(Re-)Constructing Iosseliani’s Soundscape
Architecture / Film Residency / Sound / Tsqaltubo, Georgia . 2020
a film residency which focuses on foley sound design in the semi-abandoned town of Tsqaltubo, Georgia. An abandoned bathhouse is redesigned with a new architecture which houses a set of soundscapes, to create a pedagogical environment where the building becomes an active teacher to its residents.
The design methodology focuses on key moments within the building, where people would carry out their normal daily rituals. The staircase, the wall, the door – all architectural elements - are redesigned as instruments whose form and scale are not only informed by orthodox spatial requirements but also by their sonic qualities and ability to re-create sounds from director’s Otar Iosseliani’s sound palette.
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The project proposes a film residency which focuses on foley sound design in the semi-abandoned town of Tsqaltubo, Georgia. An abandoned bathhouse is redesigned with a new architecture which houses a set of soundscapes, to create a pedagogical environment where the building becomes an active teacher to its residents.
The building is built in the name of Georgian director Otar Iosseliani who emigrated to France, during the soviet occupation of Georgia. He and many others grew weary of the lack of artistic freedom in their homeland, under the regime of the USSR. The aim of the programme is to construct a creative space where Iosseliani’s unique filmmaking techniques can be explored and carried out. The abandoned spaces in Tsqaltubo turn into film sets and every year the programme concludes with a film festival celebrating Georgian filmmaking, returning a lost art form to a young liberated generation of Georgians.
The design methodology focuses on key moments within the building, where people would carry out their normal daily rituals. The staircase, the wall, the door – all architectural elements - are redesigned as instruments whose form and scale are not only informed by orthodox spatial requirements but also by their sonic qualities and ability to re-create sounds from Otar Iosseliani’s sound palette. This was achieved by creating my own 1:1 instruments in an attempt to re-construct Iosseliani’s sounds from scratch.