Office Party’s design for Disc Journal’s second issue launch converts the noise of a gathering in M_A’s Sunset Boulevard venue into the polite silence of a dinner party through the installation of a horizontal, 4-by-8 ft acoustically-engineered table. Sound-absorbing panels on the surface of the dinner table and the surrounding walls deaden ambient noise, bringing the conversation of guests, the sounds of eating, and the percussion of utensils to the fore. The remaining noises are recorded by conspicuously-placed microphones that sit as centerpieces on the table, making diners aware of how their voices and actions might be transmitted across the space of the party.

Traces of the evening’s activities are left in the M_A Storefront project space as a display. The project may be visited by appointment.

Office Party is an international research and design collective specializing in the production of temporary events, installations, and exhibitions. With an attention to sustainable material systems and community resource-pooling, the office critically examines the role of parties and similar ephemeral spaces as the origin of complex social and material networks with urban, political, and environmental effects. Office Party further investigates the ways that parties provide insight into the development of architecture as a temporary and responsive mode of space-making through written and editorial work.