a world where and artists—for example, Intel’s spon- atly refused the Philips Corporation’s the strength of the imagination can no sorship of 010101: Art in Technological longer foresee the sequence of light and choices for his collaborators in the pro- sound waves [8]. Times, a 2001 exhibition at the San Fran- duction; the architect was resolute about cisco Museum of Modern Art, or the his personal choice of Edgard Varèse as Ushered into a strange “avant-garde” backing of multinational corporations composer and equally determined to pavilion reminiscent of a stomach and for the annual international Ars Elec- oversee the entire visual spectacle of the immediately left in the dark until the tronica competition—Kalff envisioned Poème électronique himself [3]. The Philips multimedia presentation began, the ob- an observer able to make the leap Pavilion building, then, was subservient servers of the Poème électronique were un- from Philips products on display to to Le Corbusier’ s real concern— the able to satisfactorily orient themselves in Philips products in the service of artistic Poème électronique . real space. Put simply, the Poème électron- ends. The multimedia Poème électronique ique was designed to create an immersive The manner in which Le Corbusier featured both visual and aural facets multimedia environment and a highly and the Poème électronique functioned as [4]. The visual components were Žlm, controlled experience of virtuality in all cultural capital is borne out in the legacy colored lighting, light projections of of its spectators. of the Pavilion’s authorship. Philips in- stenciled geometric shapes and three- Visitors to the Philips Pavilion (about sisted on crediting Le Corbusier with the dimensional forms. The Žlm presented one million over the course of the 1958 entire project, even in spite of obvious images selected by Le Corbusier and World’s Fair) were given the following evidence to the contrary. For Philips, it montaged by Žlmmaker Philippe Agos- brochure to read while they waited in simply would not do to have a less mas- tini to illustrate human civilization’ s line: terful signature on this expensive and progress. Colored lighting effects ( am- symbolic commission than that of “M. Le The Electronic Poem will be repeated biances) were utilized to manipulate the thousands of times. That is why the Corbusier.” This is certainly not to imply atmosphere and mood in the pavilion. equipment has been automated to such that the artists and architects involved Projection devices called tri-trous were de- an extent that the fallible human factor were not equally convinced of the valid- signed to superimpose simple stenciled has been virtually eliminated. This syn- ity of this undertaking. They too fully thesis between humanity and inventive- shapes onto the black-and-white Žlm [5]. recognized what Philips stood to gain ness has resulted from a co-operation Finally, two 3D forms ( volumes) hung in- between artists and technicians which from “avant-garde art,” especially as Žl- side the Pavilion and were bathed with has lasted for months, and with which tered through the genius of an innova- ultraviolet light at precise moments dur- Philips aspires to take a prominent share tive “master.” Xenakis lectured Kalff and ing the performance. in this great manifestation of Modern the Philips board of directors: Man [9]. The aural component of the multime- dia work was a site-speciŽc composition Clearly, that the Poème électronique was Your pavilion must attract attention by some avant-garde “strangeness” and you by Edgard Varèse, also titled Poème élec- almost entirely automated (thanks to must create a scandal ...If on the site of tronique. Varèse worked at the Philips labs Philips’s equipment) was considered a this demonstration you will have a good in Eindhoven to produce the composi- coup, as was the company’s association little “Demonstration,” fuddy-duddy , like tion’s montage of unmodiŽed sounds: with such a progressive and “Modern” those you can see in the trade shows of machine noises, distorted organ music, gesture. Paris (High Fidelity; Lighting, etc.) the impact will be reduced to that of a ball bells, percussion, pure electronic sounds, While the Philips Corporation’s en- of cotton. The highly artistic novelty, human chant and selections from the thusiasm may seem predictable to us which you categorize as abstract, is a composer’s Étude pour espace [6]. The hy- today in light of the current corporate characteristic of those works that endure. brid, multitrack work was recorded on and institutional