ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the first sketches that Xenakis sent to Del Mar: what they posit, which elements were retained over time, and which were to be discarded. From the start, there was a pattern of proposal, interaction, adjustment between us and Xenakis, and then a new proposal. The arrival of his six primary deliveries is noted in Chapter 1. There is brief comment on each in the order they were received. These initiating documents are placed in-time. But only a few among the totality of the collected images referenced in this book are dated. The unbound sheets comprising our total image collection range from small and incidental jottings (less than 3 × 4 inches) to large and intricately detailed proposals (24 × 45 inches). Their ordering has been inferred, in part, by the way in which thematic concerns and accumulating refinements appear to have evolved over time, but it is recognized that some items could have occurred in a different order.
In this chapter a detailed examination of Xenakis’s earliest mailings to us is undertaken. And in addition to considering two of the three pages first received in detail, background materials of varied sorts including musical scores, realized architectural projects, and graphic designs are commented on. In addition, some remarks on the occasional mathematical strategies used by Xenakis are discussed, especially proportion.
