Noirscape(s)

Noir has its own calligraphic instinct.
—E. Kahn, Los Angeles, 2011 Noirscape(s) investigates vast urban infrastructural illumination as a rich—yet unconsidered aspect—of visual studies within Architecture. Los Angeles at night is a pulsing Noirscape; a faint-space of sulfur halide traces, scaleless sweeps of red brake lights, and luminous artificial electro-atmospheric horizons. http://aplusd.org/gallery-future Noirscape(s) is a two-part installation consisting of an illuminated panelized night aerial of the Los Angeles basin juxtaposed by a set of lithographs of GPS night trips within/through the Noirscape. As a component of the Visual Studies sequence at the Southern California Institute of Architecture, Noirscape(s) is a topical and technique driven project and as such it engages a contemporary form of architectural practice that promotes a convergent and timely cocktail; part idea, part art installation, part Mulholland Drive with a chaser of the sublime. NOIRSCAPE(S): Southern California Institute of Architecture Director: Eric Owen Moss Graduate Director: Hernan Diaz-Alonzo Undergraduate Director: John Enright Visual Studies Coordinator: Andrew Zago Academic Affairs Director: Hsinming Fung


 Instructor: Eric A. Kahn TA: Francisco Alarcon-Ruiz Francesco X. Siqueiros (Lithographer) El Nopal Press Students: Steven Balinsky Ivan Bernal Rachel Perez Bitan Ilya Bourim Andrew Brombach Chloe Brunner Joe Carlos Carmelia Chang Cheeyoon Chun Christian Contreras Barkev Daron Henry Dominguez Anna Flaherty Christine Forester Carrie Foster Asal Heshmati Kyd Kitchaiya Tiffany Liu Courtney Morris Richard Nam Michael Nesbit Phillip Ramirez Rafael Sampaio Brandon Vickers Travis Vilet Elizabeth von Hasseln Kyle von Hasseln Amanda Webber Wilson Wu Danielle Yip EXHIBITION ADMISSION >$5 GENERAL ADMISSION DURING RUN OF EXHIBITION >FREE FOR A+D MEMBERS, AIA MEMBERS AND STUDENTS Noirscape(s)of Los Angeles Los Angeles’s nocturnal over/under exposure is conducive to the production of the lurid and the sublime and has been the subject of intense poetic mining by novelists, cultural anthropologists, artists, climatologists, filmmakers and poets. It is within the Noirscape that Andreas Gursky, David Lynch, Ed Ruscha and Reyner Banham find a particular nocturnal condition—adrift in a zone that ditched its clock in favor of oneiric duration. Noirscape(s) induce an ‘affected amnesiac state’ and delivers an exquisite saturated liminal moment; it is an invitation for a clandestine excursion outside of linear time. 1 Liminal Space(s): Night Vision The earth’s surface topography and urban morphology—detailed and discreet when illuminated—moves toward a stark two-dimensional silhouette in the Noirscape. Distance, scale and relationships shift from a data-rich landscape towards a phantom cutout world. During this liminal transition, the sun’s departure takes with it more than light; Noir has its own calligraphic instinct. The Noir time-spaces, exemplified in cinematic narratives, distend, render remote, accelerate production and stimulate qualitatively complex moods that trigger deeply rooted human instincts. 2 (Fl)atmospheres: Toward A Light Pollution Aesthetic (Fl)atmospheres, a combination of ‘Flat’ and ‘Atmospheres’, suggests a saturated Noir-space where banality and ubiquity unite, producing an uncanny aesthetic convergence, one characteristic to Los Angeles. Consider Urban Light by Chris Burden in this context. Through re-contextualization, repetition and ‘use change’, Urban Light produces a Noir landmark on Wilshire Boulevard, one that is simultaneously banal (at the level of instrument) yet astounding as an overall piece/effect. For Burden, aberrant infrastructure—once considered ‘urban utilities’—becomes a brilliant landmark in the Noirscape. Light Maps: Floor Installation Light Mapsproduces a panelized installation of an immense Noirscape aerial of Los Angeles. Using pins, blades and powder as ‘drawing implements’, each Noirscape panel builds emergent conditions through the interaction of thousands of carefully pierced holes and graphic vector fields produced by slices in luminous black film sheets. A final layer of chalk powder is dusted, producing cloud-like formations on the top of a glass sheet sandwich. Fluorescent lights (placed below the glass panels) project light through the film sheet. The installation produces an ‘illuminated (fl)atmosphericdrawing’ of the night territory and flows of the Los Angeles basin. Noir Circuits: Wall Installation Noir Circuitsare individual composited lithographs overlaying light map information with GPS tracking data. Each Noir Circuitis initiated by particular phobias and philias, creating a biased and idiosyncratic GPS path behavior as each authordrives through the Noirscape. The ambition is to create multiple and highly particular characters inhabiting the noirscape simultaneously, their white line traces belie hidden nightmares, compulsive banalities and ineffable yearnings.