_thinkMake Week_11, (Spatial Practices: Thinking and Making) - The RSVP Cycles: Creative Process in the Human Environment

This week we're introduced to a book called "The RSVP Cycles: Creative Process in the Human Environment" by Artist LAWRENCE HALPRIN, an American landscape architect and urban designer. The book explores how to use “scores” to plan and execute creative projects in various fields of art and design.

Halprin uses the acronym RSVP to describe four elements of a score: Resources, Score, Valuaction, and Performance. Halprin developed the RSVP cycles in collaboration with his wife, Anna Halprin, a postmodern dance pioneer who used scores to choreograph and teach dance. Here are the most important facts I learned and resonated with the reading.

• A score is a set of instructions or symbols that guide the creative process and can be adapted to different situations and participants.
• Architectural Plans, Maps, Musical notes, Maths, Poems,  Written Dialogues,  Shopping Lists, Choreography, etc are all scores.
• Scores can help people collaborate, communicate, and evaluate their work even across cultural and language barriers.
• The difference between 'scores' and 'system' is that a system is a closed, defined body and has a specific way or technique of operation, while a system implies order and regularity, and starts with a preordained mission to accomplish things, On the other hand, scores related to process, they are not orderly, finite and exploratory.

After reading, we did a group reflective illustration drawing. I was teamed up with Wendy, Abdul, Emily and Mahya and we chose our location to the lobby on the ground floor of Eldon Building. We sat at a row of seatings and tables in the lobby, and we observed what was happening in our surroundings first. A film or event about deaf education is being shooted at the corner and there are a few people from the crew. A student is playing the piano and we can see people coming from the entrance point starting to divert away to their intended place, there is also a cafe on the opposite side and a stair to the first floor is also located. 

We observed and picked up the actions and moments of rhythms related to our verbs in our surroundings and illustrated them on a drawing. My chosen words are to embody, to complicate and to provoke.

I saw the second image of the interview through the camera shooting and TV which is embodying of that scene. There is also sound coming from playing the piano which can be provoking for some people to get the player's attention for them to get his audience. There is also a focal point at the entrance near the reception, where people start to enter and exit to get complicated to their intended places.

Then we categorized the elements which were causing the rhythms in the environment into the table as a scoring.

In the evening we went back to the place again and were instructed to develop a design intervention for the area by combining our chosen verbs.

The first thing that struck us when observing the area was lacking was that even though the building is the Faculty of Creative and Cultural Studies, there is no display or visual presentation related to art and the wall paint seems to be very basic and lacks liveliness to the atmosphere and the LED projector doesn't seem to attract people when the students enter the place.

The colour of the wall paint and stairs beside would be eye-catching and lively if it's green and we thought it would feel attractive to put a large painting facing to the lobby. Underneath the stairs, we thought a few of green plants in a box and instead of a projector, a sculptor representing Portsmouth's city cultural or historical artefact about the university.

The columns near the filming stage and directing area should be painted orange with green grass wall panels attached and a few chairs should be placed facing that stage so that the audience who are interested can watch while feeling welcomed. Near the aluminium glass casement windows, there is a shelf for showcasing art and past students' projects so that the public walking from outside can notice and pay attention to the building.