interest in supporting For a long time after the end of the ex- position there will be talk of your Pavil- tape and emanated from a series of new media initiatives, it is important to ion as a bold stroke in the imagination “sound routes” from several hundred remember that elements of this com- of the public [11]. speakers attached to the Philips Pavilion’s mission were atypical in 1958. For in- curved walls. Working as both assistant ar- stance, Philips intended from the outset For his part, Le Corbusier warned the chitect and secondary composer, Iannis to exclude its products from the pavil- Philips board of directors that they would Xenakis was charged with the entrance ion, going against the established tradi- look like reactionary fools if they dared and exit music. Xenakis created an orig- tion of corporate pavilions until that to question the artistic integrity of either inal piece of musique concrète intended to time [10]. This was an astute move on Varèse or himself, and the architect was exploit the pavilion’s hyperbolic parabo- Philips’s part and reveals that the cor- not shy to recite an impressive list of his loid architecture [7] and gave his 2- poration, and especially its cultural liai- previous triumphs whenever the Philips minute score the title Concrète P.H. (an son Kalff, readily understood that the board grew impatient with what they ini- abbreviation of paraboloïde hyperbolique ). cultural prestige generated by an avant- tially considered to be the overly adven-

58 Mondloch, A Symphony of Sensations turous artistic ambitions of the Poème élec- metric [13]. The architect’s concern to Photography and architecture scholar tronique. exactly direct the observer’s experience Daniel Naegele offers a plausible expla- Philips took a risk by not foreground- was unmistakable; he described the nation for Le Corbusier’s utilization of ing their products in an obvious way and Philips Pavilion as “a stomach assimilat- still photography in composing the Poème by dealing with the myriad difŽculties as- ing 500 listener-spectators, and evacuat- électronique ’s Žlm, reasoning that the sociated with the Le Corbusier commis- ing them automatically at the end of the medium’s privileged relationship with re- sion (the board was especially displeased performance” [14]. Ever since the proj- ality worked even better than painting to with Varèse’ s decidedly challenging ect’s conception, he had planned for realize the architect’s philosophy, namely score, which the architect essentially each round of approximately 500 visitors and its “space of contradiction” blackmailed them into accepting by to stand for 8 minutes in order to expe- [20]. Initiated by Le Corbusier and threatening to quit if Varèse’ s music was rience the presumably multidirectional Amédé e Ozenfant around 1918, Purism not included). However, the corporation presentation from all points. Taking into sought to create, in the founders’ own was always mindful of the gains. Their account the vast audience he intended to words, “a symphony of sensations in the pavilion’s observer would leave Brussels reach with this spectacle, Le Corbusier spectator” [21]. The painters would se- slightly confused in the wake of their claimed that the Poème électronique would lect the emotion they desired to evoke “new” virtual experience, yet sufŽciently communicate “a long cry of a rediscov- and then pursue the forms capable of impressed by the company’s association ered community, the sense of drama, pas- transmitting the given emotion; thus with Le Corbusier and with forward- sion and faith, present in the collective Purist paintings were Žlled with visual looking experimental technologies. Need- soul” [15]. Architectural historian and contradictions in order to more fully less to say, Philips’s products and re- theorist Anthony Vidler suggests that be- transmit emotion through “resonance.” sources—from recording electronics to hind the material aspects of Le Cor- The “Purist potential” of photographs lighting technologies to their own labs busier’s structures there is always a could indeed explain the architect’s un- and engineers—enabled the entire pre- primary or virtual structure to which the erring dedication to selecting the “right” sentation to take place, and the audience observer is supposed to respond [16]. still photographic image for each frame was imagined to be mindful of this fact. For Vidler, Le Corbusier is a behaviorist of the Poème électronique ’s Žlm. Le Cor- Patronage obviously plays a key role in in that he uses abstraction to generate re- busier’s preference