Final Layout

Program: Activating Artifact with Client

Two kinds of clients engage in the situations that surround the use of the drum. One is the actual musician, who creates the beat physically with the drum, and the other is the deceased client, in which is believed to make use of the drum symbolically.

The burial ceremony is the event that harnesses the majority of individuals, taking place in a space that can serve the public. Attendees include musicians, dancers, other elites, family and friends of the deceased, and other villagers. The beat of the drum contributes to the sound of the celebration. The ceremony then transitions into the burial of the dead one. Those who gather for this task are present within the actual burial chamber, situated below the open gathering space. Family and close friends are present here, along with a priest and possibly the king/elites depending on who has died. The drum is left inside the chamber, stored with the spiritual intent of helping the dead one walk the right path in the afterlife. The chamber is then sealed and only the imagined space of the spiritual inhabiter is left in the minds of those who continue the journey of physical life.

Artfiact: Ceramic Drum

The Mayans were known to hold various ceremonies associated with ball games, death, religious ceremonies, and other festive occasions. These large ceremonies, would fill open plazas, used for ceremonial dances. The dance that took place during these festivities was the main form of amusement in which musical instruments were used to create the beat for the dance. The dance entailed performers, dressed in supernatural costumes and often called "Holmul dancers," that reenacted mythical scenes. The performances united the community as performers and audience shared the experience. Music was considered a cultural activity that was divided between classes, and prestige was often indicated through the use of music and musical instruments, one of which was the drum.

Musicians would beat the drum which would produce sound by the vibration of a tightly fixed membrane. This vibrating membrane enabled the projection of sound that could sometimes be heard over a distance of two leagues.

Death served as a very important time for uniting the community. When such ceremonial gatherings came to an end, the musicians would throw their instruments into the burial chambers, often royal tombs, as a means to help the dead find their way into the spiritual world. In this action, the use of the drum changed from being an instrument used by the living, creating sound for gathering in an open space, to being a symbolic object used to help find the right path for the dead within the subterranean word. The closed space of the burial chamber can be thought of as the threshold for the drum in which its use is differentiated into one that inspires path and how an individual gathers and travels through the cycle of life and death.

The Mayan religious tradition was based on cycles and the belief that knowing the past meant knowing the cyclical influences that created the present. With this knowledge, the cyclical influences of the future could then be seen. The constant beat of the drum can be looked at as a cycle of sound that inspires the path taken from life into the spiritual realm of death through its symbolic descent into the interior of the earth, via the stairway (burial chamber) into the subterranean world. Through this distancing sound, the acoustics of the space created by the drum travel from being heard in past, open gathering space to being present in a defined closed space to then traveling into an imagined space of the spiritual in which path may vary.

Pyramid Edge in Relation to Path

The Pyramid As an Edge of Path

Thesis diagram

The Puuc architecture style integrated into the Uxmal site serves to create a level of hiearchial unity between the specifics of the site and its surrounding area.

Theory: Site Location and Adaptation

How Uxmal relates to the overall surface area of the Yucatan puts forth the fact that its buildings were challenged in adapting to the varied elevations of the hilly landscape, this being an uncommon feature to the general vicinity of the Yucatan. Where as most of the Yucatan is observed to be relatively flat, the Puuc region contrasts this landscape in that it is comprised of a range of hills, forcing the constructions at this site to be built in a compatible stance with the surrounding ground. The site plan of Uxmal is noteworthy in that its layout and building orientations appear to defy the natural topography. This effort to transcend nature emphasizes the idea of constructing a built environment conforming to the ideals and wishes of man. The site is situated at the northwestern end point of a system of causeways stretching southeast into the site of Nohpat and further arriving to its destination at Kabah. The idealology that within Mayan city planning existed some sort of tie that brought people together regardless of the dispersed social order can be acknowledged as plausible by the causeway (sacbe) linking this triad of cities.

Theory: Relationship between layers of materiality in structure

Uxmal's formal definition is stated as "thrice built," constituting layers of information that can be excavated from the many important buildings still standing on the site. The Mayans were known to build new structures on top of older ones at regular intervals, creating an overlapping system of mass that in turn allowed for the invention of new spaces within these layers. The most noteworthy example of this practice is the Magician's Pyramid, in which there are four earlier structures that lay beneath the fifth highest construction. The layers of this step pyramid can be considered to be unique in that they take on an oval shape rather than the usual rectangular or square design. The Governor's palace, a masterpiece that is debated to rival the Magician's Pyramid due to its size and intricate stonework, is another important construction comprised of layers. The building consists of three separate structures connected by two large portal vaults. The building itself is an imposing edifice constituting three levels and a long mosaic facade. It is essentially a long, low building situated on a huge platform. Because the shape and figure/ground interaction of these buildings are quite different, their scale and constructed spaces can be recognized to serve different purposes. Furthermore, in a broader sense of the use of the term "layers," the Magician's Pyramid can be theorized as a more of a larger scale entity in contrast with the Governor's Palace, taking on an intermediate function in scaling specific site relationships. Stretching beyond site specific characteristics, the idea of layers can also be supported when speaking in the sense of general Mayan constructions. In relation to Uxmal's "thrice built" definition, the usage of the three hearthstones set in traditional Mayan homes and its relationship to the artifact of the tripod bowl, whose three feet are symbolic of this type of constructional practice, can be used to reinforce the overall definition of the site and its counterparts by serving as a smaller scale counterpart. In this way, the physicality of the above mentioned layers can be thought to occupy another kind of category, one that relates to cultural overlap.

Theory: Exterior materiality as related to interior space

The Mayan site of Uxmal is noted to be one of the most representative sites of a style of architecture known as the "Puuc" style. This style consists of structures that are decorated with with veneer stones which are ultimately set into a concrete core. The facades of these buildings can be categorized with having distinguished lower and upper exterior characteristics. The lower portion of these facades were discovered to be blank with a flat surface of rectangular blocks. These blocks were punctuated with openings that allowed movement into the structure. The upper facades consisted of intricate stone mosaics along with alternating repeated geometric elements that took on a more elaborate figurative sculpture. Long nosed masks that symbolized the Mayan rain god, known as Chaac, are commonly found on many of these detailed facades. The allowance of these decorated facades is ultimately due to the use of the concrete core, which is considered an architectural advance in relation to earlier Mayan techniques of using larger stones stacked with limestone and plaster for structural support. This intelligent masonry enabled the Mayans to make use of slightly larger and more stable interior rooms.