More and more it seems to be artists are creating their own environments. In SlowCity's own backyard one can cite Bill Lishman, Edward Falkenberg and Viktor Tinkl for whom environment is vital to their creative spirit. They, like many others, build worlds around themselves, we can call them home studios if we like but they are more but lets extend out from there.
The artist brings a world into being so their surroundings are a reflection of themselves but also act to project back onto the artist. Their inspiration and tools come from that environment. When we speak about the Richard Florida's Creative Class defining cities, and building cities, and moving to cities, we speak of only those places with the right tools and inspiration for an artist to work with and from. The place must in a manner function as a home studio.
The City is a medium and as such subject to Marshall McLuhan's theories on media. A city is an extension of its residents but also an environment for its artists. Artists build the city. The presence of artists informs a city's future. We see again and again artists moving away from the flat to the fully dimensional, to a physically magnified worldscape, layered with space.
The rise of music as a medium in the latter half of the 20th century also reflects this growth in building one's own environment, music is the architecture. Headphones are an obvious visual example of creating a personal acoustic environment (It is possible too that the rise in tiny homes are an extension of the tiny personal space headphones creates) but Luminato's takeover of the Hearn Plant is perhaps not so obvious. Luminato is creating a collective acoustic environment and art experience, somewhat more difficult than strapping on a set of Beats. To achieve its goal Luminato is working with PARTISANS, a Toronto-based architectural firm and Charcoalblue, a theatre and acoustics consultancy firm.
If we push these art environments as media out further it suggest cities will become home studios for the new creative class being unleashed by the digital world of mass instantaneous media. In such a case, and if you believe as I do in McLuhan, then we can say it is inevitable, in such a case city planners must build as art. If they wish for their cities to, not just thrive, but survive, art must be included as a support structure. If they need guidance they can look to Luminato for some insight.