On December 14^th and 15^th, Prof. Jonathan Ochshorn from Architecture Department of Cornell University visited International College and delivered a splendid lecture, theme of Unfrozen Music：An Informal Talk About My Songs Concerning Style, Fashion Paradigm Shifts within Architectural Cultureat C402 of Kunluan Building to our teachers and students.

Prof. Jonathan is a registered architect in USA, also with the identities of committee member of International Code Council (ICC), member of American Society of Heating Refrigerating and Air-conditioning Engineers, member of Construction Specification Institute and now is the advanced visiting scholar of Fulbright Program in Tianjin University. His main researches focus on bulking of columns, constructing of masonry walls, defects of non-structural elements and the political and economic bases of sustainable architecture, etc. Meanwhile, he has been composing original music for years, deep in recording music tapes. The lecture attracted lots of teachers and students to have a face-to-face opportunity of communicating with the awesome expert.

Prof. Jonathan Ochshorn from Cornell University

Prof. Jonathan put forward that architecture is science closely connected with aesthetics. It not only has precise body of knowledge, but also require abstract innovation like unconstrained woolgather. Starting from Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’ s concept of architecture, frozen music, connecting thoughts of Germany critical philosopher Herbert Marcuse, he advocated emotional liberation in Machine Age from aesthetics point of view, and further applied the form of music into architecture culture. Then he played a short film called Prisoner of Art to help students understand that architecture is not a general concept of art. It has practical function, which sometimes is ignored as a result of competition. This kind of behavior is much far from its original purpose. After another short film, Prof. Jonathan explained the influence of the development of contemporary society on architecture from the perspective of modern society. Enlarging gap between the poor and the rich or the fast development of technology, makes a great difference to modern architecture to some degree. At the end of the class, Prof. Jonathan showed audiences how to make low-technology music and video. In the Q&A part, students took an active part in the further discussion with Prof. Jonathan about the issue of art and architecture.

International College takes the advantage of approaching to foreign universities and invited experts and professors of Fulbright Program to share and exchange ideas with our teachers and students for several times. This lecture was such a great success. It only enriches students’ knowledge and broadens their horizons in art and architecture, but also improved their English speaking skills while talking to foreign scholar.

( Pan Wenqianxuan, New Media Department )