Bridging research, conservation and technology, Built for Being brings the "organic architecture" of Frank Lloyd Wright to life as a resonant, playable instrument in live performance.
AI-generated rendering of Built for Being concept at Unity Temple (Oak Park, IL)
Built for Being is a thematic concert which features an immersive program of music, lighting and projection which responds to the geometry, surfaces and volumes of each Wright-designed performance site. It is 'concert' meets 'expanded cinema' meets 'spatialized light sculpture'. Performed on piano, Indian harmonium and reel-to-reel tape decks, the setlist introduces audiences to the genre-defying piano repertoire of the composer and esoteric philosopher G. I. Gurdjieff, who was the spiritual teacher of Wright's third wife, Olgivanna. As one of the principal forces shaping the Taliesin Fellowship, Olgivanna embedded Gurdjieff's ideas and teachings in the rigorous artistic life that Wright's apprentices followed.
Wright and Gurdjieff became friends later in life and clearly admired one another. Both were influential artists whose works encapsulate their social theories and critiques on subjects which animate the major anxieties of our own day: the automation of human labor; the relationship between humans and the natural environment; and the practice of focusing consciousness in a world filled with distractions.
Built for Being is an artistic exploration of the historical, thematic and aesthetic resonances in the ideas & works of Wright and Gurdjieff, and how they call out to us today. It's an entertaining and educational engagement with history; music; architecture; philosophy and spirituality — rendered as a next-generation piece of contemporary performance art that brings new meaning and inquiry to some of America's most iconic places.
AI-generated rendering of Built for Being concept at Taliesin West (Scottsdale, AZ)
Built for Being is a project of composer and musician Graham Scott.
Contact graham@builtforbeing.com for more information.