for Agostini’s mon- multimedia spectacles of this scale; such sponses. The Philips Pavilion building tage approach can also be interpreted as projects require resources that can gen- and Poème électronique are two such ex- offering yet another productive space of erally only be Žnanced by large corpora- amples of phenomenal art and architec- contradiction to “move” the spectator tions, governmental agencies or military ture. Clearly the Poème électronique ’s [22]. What is important to highlight is institutions. Indeed, this requirement is 8-minute experience of virtuality—recall that the architect was highly conscious of perhaps more apparent in the case of that I deŽne virtual space as an imagined what sort of observing experience he contemporary art made with new media or simulated immersive environment would produce with this multimedia per- technologies, where much experimenta- that does not exist in reality—was ex- formance. tion in new media is so costly that subsi- pected to move the audience both liter- The creative use of juxtaposition in dized or partnership arrangements are ally and, perhaps more important, non-narrative Žlm did not of course orig- common and new patrons have arisen in emotionally. inate with Agostini or Le Corbusier—Fer- the form of cultural institutions, univer- Le Corbusier supervised the Poème élec- nand Léger created his Ballet Mécanique sities and the entertainment industry. It tronique’s Žlm, colored lighting, light pro- 35 years earlier, and Man Ray had worked would be naïve to think that such pro- jections of stenciled geometric shapes, with uncanny juxtapositions in his early ductions would not reect the interests and 3D forms. He created a list of images Žlms. Similar experimentation can also of these patrons, even in situations in (documents) for the prospective Žlm that be found in Maurice Lemaître’ s 1951 Let- which it appears exceptionally clear that was then “translated” by his faithful col- trist Ž lm Le Žlm est déjà commencé ? Le Cor- the principal “vision” for the project is laborator Jean Petit into a workable list busier’s contribution was to take this the artist’s [12]. In the case of the Poème for Žlmmaker Agostini to implement as technique further in the Poème électronique, électronique, Le Corbusier’s authoritative a Žlmic montage [17]. The architect de- augmenting and synchronizing the Žlm plan for the phenomenal effects that vised a graphic matrix that listed precisely with other media, with all the attendant would generate a virtual experience for at what point the various ambiances, Žlm possibilities for psychological and physi- the spectator corresponded to the Philips segments and tri-trous projections should ological effects in the observer that res- Corporation’s ambition to sponsor an occur on a timeline divided into seconds. onate in today’s experimentation in arts “avant-garde” experience and to proŽt The Poème électronique ’s Žlmic narrative made with new media technologies. Janet from the publicity it guaranteed. comprised seven approximately 1-minute Cardiff and George Bures Miller’s 2001 sections distinguished by a short period Paradise Institute, a multimedia environ- of darkness between each one. The Žlm ment created for the Canadian pavilion LE CORBUSIERAND THE and the constituent photographs were at the Venice Biennale, offers a particu- POÈMEÉLECTRONIQUE conceived of in seven sequences labeled larly compelling comparison [23]. The What were the components of the Poème (in order): “genesis,” “ matter and spirit,” Paradise Institute’s material form was a électronique put forward by Le Corbusier “from darkness to dawn,” “manmade miniature 17-seat movie theater; visitors and what sort of perceptual experience gods,” “how time molds civilization,” were ushered in every 10 minutes and im- did he wish to provoke in his spectator? “harmony,” and “to all mankind” [18]. mersed in a cinematic experience en- Le Corbusier conceived of the Poème élec- Interestingly, the images selected by Le hanced by stereo headphones whose tronique as an entirely new kind of spec- Corbusier were nearly all static, 2D pho- ambient sounds convincingly situated the tacle and intended for the building to be tographs taken from sources such as the spectator in virtual surroundings as he or reminiscent of the human stomach, a Musée de l’Homme, Musée Pedagogique she watched the digital video in complete combination of the organic and the geo- and the American Library [19]. darkness. As with the Poème électronique,

