Output details

Musarc - a research project organised around a choral ensemble led by Joseph Kohlmaier at London Metropolitan University since 2008.

Musarc is a research programme organised around a choir. It responds to the rise of sound as a paradigm in theory and criticism and the development of distinct aural histories in disciplines such as geography, psychology and anthropology. Musarc promotes the discussion of sound and listening specifically in the context of architecture and urbanism.

The research programme is the ‘output’. The aim is not to produce a singular exemplary performance, object or theory, but to establish a new field of enquiry.

Methodology centres on the activities of a choral ensemble and network of professionals that reaches out to a diverse audience through urban action and pedagogical activities including artists’ commissions, urban surveys, lectures, talks and performances. The focus on survey work described in the attached article is an important overlap between architecture-research of the culture of urban sounds, and the performance-work. The choir’s activities are the primary vehicle, in conjunction with observation and desktop reflection such as the article included in the portfolio submission. This is an ongoing and continuously evolving project unique to Cass School of Architecture.

Musarc’s work forms a critique of common assumptions advanced in this field of study that focus on the technical aspects of sound (e.g. acoustics or noise prevention). Taking an alternative point of departure, Musarc is developing new ways to discuss and represent architecture through the medium of sound – exposing time, human interaction, change and cultural idiosyncrasies that traditional

(static/visual) methods of representation fail to capture. Architecture and the city are thus contemplated in an expanded field of knowledge that offers a rationale for practitioners to develop innovative, new work.

Musarc’s primary mode of dissemination is performance, often using formats that encourage collaboration with invited artists. Work is disseminated through its website, publications and a series of workshops, talks and lectures.