FORM FOLLOWS IDEA: INTIMATE SPACES

A monthly event series, featuring ideas that are about designing to accommodate change.

Wednesday, March 25, 2009
7:00pm - 9:00pm
Trudy Miller/Layers
394 Atlantic Avenue
Brooklyn, NY


Featuring works by Mary Edwards and Trudy Miller.

"The significance of architecture is not in its material form, but in its capacity to reveal deeper layers of existence."
-Juhani Pallasmaa, architect

Every aspect of our daily lives is a spatial experience. Solutionista Trudy Miller and composer Mary Edwards discuss their shared philosophies that led up to Mary’s creation of the “Uovo” two-channel sound installation for Trudy’s studio and storefront. Pop iconography meets design practicality as each profess a James Bond-esque approach to a compact and sensual aesthetic.

Mary Edwards created a series of four ambient pieces, that when played successively, builds a sound “arc”; when played randomly, they provide individual narratives, representations of the phases of birth and regeneration.Trudy remarks, "[Mary's] epic sound in the background reminds me that i'm on a journey, and that each course is cyclical. it gives me a chance to reflect and recalibrate in a way that is calming and rejuvenating."

Mary Edwards is a composer whose projects range from recordings "...evocative of epic 1960s cinematic soundtracks combined with the gorgeous, poetic intimacy of the 1970s singer-songwriter era..." (Time Out Magazine), to scores and sound installations both about and utilizing the properties of architecture and the natural environment that enhance spatial experience, foster deep listening, and create cinema for the ear. She is currently working on a body of time-based work that explores sonic representations of interrelated spaces--airports, woodlands, and wombs-- which are, at once, perceived as both vast and intimate. Each shares the conflict of desire and uncertainty that seems to simultaneously haunt these types of spaces. For “Uovo”, her objective was to create a favorable human condition, and support reactions and emotions without directing them; it's an approach to architecture that Juhani Pallasmaa calls "Sensuous Minimalism." He expresses that a certain neutrality, restraint, and silence are an inherent quality of the discipline. (More info at www.maryedwardsmusic.com)

Trudy Miller’s comprehensive approach to problem solving and her playful sense of style come together in a variety of media. Her formal training is in architecture, but her passion is high performance design. Her designs help to streamline our lives, giving us more time to enjoy them. As director of Clinchdesign, she is currently designing flexible and compact apparel, furniture, and spaces that solve the ultimate puzzle: how to do more with less. (More info at www.trudymillerprojects.com)