Instruments: Reimaging the Music Room

Instruments. Reimaging the Music Room An exhibition that centres on the theme of the domestic soundscape and the place of music in the home. The study explores the detection and recognition of an immaterial audio presence or sonic architectures that exists in the home, engendered by our domestic rituals, their space and objects. This audio presence requires the inhabitant to recognize a spatial acuteness, cognition, and mapping, which isn’t necessarily rational, visible or haptic. In turn, the inquiry has generated projects, which offer novel design solutions and alternative ‘sonic’ experiences for contemporary home life. The exhibition is designed to simulate a black-box theatre - an immersive space for the designers to present and demonstrate their projects to the visitors. Videos complement each project, planned as performative narratives to illustrate how the projects work in space, while they also reflect the designer’s idiosyncratic domestic ‘sound diaries’ that originally inspired the project. Building upon the past two exhibitions Fabrikaat (2012), Altered Appliances (2013), both exhibited at Ventura Lambrate during Milan Design Week, INSTRUMENTS (2014) is part of a trilogy that investigates making, materiality, and application in the context of the domestic space. The projects were researched and made during thematic design studios by a group of international designers in the Master Interior Architecture & Retail Design [MIARD] program at the Piet Zwart Institute, Rotterdam, the Netherlands. The Master of Interior Architecture & Retail Design programme at the Piet Zwart Institute is an international postgraduate programme that is part of the Willem de Kooning Academy Rotterdam University. The 5th edition of Ventura Lambrate will take place from 8th – 13th April 2014, during the Milan Design Week. The Milan Design Week is the most important and renowned design event in the world; for more than 50 years, this event has announced the start of the new design year internationally. Every April, the official fair ‘Salone del Mobile’ and all associated events (with the overarching title ‘FuoriSalone’) occupy the center and reach out into the neighbourhoods of Milan, transforming the city into a hub of creativity. Each year, hundreds of thousands of visitors head to Milan to discover the newest designs, to scout fledgling talent, to obtain fruitful inspirations and to do business.