Representing Pasts – Visioning Futures

Abstract

This paper examines the city symphony as an architectural project in which the concept of reality is recognised. Today, the concept of reality is used to explain digital tools without a clear understanding such as virtual reality, augmented reality, or mixed reality as if the digital tools provides criteria of how to understand the concept. This seems to limit the concept of reality in art and architecture which can be used to explore the overall human environment in a critical mind. The city symphony as an architectural project shows a wide spectrum of reality beyond today’s digital technology. This paper will visit a couple of architectural discourses from the late 20th century regarding the concept of reality and its representational technique as fragmentation which the city symphony seemed to explore earlier as a frontier art form. This paper will be formulated in the designer’s perspective which might take a risk of deviating from the historical facts. However, this paper will explore and examine the logical relationship of the city symphony and the concept of reality through architectural discourse.