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Space Calculated in Seconds: The Philips Pavilion, Le Corbusier, Edgard Varèse

Name: Space Calculated in Seconds: The Philips Pavilion, Le Corbusier, Edgard Varèse
Rating: 4.46 (3 reviews)
ISBN: 9780691021379

Marc Treib

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"Through this visually compelling book, a neglected building of Le Corbusier is brought to light as a stimulating, integrative interpretation."--Jean-Louis Cohen, Institute of Fine ArtsThe pavilion designed by Le Corbusier for the Philips Company at the 1958 Brussels World's Fair showcased a spectacle that remains a landmark in multimedia production. The pavilion's nearly two million visitors encountered no typical display of consumer products; instead they witnessed a dazzling demonstration of cutting-edge technology in the service of the arts. This totally automated bombardment of color, voice, sound, and images was broadcast within a space of warped concrete shells, orchestrated by Le Corbusier and his colleagues into a cohesive 480-second program. The talents and efforts that went into this project, and the interaction of the personalities behind it, make for a fascinating tale that bridges architecture, music, and marketing--one that has never been told, perhaps because the building was dismantled after the fair. In this book, Marc Treib looks at both this remarkable collaboration and the significance of the Philips project, which can be viewed as a pioneering quest into the production of postmodern art or even as a prototype of virtual reality.Achieving for the first time his goal to use electronic media for a synthesis of the arts, Le Corbusier collaborated with the composer/architect Iannis Xenakis, the filmmaker Philippe Agostini, the graphic designer and editor Jean Petit, and the composer Edgard Var

GenresArchitectureMusic

312 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1996