what is serialism?

"It is a concept of creating artificial forms based on a special relationship between individuality
and similarity, focusing on avoiding repetition, aiming for completeness, tending toward permanent
innovation on both theory and practice and revolving around the idea of structural mediation between
different quantities, qualities, types and classes of elements; more than enough for any artist to work
with in a never ending spiraling movement up to infinite progress."
(pg.7)

analogy of a drama serial

In the script, a structure is created by the writer, but each scene is different, and there are variations
within fix parameters and constants.

serial theory in music

The idea of serialism is first used in music.

Since centuries ago from the Greek till the recent, the structure and framework of music remains
the same. For instance, the time signature, music notes, and annotations, create the skeleton for
other different kind of music to occur. Serial thinking allows musician to compose indifferent types
of music over the time frame despite the tool of creation remaining constant.

(for information)

composing new music after 1950
"the evolution of music via serial-thinking"

After the world war, especially in Germany, there was an impetus to create a new musical language.
This is because the “romantic” music was shadowed by the  bourgeois and nationalistic mechanisms
that are responsible for the past disaster in politics and history.

1800s - Beethoven, sensual effects, Romantic. some critique see it as a form of manipulations.
1854- Hanslick's popular book, PROGRAM music. conveying religious, or philosophical meaning.
          Gustav Mahler, harsh reality of contemporary secularized and industrialized society.
          War, loneliness, dillusion, became part of music themes.
1908- Arnold Schonberg, invented the 12 note rows, enable him to control distribution of pitches, so
         there was no longer any preponderance of one specific note and no major-minor tonality.
1946-Serial theory as a formal theory in Darmstadt (small town in Germany) idea of bringing
         intellectual forces into music. A break from the central aesthetic paradigms and musical
         technique ("dynamic music") no longer about music alone, but deals with listening, society as well
         as "washing-out" traditional elements in music.

"what we appreciate is not what we possibly might like tolisten to,
since we only know the music we listen to" (Pg. 41)
(musical dimensions like melody, harmony, rhythm, meter, bar totally reconstructed.)

1951- pointilistic music. A note or tone no longer considered as functional  part of a melodic line or chord
         but individual entity that is able to have its own resonance.
         (new ideas in electronic music, when technology is introduced to music after the war)
         1990 digital music, 3-dimensional sound movement, digitized information processing.
1955- note forming groups and fields.
1955-"open form" or aleatoric music, overcome fix structure, where music is about rules and organization
         which gives  a variety of outcome in performances. (for example, a form with a fixed beginning and
         multiple possibilities of ending)
1960-new notations and graphic elements.
        music integration, non-european music, digitized sound.

"The underlying ideas of these achievements reveals related concepts in all of the cases that
share a single principle in the ordering of the specific elements (pitches, sound structures,
positions of sound in space, types of cultural styles, degrees of mixture between them and so on)"
 

serial thinking in other art-forms
 

the concept of serial-thinking is not dominant in music only. It is applicable in other fields,
due to its general definition and generic rule. For instance, the book gives example of
the human body, where serialism is dominant, since we have the same body components
but each of us look different. And none is identical from one another.
 

Basics: Elements and Forms
"conventional, artistic and formal principles of variation as well as contrast and symmetry."
 

scales and steps

The playing of elements in various degrees and gradient. Analogous to the concept of serialism, the object's
underlying principal remains constant despite the change in its physical form.

quantities, qualities, integration and inter modulation

With different modules generated, it is important to create an ordering principal that regroups the fragments
together. The idea of quantities and qualities are subjective perception to unify the modules.

music and the electronics
"technology providing the extra edge..."
 

(above: Le Corbusier's design of the Philips Pavilion in 1958)

the relation of music and architecture
"it has been one of the generating concepts since the Renaissance..."

the common of architecture and music (for eg. the question of order and proportion in material or the
individual and social relationship between work and human beings) If serialism gives the edge to music,
could it helps architecture to evolve in the information age?

the modulor, an example of serialism in architecture
"the rule of the Modulor has manifest itself in modern design and  construction"

construction, functionality and aesthetics

the modulor is a powerful tool of design which creates a new concept of aesthetics
with the human proportion. (the modern man) Besides that, it solves construction
problems like pre-fabrication whereby building components could be made to a
standard "universal" unit of measurement that fits the general public. On top of that,
design is now related to construction.

why serialism is an important concept of deriving new forms?
"jewish museum as an example"

(daniel libeskind: Jewish Museum, Berlin)

(diagrams)

(music as inspiration)

"the method not the form"

In the new information age, consuming images and following styles are dead ends to creativity. Because,
there could only be one Gehry, Tshumi, Eisenman and anybody that attempts to plagiarize their work has
limited success. Hence, in order to derive innovative solutions, it is important to learn the method not the
result. It is not true that serial thinking is associated only to music but as the author argued that it is a
fundamental which is illustrated strongly in music. (and the success is recordable) And truly, we saw the
evolution of music, through serial concept, and how it is able to disintegrate and hinge on technology to give
it a contemporary edge. Architecture do shares similar quality as music and the concepts of serial thinking
is a revolutionary solution. In general , architecture has been dealing with the same structure and order for
decades, for instance, the general rule of the "vertical surface being a supporting element and the horizontal
as a work plane" still applies. Nevertheless, although this "rule" still exist, each period of architecture is
different because of serial concepts.

"the application of serial principles to architecture has not yet come to an end" (pg. 90)

Different from music, architecture has a very strong functional aspect to fulfill. To a certain extent, it is not about
creating design based on pure feelings or fantasy, but a respond to the client's need and other social
requirement. However, serialism construct a paradigm in design evolution. (Like music which is able to fragment
itself to take in multiple factor as illustrated earlier).

"as a design paradigm"