SOMA – Sound Or Music Architecture, or Step Onboard Make Art, or Something Other than Mediocre Architecture – was launched this week as part of Mona Foma in Launceston.
SOMA is a mobile recording and performing space designed and built by University of Tasmania Architecture & Design students.
Mona Foma Soma follows on from Mona Foma Coma, twin second-year Design Studio units conceived by Dr Andrew Steen and Dr Alex Brown, assisted by sound technologist Dr Toby Gifford, and run in parallel at The University of Tasmania and Monash University.
SOMA was fabricated in a Learning-By-Making elective led by The University of Tasmania’s Peter Booth and Marty Bignell, in partnership with MOFO, with MOFO Directors Brian Ritchie and Lee Cumberlidge involved at every stage.
“Mona Foma Soma is the culmination of an extended collaboration with the directors of MOFO,” Dr Steen said.
“It is a rare occasion in which undergraduate architecture students could follow a design process from conceptual design, through pragmatics-constrained design development, through fabrication, to seeing the finished product in the public realm, promoting community engagement.”
SOMA is stationed in Launceston’s Civic Square this week, before moving to Harvest Market on Saturday (19 January), and a yet-to-be-announced location Sunday (20 January).
The booth is part of broader project plans, with which Mona Foma hopes to demystify the processes of performing and recording, and democratise music and art throughout Tasmania.
Other events University of Tasmania is holding as part of Mona Foma 2019:
* Art of the Body: Health Beauty and Desire. Curated by Malcom Bywaters and held in the Academy Gallery, the exhibit features works by University of Tasmania alumni and staff.
* Sonja Hindrum + Karlin Love + Bruce Innocent: SKINMUSIC. An experimental music performance which includes a DIY bio-tech instrument with artists including former Bachelor of Contemporary Arts student, and current PhD candidate, Sonja Hindrum.
* Inveresk is also home to several events including the Drama Studio which is hosting Vexations, the Rehearsal Room hosting Suma Lumia with Jim Moginieand the (main) Annexe Theatre hosting TasDance’s Yatra.
In 2019, the new will be delivered by the School of Technology Environments and Design, and the School of Creative Arts.