Mondloch, A Symphony of Sensations 59 the extremely popular Paradise Institute ages, necessarily disrupting the specta- walls, so that the spectators heard sounds delighted its audience with an unfamiliar tor’s normal viewing experience. Then, slowly turn and collide on all sides. virtual experience even while maintain- as now, the variance between what is real Varèse’ s interest in the spatialization of ing tight perceptual control of its ob- and what is virtual was occluded in a tech- music led him to compose for traditional servers. Both artworks required intricate nological milieu. instruments in combination with sirens planning of technological manifestations The projected images transformed as that, in Varèse’ s opinion at least, provided so as to direct the observer’s experience they moved across the pavilion’s curved, “beautiful” parabolic and hyperbolic according to the artist’s intention. asymmetrical interior and, together with curves (which Varèse called “glissandi”). To return now to the visual spectacle the music and other visual effects, they cre- For Le Corbusier’s purposes, Varè se’ s of the Poème électronique , Le Corbusier ated a virtual space within the darkened music was key in achieving the experience worked extensively with color for this pavilion. As theorized by Beatriz Colom- of virtuality for the spectator as he sought project. The architect was conŽdent in ina in relationship to the Eameses’ Glimpses to stimulate the pavilion’s visitors with un- his belief not only that color affected the of the U.S.A. , a multiscreen Žlm designed familiar sensory impressions. viewer both psychologically and physio- for projection inside a Buckminster Fuller logically, but, once again, that he could geodesic dome at the 1959 American ex- provoke those effects. Color projections hibition in Moscow, such multimedia ar- “A SYMPHONY functioned in two ways in the Poème élec- chitectural works deŽne a space within a OF SENSATIONS” tronique. Each section of images was ac- space [26]. Colomina goes on to reason The entire Poème électronique was strictly companied by gradually changing colors, that, although the Eameses’ Ž lm breaks controlled by its 8-minute duration (not and the audience was additionally im- with a linear and perspectival view of the including the transitional entrance and mersed in colored lighting ( ambiances). world, it does so within the logic of an al- exit music and the introductory an- The lighting for the Poème électronique was ready existing mode of perception. She nouncements). Le Corbusier (i.e. his stu- calculated to have a major impact on the notes how television, space programs and dio) produced elaborate diagrams viewer’s overall spatial experience. Le military operations had fashioned a new detailing when and where the visual ele- Corbusier’s strategic use of lighting observer capable of understanding new ments would overlap and in precisely (along with other visual forms) can be re- spatial systems prior to the Eameses’ mul- what colored lighting conditions. Even lated to his interest in what he called “in- timedia Žlm. While Colomina is correct to the plan of the 2-minute interlude be- effable space.” According to the point out that the perceptual tools were al- tween presentations was meticulously architect, a profoundly moving “phe- ready in place to experience late-1950s considered. Quite different, then, nomenon of concordance” takes place projects such as Glimpses of the U.S.A. and from his artistic contemporaries’ non- for the sensitive observer when the “ac- the Poème électronique , it is important to note hierarchical collaborations in multime- tion of the work” and the “reaction of the how the discourse surrounding these early dia events self-consciously distinct from setting” are artfully aligned. In a suc- experiments tended to suggest their ab- the “ spectacle,” Le Corbusier’ s 1958 cessful work, “a boundless depth opens solute novelty. Poème électronique should not be unthink- up, effaces the walls, drives away contin- Proving that both client and artist were ingly elided with the experimental artis- gent presences, accomplishes the miracle of convinced of the newness of the specta- tic practices of its period. ineffable space” [24]. Le Corbusier hoped tor’s phenomenological engagement There was a general resurgence of in- that the virtual experience for the spec- when immersed in the Philips Pavilion terest in multimedia works in the arts tator of the Poème électronique would be structure and Poème électronique perfor- world at the time when the Poème électron- profoundly emotive in this way. Both the mance (or at least that they