Design Brief

Further investigation of digital design in musical performance spaces has certainly had a late influence on the design of the main performance area within the Howard Smith Structure. Due to the perpetual shift towards the digital creation and performance of music it is fair to say that the focus of contemporary performances has become more concerned with visual and audio effects. This is the case as digital equipment and software are gradually taking the place of human performers and it is becoming easier for one person to utilise a range of tools to ultimately make the concept of a 'band' redundant:



This ability for DJ's and producers to be able to carry a performance solo will have a significant impact on the design of the BOH spaces. As the building is primarily concerned with the digital aspects of music, it is expected that the majority of perforances will in fact only require 1 or 2 people on stage at any one time. This will greatly reduce the required area of the green room and other stage related spaces within the structure.

Conceptual Sketches/Diagrams

The two sketches at the bottom of this post were done in the early stages of design where I was just trying to get a feel for the available space on the site. I thought I had best include them as there are many elements that I will most likely take with me for the final design (raised structure over walkway). These drawings were useful in helping me get an understanding of how to zone the required spaces to fit in the site beneath the bridge. I decided that the performance area would have to be rotated 90 degrees to maximize city and river views and too have minimal spatial impact along the threshold created by the Story Bridge.

Digital Biz

So I have looked a bit further into digitally interactive design and have stumbled upon a couple of examples that I thought could be modified and utilised within the Howard Smith performance space.

This first clip illustrates how digital technology is able to be utilised and manipulated to create a totally immersive and engaging environment. I think that this particular concept of digital graffiti would not only draw cultural references to the surrounding Fortitude Valley, but would also allow constant evolution of spaces through the unique artistic expressions of occupants. The performance space is expected to see quite a bit of public interaction and therefore several smaller 'graffiti screens' may need to be considered as a viable alternative.

Chairman Ting - Digital Graffiti Art @ The Athlete's Village from Carson Ting on Vimeo.

This second video is of a 3D display in a railway station in Zurich, Switzerland. It shows a relatively simple method of achieving the illusion of a 3-dimensional digital experience through the use of layers (both horizontal and vertical) of illuminated spheres. This would have quite a significant spatil impact and could essentially be built into any flat surface within the structure. The only foreseeable downside to embedding this into the walls or floors would be that the maintenance guy would almost definately go on a killing spree if the innermost bulbs were to fail- perhaps use panels to allow access to the bulbs from all sides of the installent. Maybe consider other forms of lighting also i.e. projection.