geoffrey mann animates a jazz conversation using undulating soundwaves

scottish designer geoffrey mann’s first ethnographical and biographical body of work, the second line, uses object materiality to capture the social history of new orleans. the animation uses an unscripted, unedited conversation between mann and grand marshall aaron blanks that took place on a new orleans street corner, as blanks conducted the young ‘all star brass musicians’ from the city’s treme neighborhood.

geoffrey mann, ‘the second line’ cocktail set [6 cocktail glasses, 1 (3 parts) cocktail shaker, digital animation video], 2017,
the new orleans museum of art: museum purchase, william mcdonald boles a

their conversation addressed not only the jazz, but how the teenagers’ brass instruments transcend music to become a cultural, economic and social symbols of history, diversity, equality and hope. mann‘s ‘second line’ animation shows their conversation as sound waves passing through a group of cocktail glasses sitting on a french colonial serving trolley. aaron blanks’ raw unbridled passion for giving hope to new orleans youth is encapsulated forever as it reverberates through the forms of the cocktail set.

each undulation and deformation is a physical echo of the frenchman street conversation. shown together with the video animation, geoffrey mann’s glass cocktail service gives a physical manifestation to this fleeting conversation. he turns to both traditional craft techniques and new digital processes to make the undulating, dancing digital forms into complicated, real crafted objects. the flame-worked glassware were created first working from 3D printed prototypes that had been extracted frame by frame from the animation. the cocktail shaker’s brass elements have a metallic shell ‘grown’ around a 3D printed nylon substrate, an innovative process developed for high impact, lightweight components required in space.

the animation captures the unseen character of the cocktail glasses, the intensity of the discussion deforms their once static existence into objects of unseen familiarity

since graduating from the royal college of art in 2005, mann has exhibited nationally and internationally, and in 2012 named a ‘designer of the future’ by newsweek magazine. mann’s work embraces the symbiotic relationship between digital media and physical form. his fascination with transposing the ephemeral nature of time and motion has created a studio practice that challenges the existing divides between art, craft and design. ‘I don’t invent things,’ says mann. ‘I just find a way to materialize objects from things that we can’t see.’

the interview with grand marshall aaron blanks took place on the corner of chartres and frenchman street in new orleans
image © geoffrey mann studio

designboom has received this project from our ‘DIY submissions‘ feature, where we welcome our readers to submit their own work for publication. see more project submissions from our readers here.

edited by: lynn chaya | designboom

geoffrey mann animates a jazz conversation using undulating soundwaves

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