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September 30, 2013

Perfect Pairing: Netia Jones + L.A. Phil


Photo Courtesy of the L.A. Philharmonic

Editors' Notes

The interior of Frank Gehry’s Walt Disney Concert Hall with installations by Netia Jones.

Photo Courtesy of the L.A. Philharmonic

Editors' Notes

The interior of Frank Gehry’s Walt Disney Concert Hall with installations by Netia Jones.

Photo Credit: Mathew Imaging

Editors' Notes

The interior of Frank Gehry’s Walt Disney Concert Hall with installations by Netia Jones.

Image Courtesy of Frank Gehry

Editors' Notes

Frank Gehry's drawing of Walt Disney Concert Hall.

Photo Courtesy of Frank Gehry

Editors' Notes

Announcement of Frank Gehry as the Walt Disney Concert Hall architect with the original model of the design.

Photo Credit: Adam Latham

Editors' Notes

Walt Disney Concert Hall.

Photo Credit: Federico Zignani

Editors' Notes

Walt Disney Concert Hall.

Editors' Notes

The lobby skylights inside Walt Disney Concert Hall.

PHOTO CREDIT: Tim Street-Porter

Editors' Notes

A view of Founders' Room exterior from the garden outside Walt Disney Concert Hall.

Photo Credit: Adam Latham

Editors' Notes

Walt Disney Concert Hall.

Photo Courtesy of the LA Phil

Editors' Notes

Video artist and director Netia Jones.

By design, Frank Gehry’s buildings always seem poised to set sail. Now, video artist Netia Jones has put together a series of images animating the Gehry-designed Walt Disney Concert Hall. Her video will accompany the musical program at the opening gala kicking off the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s new season. The organization is celebrating a decade of residency at the hall, and Jones’ visuals illustrate the architect’s vision, from his famous line drawings of models to the actual construction of the stainless steel exterior. Jones, who was educated at Oxford, is the director of the multimedia performance group Transition, and directs and designs operas and concerts, including last year’s Where the Wild Things Are performed at Disney Hall. Now she’s back inside the space, creating a new set of architectural visuals set to music by Bach, Tchaikovsky, Adès, Mahler and Saint-Saëns.

As music director Gustavo Dudamel leads the orchestra and cellist Yo-Yo Ma, Jones’ video will accompany the music. “We’re telling the story about one of the most special buildings ever,” says Jones, who looked through hundreds of line drawings to create projections that will appear in the hall for the performance. “We’ve installed sail screens in the auditorium,” she says, noting that Gehry is himself a sailor, and adding, “Disney Hall is a challenging place to embark on this kind of endeavor.” To project images or video, a space typically needs a defined front and back, but this hall is what Jones calls a 360-degree environment. “Every person has to be able to see the projections, but also see the orchestra,” she says. Right angles restrict viewing, so Jones worked with various shapes and curves. “I had a nightmare last night that my 8-meter measurements would be made in 8-foot sheets. I had this fear they would be tiny screens. It would be a Spinal Tap moment, not at all to scale,” she says.

Though the video is designed to be part of the tapestry of the hall during the performance, Jones manipulates the projections following Dudamel’s lead. “The video plays live and it’s interwoven into the music,” she says. “I follow the conductor as if I were playing an instrument, working in tandem with the orchestra. There are separate pieces all coming together at each moment.” But Jones says that the orchestra remains the heart and soul of the performance.

The imagery traces the development of the Gehry building. “The way he works is extraordinary and unique,” Jones says. “I’m corralling the myriad materials into something that has a structure.” Gehry started his design with hundreds of line drawings, images that Jones compares to string compositions. The drawings are simple, but they allude to the building as a whole, just as the strings introduce a composition’s theme before the other instruments join in.

After he creates line drawings, Gehry makes models. In her work for opening night, Jones treats the models as the variations on the theme. “They’re like constantly evolving interesting musical ideas. You have a theme and refine it.” The video also incorporates the technical aspects of the building, the problems encountered, and Gehry’s use of computer technology to aid in the construction of such a challenging design. “There’s a narrative development in the progress of the building that feeds back into the video design. Things become more complex as ideas move along from drawings to early block models made of paper, tape, and pins, to the site itself,” says Jones who filmed and photographed Gehry’s models in the warehouse where they are stored.

As the concert develops and images move from drawings to models to photographs, Jones introduces color inspired by the way L.A. light plays on the building’s exterior. “Frank’s lived here so long, he really gets the light in Los Angeles. The building has a conversation with its environment,” Jones says, noting that she incorporates L.A.’s perpetually blue skies along with the city’s famed orange and pink sunsets that are also mimicked in the materials Gehry used on the hall’s interiors. “What Frank makes is so beautiful, I feel as though I’m editing. What I do is make it look really beautiful with music,” Jones says.

By Elizabeth Varnell

 

Pictured: The interior of Frank Gehry’s Walt Disney Concert Hall with installations by Netia Jones
Photo Courtesy of the L.A. Philharmonic

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