were deter- ique was conceived and produced, and Žlm and colored lighting effects were at- mined to publicize it as something new), these works are frequently cited as prece- mospheric pieces devised to impact the Philips introduced the Poème électronique dents in attempts to historicize new media spectator’s senses directly. with an announcement in French, En- arts. All nearly contemporaneous with the Integrated with the color effects and glish and Dutch to the effect that a new Poème électronique , the Independent Group the Žlm were Le Corbusier’s very explicit art form was about to be initiated, one orchestrated a series of multimedia exhi- plans concerning the 3D forms ( volumes) that would change the way the audience bitions between 1956 and 1957; Allan that were to hang in the peaks of the experienced sounds and images (al- Kaprow initiated the Happenings that pavilion. Intended as allegories and sug- though it would have been more accu- ourished from 1958 to 1962; Robert gestive of the organic and geometric rate to focus on the viewer’ s altered Rauschenberg developed a series of re- principles implied in the pavilion’s stom- relationship to space). Consistent with sponsive environments in the late 1960s; ach inspiration, Le Corbusier anticipated Colomina’s compelling theorization of and Fluxus artists experimented in per- including a female mannequin (“ na- architecture as mass media, I would sug- formance, Žlm and an array of mixed ture”) and a mathematical Žgure (“hu- gest that the experience of virtuality in media, their activity peaking from about man consciousness”) that he planned to both projects was deliberately sought 1962 to 1964. However, unlike the Poème design personally. Clearly not inconse- after for its “avant-garde strangeness,” its électronique , these artistic events were for quential for the Poème électronique pro- publicity potential, and for the control of the most part non-hierarchical and col- duction as a whole, the 3D forms were lit the spectator’s experience that it allowed. laborative, and both Happenings and with ultraviolet light during Ž lm se- After the corporation’s introduction- Fluxus were inuenced by John Cage’s quence 4, “manmade gods” [25]. Be- cum-augury that preceded every perfor- comprehensive use of chance operations cause the 3D forms were the only “real” mance, the Philips pavilion was darkened to dissolve the barriers between art and life things in the pavilion, the spectator’s at- until the 8-minute cycle of automated vi- [27]. Cage organized a “concerted action” tempt to discern the “reality” of the forms sual imagery was activated along with event at Black Mountain College in 1952 was instrumental for challenging the Varèse’ s electronic score. The previously that involved different art forms occurring spectator’s perception. Illuminated by ul- described sounds traveled around “sound simultaneously and sometimes succes- traviolet light, the 3D forms entered the routes” provided by the hundreds of sively, according to chance; while the event same virtual space as the projected im- speakers on the pavilion’s curved interior may be superŽcially similar to the Poème

60 Mondloch, A Symphony of Sensations électronique in the use of overlapping media, Princeton Univ. Press, 1996) p. 2. I am indebted to 15. Le Corbusier and Petit [2] p. 18. it was fundamentally different in terms of the careful archival research carried out by Treib; his book is the best and most detailed account of both 16. Anthony Vidler, lecture on Le Corbusier, De- authorial intent and perceptual control. the Poème électronique and the Philips Pavilion. partment of Architecture, University of California at In comparison to late 1950s and early Los Angeles, Winter 2001. 2. Le Corbusier and J. Petit, Le Poème électronique 1960s artistic experimentation with mul- (Paris: Editions de Minuit, 1958) p. 23. 17. Petit was also responsible for the text version of the project, Le Poème Électronique, Le Corbusier (Paris: timedia, Le Corbusier’s Poème électronique 3. The Philips Corporation sought (but failed) to Editions de Minuit, 1958). Petit had previously was more controlling, more reliant on a have Le Corbusier collaborate with British composer worked with Le Corbusier in writing for Editions de single “genius” author , more concerned Benjamin Britten and Russian-born French sculptor Minuit about his chapel at Ronchamp and monastery Ossip Zadkine. Treib [1] p. 11. at La Tourette. with upholding the status quo (after all, this was a corporate pavilion for a world’s 4. Diligent attempts were made by this author