Scoring, Building is a new installation by architect Michelle JaJa Chang that investigates architecture as allographic work. The installation is scored in three recursive “iterations”, each one accompanied by a public program.
Iteration III (of III) takes place on February 29th, 7pm - 9pm at the Mackey Apartments with a closing party. Iteration III will host the public program The garage will do by MAK Architect-in-Residence Jakob Sellaoui.
Iteration III | The garage will do
The garage will do is a spatial intervention in the backyard space of the Mackey Apartments by current architect-in-residence Jakob Sellaoui, with invited talks by LA-based artists, architects and writers. The project draws upon a quote by Frank Lloyd Wright referring to R.M. Schindler’s buildings as well-designed, but badly executed. He nevertheless concludes that so far none have fallen down.
The intervention reassesses assumptions surrounding the way things are made— or ought to be made. Departing from constructional shortcomings, not-quite solutions and average arrangements, the proposal explores crudeness and make-do, not as lack of finesse or quality, but rather as a form of resilience and robustness— perhaps not because they are ‘well made’, but because they are just ‘good enough’.
In a series of talks, the invited participants are asked to contribute stories that mark out a way of rethinking the notion of deficiency not as a disadvantage, but possibly as a virtue. Making a building or telling a story is never an exact or definite process. Details might be left out and characters forgotten. Things get lost in translation. Nevertheless they persist. At least most of the time.
About the Project
Scoring, Building is a new installation by architect Michelle JaJa Chang that investigates architecture as allographic work. The project is a temporary and durational intervention in the courtyard of the Mackey Apartments. The project proposes an architectural instantiation from the basis of a score, written by the architect, which is then translated into instructions for the construction of the installation itself. The project is action-based, slowing down and reframing the activities of conventional drywall construction to focus on-site preparation (marking); framing construction (stacking, ordering, assembling), and drywall installation (scoring, affixing, finishing). The installation is scored in three recursive “iterations”, each one accompanied by a public program in order to unpack the ideas of the physical piece. Alongside the physical installation, the project is distributed through a live audio feed of the on-site construction and documentary photography by Tag Cristof. Scoring, Building is commissioned by Materials & Applications as the winning project of an open call for projects in 2018 and is produced in partnership with the Mak Center for Art and Architecture.
The installation is scored in three recursive “iterations”, each one accompanied by a public program:
Iteration I takes place on February 1, 7pm - 9pm with guest appearance and electronic music performance by Neil Denari.
Iteration II takes place on February 15, 7pm - 9pm in conversation with CCMA.
Iteration III takes place on February 29 with a closing party.
Documentation of material inscription. Image courtesy of Michelle Chang, 2018.
On Scoring: The score is written from the language of material specification guidelines, a techno-material language of standardized material products. Such language challenges the architectural capacity for invention as well as control. For example, dimensional measurement is always described in the language of product units (i.e. “two panels” instead of “eight feet by eight feet”). While dimensions offer a one-to-one translation between numbers, such language is open to wider interpretation when it comes to manual labor, which will undergo loss or change depending on the experience and skill of its executor. The project aims to unpack the ways product standards influence legibility and form with their application procedures. The score itself will be presented on-site in the form of a self-published booklet (11”x17” bi-folded), with further information about the program.
On Building: Scoring, Building operates with a standard building system, wood framing and sheathing, and extends the duration of the building act by repeating a set of instructions for a set length of time. Over the duration of the two months, the architect, contractor team, and volunteer group will work together to execute this series of instructions that are translated from the score. Unlike traditional architectural drawings (i.e. specifications), which tend to describe the arrangement of materials in physical space, the scores devised by Chang emphasize the activities of manual labor itself, which is tied to the more durational aspects of time, transition, and perhaps even skill.
About Michelle JaJa Chang
Michelle Chang directs JaJa Co and teaches architectural design. She founded her independent practice in 2014 after working in offices in New York, Boston, and San Francisco. Her design work experiments with the overlaps between and among film, installation, music, teaching, and building.
Chang holds a Master of Architecture from Harvard GSD and a Bachelor of Arts in international relations from Johns Hopkins University. She is a former MacDowell Colony Fellow, Wortham Fellow, and a recipient of the Architectural League Prize for Young Architects + Designers.
In her research, Chang studies the techniques and histories of architectural representation. Specifically, she investigates how optics, digital media, and modes of cultural production influence translations between design and building. She is currently an Assistant Professor of Architecture at Harvard GSD and previously taught at Rice, UC Berkeley, California College of the Arts, and Northeastern University.
About Staging Construction
Staging Construction, an exhibition and public program by Materials & Applications that explores construction as both practice and performance. The winter program includes Scoring, Building, an experimental installation by Michelle JaJa Chang, alongside performances, lectures and participatory workshops by Neil Denari, Alex Maymind, Tommy Hill, and yyyy-mm-dd (Kate Yeh Chiu and François Sabourin), amongst others. Staging Construction is curated by Jia Yi Gu with support from the Contemporary Council of M_A (CCMA). Special thanks to the Mak Center for Art and Architecture for their generous support and partnership of the project.