New London Orchestra

Orchitecture is a unique orchestral experience where the audience can literally walk in and around a live musical performance, and in the process explore an architecturally rich heritage site.

Orchitecture was devised and created by the New London Orchestra, by Artist Thor McIntyre-Burnie and Architect Ayssar Arida (the CSR*) in collaboration with and English Heritage’s Outreach Department. The project seeks to explore new ways of experiencing an orchestra perform, a heritage site, and the impact of specific buildings on their local built and social environments.

A pilot of the project took place at Chiswick House in September 2005 as part of English Heritage’s Chiswick House Carnival. Over 1000 people attended Orchitecture. Four musicians from the New London Orchestra, each sitting in a different room of the house, performed music live while the audience wandered round the building, experiencing the changing perspectives of the music and also of the building. TV monitors showed overlapping live CCTV and pre-recorded footage of the same rooms, filling the house with a ghostly presence of audience and musicians.

Further development of the concept is underway with English Heritage and sites are being explored for suitability and for further projects in 2006 & 2007. A full report of the pilot will be available in January 2006 from the New London Orchestra.

The Centre for the Spatial Realm (CSR) is a cross-disciplinary research group aiming to raise public awareness of urban space through science and art. This project represents collaboration between its co-directors Artist Thor McIntyre-Burnie and Architect Ayssar Arida, and in collaboration with the New London Orchestra

For more information please visit:

www.thecsr.com

www.orchitecture.com

This page last modified 11 December, 2006 by New London Orchestra Admin