to se- 18. The Poème électronique Žlm is currently housed at cure permissions for publishing the many illustrations the Philips archives in Eindhoven, the Netherlands; exhibition) and more invested in the cre- originally accompanying this essay. While permissions unfortunately, the Žlm was not available to this author. ation of virtuality by way of a technolog- were readily granted for printed reproductions, the rights for reproducing the images on-line (as re- 19. I mean “taken” quite literally; remarkably sug- ical spectacle. The whole volume of the quired by Leonardo) were denied. The author would gestive of our own time, copyright issues, including Poème électronique’s performance space was like to point out that she considers the argument in- high fees and permissions not properly acquired, would plague the Philips Corporation even after the Žlled with sounds and images requiring complete without illustrations and hopes that future decisions regarding copyright permissions for schol- Pavilion was destroyed. (demanding) the observer’s rapt atten- arly publications will be made in a more just manner. 20. Naegele [14] p. 127. In this regard, Naegele iden- tion. Unlike the multimedia experimen- 5. Le Corbusier explained his innovative technique: tiŽes the photo mural of the as a turn- tation occurring simultaneous ly and “A Žlm strip each frame of which is entirely opaque ing point for Le Corbusier’s architecture. soon thereafter in the art world, Le Cor- except for three holes (‘trois-trous ’) in which the col- 21. Le Corbusier and A. Ozenfant, “Purism,” in R. ors or Žgures are introduced.” Philips Technical Re- busier wrote his “ symphony of sensa- Herbert, ed., Modern Artists on Art: Ten Unabridged Es- view report; cited in Treib [1] p. 154. says (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1964) tions” to be directed by a maestro and to 6. In the area of avant-garde music theory, John Cage p. 67; originally “Le Purisme,” L’ Esprit Nouveau 4 produce precise, predetermined effects was likewise devoted to incorporating all sounds pre- (January 1921) pp. 369–386. Le Corbusier and Ozen- in the observer. To this end, the highly viously considered noise into music around this time. fant collaborated on the publication After Cubism that See J. Cage, Silence: Lectures and Writings by John Cage established the basis for the Purist philosophy. See controlled 1958 Poème électronique mas- (Middleton, CT: Wesleyan Univ. Press, 1961). also N. Rosenblatt, “Empathy and Anaesthesia: On terminded by Le Corbusier seems a more the Origins of a French Machine Aesthetic,” Grey 7. The pavilion was composed of complex geomet- Room 2 (winter 2001) pp. 78–97 for a critical assess- Žtting prototype for current immersive ric forms; a hyperbolic paraboloid is a 3D surface ment of the Purists’ ambition to be in command of technological artistic environments than that has parabolic and hyperbolic cross-sections. The the senses of the observer. the more frequently suggested prece- multimedia spectacle exploited this architecture: The sound experiments required curved walls, and 22. Architectural instances of representational jux- dents of the 1960s experimental, largely the projected images were designed to transform as taposition in the spatialized Poème électronique per- they moved across the curved walls. formance are related to the multitude of Le non-hierarchical art and media practices. Corbusier’s books and articles that used photogra- In considering the consequence of 8. P. Grossi, “È morto Edgard Varèse,” Casabella 302 phy to form illustrative and affective texts. Le Cor- generating collective experiences of “vir- (February 1966) p. 69 (my translation). busier had been perfecting the art of photographic juxtapositions ever since his 1923 publication Vers un tuality” in the reception of new media 9. Treib [1] p. 261, note 42. architecture (Towards a New Architecture , English trans- arts, and especially given present-day 10. Although most accounts of the Philips Pavilion lation by Frederick Etchells [New York: Dover Pub- claims to new media “interactivity,” it is (including Le Corbusier’s) afŽrm that there were no lications, 1986]); this book presented the reader with a new pictorial language by compelling the reader informative to note that although the Philips products on display in the pavilion, it is note- worthy that an exhibition catalog, Synthèse des Arts: As- to “see” the text working in concert with the painstak- Poème électronique offered an original spa- pekte des Spätwerks 1945–1965, quotes Kalff proposing ingly