Anatomy of Sound exhibition connects guitar making, music, and architecture
Music professor and luthier Thomas George Caracas Garcia explores the art and craft of guitar making through a collaborative exhibition, concert, and Architecture + Interior Design project
Anatomy of Sound exhibition connects guitar making, music, and architecture
For Miami University professor Thomas George Caracas Garcia, a guitar is both a musical instrument and a carefully designed object, shaped by decisions about materials, structure, craftsmanship, and sound.
Those connections are at the center of Anatomy of Sound: The Art and Craft of the Guitar, an exhibition opening Oct. 2 in the Cage Gallery at Alumni Hall. The exhibition, which runs through Oct. 23, explores the craft of guitar making through Garcia’s work as a musician and luthier, someone who builds and repairs stringed instruments.
Garcia builds both historical and experimental instruments, drawing from established guitar-making traditions as well as alternative approaches to instrument design. He adapts those ideas based on his own understanding of what he describes as the “anatomy of sound,” exploring how the construction and design of an instrument influence the sound it ultimately produces.
“For me, building an instrument is about understanding how all of its parts work together to create sound,” Garcia said. “I’m interested in traditional approaches to guitar making, but I also like to experiment with those ideas and make them my own. This exhibition gives people a chance to see what goes into that process, and then to hear the finished instrument in performance.”
The collaboration gives students an opportunity to consider architecture through the needs of a highly specialized creative practice. Rather than designing a space in the abstract, students must understand the process that happens within it, from selecting materials and shaping individual components to assembling instruments and ultimately putting them into the hands of musicians.
For Garcia, connecting the making of an instrument with its performance is an important part of the project. The exhibition will open with a concert at 4 p.m. Oct. 2 featuring Garcia on guitar and Jessica Raposo Coleman on flute.
By pairing the exhibition with a live performance, Anatomy of Sound follows the guitar from concept and construction to its ultimate purpose: creating music.
Anatomy of Sound: The Art and Craft of the Guitar will be on view Oct. 2-23 in the Cage Gallery at Alumni Hall. The opening concert begins at 4 p.m. Oct. 2.
Visitors to the exhibition will be able to see that process at different stages. Along with completed instruments, the gallery will feature guitars in various stages of construction as well as plans, tools, templates, and other equipment Garcia uses to build them.
The project also brings together two areas within Miami University’s College of Creative Arts: the Department of Music and the Department of Architecture and Interior Design.
The exhibition is part of a broader collaboration with faculty and second-year students in Miami’s Department of Architecture and Interior Design. Garcia is working with students as they spend several weeks exploring the design of a luthier studio, considering not only the physical space needed to construct instruments, but also how such a space could support teaching and the marketing of finished instruments.