The Music Room Revival
When the Quai d’Orsay building opened in March 2019, it included a music room in its basement. Purpose-built, the room is supposed to be soundproof and allow for noisy band practice. This long-awaited space was intended to replace the old music space under the Amex, which had a tendency to flood and was not adequately aerated. However, this space is not without problems.
Lamis, tells us, “For individual appointments, it’s working but I am not sure if it is big enough for groups, because we are not able to test that yet (given the current COVID-19 restrictions).” There are also soundproofing issues, the music room is directly connected to the reading areas of the Quai building, which makes it more restrictive when it comes to the volume of instrument playing which cannot go over Volume 3 - a condition applicable for the microphone, electric guitar, and bass.
Image credit: Unsplash/Amin Asbaghipour
The drums are currently not permitted for usage at all because of sound problems. Lamis tells us that, the aim of this music room is to give students another tool and new space to be able to relax, even if it is only available for a limited amount of people right now and there are some restrictions on instrument usage.
When talking to the Music and Performance Club co-president Hera Soysal, thoughts and concerns were shared regarding the new music as well as the role of music within the AUP community. The space for her is not enough space for post-pandemic meetups to perform together as the room is pretty tight. Although this room was conceived as a music room, it rather serves today as a cubical practice room for individual use. She carries on by saying that she and McCal, the other co-president of the club, made sure to fix the instruments that are available and put them in this small room at the Quai.
There is a prioritization regarding spacing in the new constructions and renovations that AUP buildings have been undergoing. More attention is being given to the library, study areas as well as applied art classes, but some things that were not thought through very thoroughly is a proper music room. Although now with the Montessuit building upgrade we can see how facilities and infrastructure are being optimized for the visual arts, not much attention is given to music, although music should be given attention in a liberal arts institution. An institution where students joining AUP are not only following their core courses, but are getting an idea of mixing subjects in their studies, so according to Hera, the least we can do is be given proper space for self-expression.
Image credit: Unsplash/freestock
One last thing to note is that Hera is accommodating the space that is given, by trying to optimize the room made available by replacing the big drum set with a more compact electronic drum set, in order to save up space in the room. This however does not dismiss the fact that having more focus on music and more attention invested in music is important and it also comes from including this art in a certain curriculum or even consider it as a potential AUP major. But even then, all of the arts, not just the visual arts, should have more space to be voiced.
If you want to know more about the music room frustration that has been escalating for a year now, follow this issue on the Peacock website.