selected and arranged images. SigniŽcant for tial and acoustic experience, its underly- in 1956: “At the end of each presentation. ..a more Le Corbusier’s later work, this arrangement en- or less abstract monument shall become visible in the couraged a visceral response to visual perception. ing message was far from subversive, as it rear part of the cupola that visualizes symbolically the 23. It is interesting to note that Le Corbusier’s Poème was directly in line with Philips’s corpo- family-tree of Philips with the Žrm’s products .” My em- électronique predates the late-1960s multimedia ex- rate agenda and Le Corbusier’s own con- phasis. Bart Lootsma, “Poème électronique: Le Cor- perimentation in art and Žlm. For an account of late- busier, Xenakis, Varèse,” in Synthèse des Arts: Aspekte trolling view of the observer. Carefully 1960s experimental Žlm, see D. James, Allegories of des Spätwerks, 1945–1965 (Berlin: Ernst, 1986) p. 113. Cinema (Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press, 1989) scripted “symphonies of sensations” con- One noteworthy precedent of an architect em- ch. 4, especially pp. 133–137. For an account that syn- tinue to be produced for the spectator in ploying rather than displaying commercial products thesized contemporaneous developments in both in a corporate exhibition pavilion is Mies van der our current historical moment. The chal- Žlm and art, see G. Youngblood, Expanded Cinema Rohe’s 1927 experiments with glass for the German (London: Studio Vista, 1970). lenge that remains for both critics and mirror-glass factories at the Stuttgart Werkbund ex- hibition. 24. Le Corbusier, “Ineffable Space,” in Le Corbusier, artists is to examine the social, cultural New World of Space (New York: Reynal and Hitchcock, and political ramiŽcations of the virtual 11. Xenakis to Kalff, 17 December 1957, Foundation 1948) p. 8. Le Corbusier archive; cited in Treib [1] p. 192. experiences generated by such projects 25. Treib [1] p. 126. and to develop a historiography for new 12. Le Corbusier portrayed his own architectural works in the Poème électronique ’s “history of mankind” 26. Beatriz Colomina, “Enclosed by Images: The media that does not occlude such issues. Žlm sequence. The projects for Paris, skyscrapers for Eameses’ Multimedia Architecture,” Grey Room 2 Algiers, housing blocks at Nantes and Marseilles and (winter 2001) p. 11. High Court at were all featured. While Acknowledgments conceivable as indirect publicity for Philips, merely 27. Exceptions include certain carefully scripted yet by virtue of the latter being associated with the mod- ostensibly participatory Happenings, such as Allan I would like to thank the editors and reviewers at ern master, the master without doubt publicized him- Kaprow’s 18 Happenings in 6 Parts (1959). Whereas Leonardo for their assistance in completing this essay. self; in the last segment of the Žlm the audience Kaprow shared Cage’s dedication to nonlinear ef- Wim de Wit, director of Special Collections at the learns that architecture is humanity’s hope for sal- fects and overlapping visual and aural elements, his Getty, and Cristin O’ Keefe at ARS were also ex- vation and Le Corbusier’s latest projects and urban 1959 event expected audience members to interact tremely helpful. I am grateful to Tony Vidler for his planning ideas are quite literally foregrounded. in precise ways according to the artist’s vision. insights regarding an early version of this argument and to Jenn Marshall for her advice and encourage- 13. Allen Weiss and Charlotte Skene-Catling note ment. A research mentorship grant from UCLA that the conceit of the human stomach was probably sponsored the research for this project; I am grate- an unintended Rabelaisian element concerning the Manuscript received 18 October 2002. ful to Miwon Kwon for her assistance in securing the ow of people who would experience the multime- grant and for her steadfast support. dia invention. Any 23 (1998) pp. 10–11. Katie Mondloch is a doctoral candidate in art 14. Le Corbusier, Creation Is a Patient Search, James history at the University of California at Los References and Notes Palmer, trans. (New York: Praeger, 1960) p. 186; cited Angeles, where she is writing a dissertation on in D. Naegele, “Le Corbusier and the Space of Pho- 1. M. Treib, Space Calculated in Seconds: The Philips tography,” History of Photography 22, No. 2 (summer screen-reliant media installation art from the Pavilion, Le Corbusier, Edgard Varèse (Princeton, NJ: 1998) p. 135. mid-1960s to the present.

Mondloch, A Symphony of Sensations 61