Guggenheim
Rem Koolhaas' scrutiny breaks urban containment and ranges over the countryside in kaleidoscopic fashion.
The robot Stalin at the top of the Guggenheim ramp was a tell of what type of audio tour we may be getting ourselves into as we looked over the proposed layout for Countryside, The Future, an exhibition and exploration by architect and urbanist Rem Koolhaas and his collaborator Samir Bantal, Director of AMO, the think tank of the Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA).
Our task was to create quiet islands of lucidity within the oversaturation of information (a deliberate Koolhaas trait). The exhibition was about to unleash across the whole of the Guggenheim's rotunda with supergraphics, data visualization, and, yes, a robot Stalin.
We harvested interviews across a global cadre of Koolhaas collaborators from Harvard Graduate School of Design; the Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing; Wageningen University, Netherlands; and the University of Nairobi. Along with interviews with Rem Koolhaas, Samir Bantal, authors, cultural critics, and designers.
Our design approach was thematic and intentionally syncopated to the off-kilter overload of the exhibition format. The result is an 18-stop audio tour that covered the entire museum, walking listeners through the globe-spanning survey. We are grateful for the close working relationship with the museum and Curator of Architecture and Digital Initiatives Troy Conrad Therrien.
Client
Guggenheim
Project
Countryside, The Future
Services
Concept Development - Creative Direction - Production - Interviews - Sound Design - Post Production
Voices
Rem Koolhaas, Samir Bantal, Troy Conrad Therrien, Ashley Mendelsohn, Sarah Whiting, Mohsen Mostafavi, Niklas Maak, Ingo Niermann, Stefan Peterman, Janna Bystrykh, Etta Madete, Linda Nkatha Gichuiya
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Our Process
Corralling moments of contemplation in the expansive
Opportunity
This was a remarkable opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of one of the world's most preeminent architects and architectural thinkers and create sonic augmentation for a global audience.
Insight
A cultural survey of this scale and breadth is overwhelming, deliberately so by some reckoning. Whilst acknowledging this, the creative insight was to create counterpoints in tone that allowed for opportunity to orientate
Outcome
The interviews and accompanying audio brought audiences within the exhibition and beyond an equilibrium to the remarkable immersive experience. The exhibition opened on February 20th 2020, within a month, the city and the rest of the country were in lockdown.
