THE PETO PLACE SOUND-GATE AND THE INSTITUTE OF DISCARDED SOUNDS

The Peto Place Sound-Gate starts by combining four of John Cage’s scores that are distributed on Great Portland Street and used as navigational systems. Peto Place is the architectural representation of the notation for a ‘symphony for a new city’, composed through site specific sound studies and film making. Four different materials that represent four different types of instruments are combined to propose unique methods of translating existing sounds on site. This includes the combinations of strings and glass that produce different pitches, rhythms and dynamics, and different levels of reflections, diffusions and absorptions. The Institute of Discarded Sounds continues the manifestation of ‘discarded sounds’ from the Sound-Gate. This 21st century John Cage Institute encourages the repair of broken instruments to foreground ideas concerning experimental sounds. The music studios and workshop are designed with uninterrupted views of the Sound-Gate to replicate a call-and-response condition. The concert hall is directly accessible from Great Portland Street Station. Here, the performance of the repaired instruments will be celebrated by the local community and students from the Royal Academy of Music. This notion of public engagement is key in the transformation of the awkward urban site.