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In Reply to: I find that place a kind of Boschian Hell- a sentimental shell over a lonely, ritualistic non-human space posted by Bambi B on January 20, 2007 at 10:36:13:
I don't know if I agree with you, though I can appreciate where you're coming from.My room is basically set up for only one chair, a copy of the Le Corbusier chaisse, though it currently does hold another armchair, my first listening chair from over 30 years ago, and a copy of the Rietveld red and blue chair, plus a side table and an Artemide lamp. There's also 8 square metres of bookcases filled with sci-fi/fantasy and mystery novels, my CD collection, 3 Hokusai woodblock sketches from 1815-1821 and 2 modern period lithographs. That part looks 'homey' but the equipment layout with speakers essentially mid-room, and the DIY acoustic panels, bass traps, and room lens diffusors raise more than a few eyebrows.
I guess my room is a mix of functionality plus decoration. I can appreciate the stict form follows function approach of Mike's room, and even admire it in many ways, but I'd definitely want to hang a few pictures or something myself. I don't find his room a cold or sterile room, but it definitely is an ascetic room and I am partial to well carried out ascetic decor—there's a simplicity to it that can have it's own form of beauty, but it isn't appreciated by everyone.
I do think it's dangerous to judge another's room purely on photographic evidence, especially when the photographs show a room that doesn't agree with one's own tastes. Appearances can be deceiving, and rooms need to be visitied to be truly appreciated. What looks one thing in a photo can be quite a different experience in the flesh.
And then there's the whole debate about whether or not a dedicated room is a desirable thing. Does one make one's listening a 'special and separate experience' by tucking it away in a special, single purpose room, or put it in a space that shares other purposes in the home? I chose to turn my room into a combination library/listening room since my wife and I had a couple of thousand books to house anyway, and the books happened to help with the acoustics while helping with the decor. It's still somewhat of a separate room in some ways, but not quite single purpose and I'm glad of that. I can understand others going either way, more in the direction of Mike's room or more towards music in the living room. It's an interesting debate and I don't think either way has any innate advantage. Different answers will suit different people.
My setup worked fine for both my wife and I and then she died and I now have the house to myself so I only need to suit myself. If I entered into another relationship, then I'd have to renegotiate things and I don't know what the outcome of that would be. My lifestye would change noticeably if I entered another relationship and houses exist to serve the people living in them. I wouldn't want to be a slave to the room, but I would also not want to end up with a situation where the music system was relegated to a position and setup where sound quality and listening enjoyment suffered significantly. I could live with less than I have in terms of both of those things but I would definitely want to be able to genuinely enjoy listening to music. I'd happily make changes to accommodate another listener if there were 2 of us listening but the room was not set up that way because my wife did not listen to music the way I do. She had a separate study area for her interests so we each had our 'own' areas within the house as well as shared areas. That was something we hadn't had before because there hadn't been the room, and it was something we both appreciated.
So there's somewhat of a different view on Mike's room and some of the issues involved. i don't think there's a 'one size fits all' answer to the debate, and I'm reluctant to criticise either he or you. If anything, I'm grateful for the fact that there are different opinions and solutions that I can see. That gives me the option of being eclectic and picking and choosing what I want. We all end up somewhere on a continuum between the 'pure listening room' and the living room, and there's a wide range of options between the ascetic and the indulgent at any point along that continuum. I think the most important thing is that the person whose room it is enjoys the room and finds the surroundings congenial to their enjoyment, regardless of whether or not I share their taste, and I have certainly come across some rooms I don't really appreciate. What matters most about those rooms is that they work for their owner. I'd think I'd really only call them bad rooms if they didn't.
David Aiken
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- Re: I find that place a kind of Boschian Hell- a sentimental shell over a lonely, ritualistic non-human space - David Aiken 23:11:46 01/20/07 (0)
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