What I did

I took the pictures. I agreed that the transitions between scenes should be reminiscent of life and death... Yeah, I'm not gonna go on rambling about how I made the greatest contribution to the project, because I know I didn't. But I was there brainstorming with everyone else and I was there when we built our mini-set. I feel accomplished that I was there to share the load, so I believe that's good enough.

-Elijah

Maria's Contribution

When the assignment was first given, I had a hard time picturing what my group could do with it. I imagined very abstract shapes and concepts. But, once I understood the project a little better, it seemed to me that it would be a great exercise. I didn’t have many ideas at first, but when my we had a meeting and started brainstorming, it was easier to come up with things because everyone else had such good ideas. When someone mentioned the transition of agrarian to industrial, I came up with the design that we could do: a skyscraper that would rise from a nature scene, and have the plants as a rooftop garden.

At first I wanted the model to actually have a structure that we could pull up from the ground. My group liked this idea, and so we decided to implement it. When we where meeting to actually construct the project, I brought paint, a hot glue gun, and exacto knives. I also found a place for us to work in the art department. We soon realized that to have the skyscraper fold out was too complicated, and decided to make a separate structure to replace on the stage. I made the skyscraper, and I helped paint the set and set it up for photographing.

Meg's personal contribution

Personal contribution!! Yaaay!
So for the sweet model we made, my personal contributions were an array of things.
First we all came up with ideas together, my favorite one that I came up with was the idea that we just do a random transition and ask the class what THEY thought it was. It could have been anything from an empty box to another empty box but a different color, sunrise to sunset, anything. I just thought it would be really cool to see what the class would think about our design.
Other things I did was bring supplies for our project, and some food for those who wanted it (haha, Nachooos!!!!)
Overall I don't really like talking about what I personally contributed because I feel that as a group we do everything together. We may have our own personal ideas and feelings and thoughts about what we are doing but I feel that most of the time we all just sort of...mesh. We mesh quite while together.
Si, el fin.

-Megan Covey

The Stage as a Dangerous Machine

This reading chronicles the work of George Tsypin, and talks about how steel is his favorite material to use.
The reason why his designs are known as dangerous, is because people can fall through gaps and openings, or fall off of platforms. Also, his designs have no sense of scale, so the like or dislike of the design is up to the viewer. Tsypin received his MFA for Design from New York University in 1984 at the age of 30. Tsypin came up with the idea of a Highway going nowhere suspended above the thrust stage inside of the Guthrie theatre. He made it appear to come from a blazing sunset. I was curious to see what that looked like, so I did some surfing and found the work he did on the Flying Dutchman. Even from a distant photo, it looks dangerous. I would not like to fall off of one of these things. Another question that keeps coming up is how did the actor on the top platform get up there?Another thing that stood out in the reading is on page 213 where with Tsypin immigrated to the country. The idea is that his view of America is separate than people who are natives, and only tourists can truly experience a place. I disagree because I think that if you are a native, you may take all of the things you have for granted, but you get a clear view of how much you do have, when you see what people do not have. For example, every time I watch a documentary of children starving in Africa, or of sweatshops where people work for beans every day, I am grateful that I do not have to live that lifestyle. To them, the trials and tribulations that they deal with on a daily is normal life. They see it as work harder to support their families. Worldwide view, not challenging view just because you immigrated to America. There is no difference, land is land, and we make the biggest deal over race, a social construct that should not even exist in our society anymore. Most of the people that live in America are immigrants anyway. Tsypin creates monuments in plays and musicals that he works on to evoke memory in the viewer. This sets him apart from other designers because he takes time to make and record his work, unlike most others. This man did work on more than just the theater, he did operas, ballet sculptures and he was even on MTV for his work on operas. I like when he made an identification with the elements, with steel being the earth, and glass representing the air. I found these exciting, because the average person would not make the same representations. To me, it seemed the same as looking at a picture of an elephant and showing it to someone else, and asking them what it is. They will say it’s an elephant. Not true, the picture is a representation. The photograph is used to represent the elephant, instead of having a natural elephant.

Personal Contribution

When I read the directions for assignment number two I immediately began to think of transitions that we could model. I first thought of the mundane: like sunset to night, calm to stormy, etc. Then I began thinking of other transitions that occur, like emotional transitions, life transitions and global transitions as well. My favorite transition that came up while I was brainstorming (see next page for notes) was the transition from innocence to knowledge, which I thought would allow for many interpretations. It would also allow for a symbolic set rather than literal representations.

While the group was brainstorming together the idea of the transition from rural to industrial came up and it seemed to be the winner. Once the transition was decided we delegated the supplies and materials needed and the date for the project to occur. In all the project ran fairly smoothly and was accomplished to our liking.

My Notes:


-Eric Windell

Henri Cartier-Bresson’s “Behind the Gare Saint Lazare”

K. Williams

Portion of the Process

During our brainstorming session for the table-top, I contributed the idea of a transformation from love to hate.
I was thinking of beginning with picking a gender, and I personally wanted this transformation to be from a guys perspective
And using the storyboard breakdown
we would have selected the bedroom to be our our setting, an intimate area often used to express the persona of the individual,
as well as providing an escape of some sort from the harshness of life.
The room would begin with a basic design
bold colors, slightly disorganized, and more masculine touches.
and as Love began to make an appearance, the room would gradually change to show the presence of a woman
slightly tidier than before, maybe a dainty robe, a hair brush
essentially evidence of the merging of two lives.
Then when the separation would occur,
ultimately the shift to hate
The room would become disheveled
shifts in lighting would be appropriate
all items used to convey the feminine presence of love would be shoved in a corner
and eventually the room would become clean
almost barren, slightly stiff
possibly a picture frame faced down
and a darker tone.

My contribution to the actual set design of agriculture to industrial was to gather the greenery used for the project.
Gathering the materials was slightly odd
on my way to our group meeting I just grabbed anything green and remotely earthy
my immersion into nature actually caused me to be late
but I created our little platform of botanical life with my fellow group member Kim.
And the overall process of the table-top helped me grasp this idea of how precious nature is, and the environment
People don't pay much attention to this anymore
But can you look at a city and not wonder what used to be there before we came along?
Before the super markets, shopping malls, and suburbian madness
there was a place untouched by the destruction of material greed
and its a slightly utopian belief to think that places like that can exist anymore.
But when the rareness does come along
and I do find a place, not tainted by the grasp of society
I will respect, and I will appreciate

--Christina Benvegnu