A Quiet Spot Along the Newtown Creek

My friend showed me this secret spot in my neighborhood.  Its an abandoned train track that leads to the Newtown Creek, and beyond a series of industrial buildings.  There's something about this lonely, polluted place that is also very beautiful and peaceful.  I like going to visit it every so often. 

Home Audio Lighting Installation

My friend Mara hosts a music show every month at her place, where she invites friends to perform pieces they are working on and experiment with sound.  I offered to make an installation for the last one.  I wanted to play with light and shadows, and create an ephemeral feeling for the singing and sound going on in the space.

I've got a week left to create something for the next one...stay tuned!!

Searching for Knowledge and Inspiration at the Moma Again

Did I find it?  I'm not sure. 

I've been working on a furniture design project, that's weighed heavily on my mind, mostly because I've never designed furniture before, so I am constantly looking at furniture everywhere I go.  I think its hard to see right now what I'm learning, but in a while from now, I'll understand. 

Design Meeting 2013

Last month I went to Design Meeting 2013, where the all of the graduating theater arts students of Yale, NYU, and CalArts present their portfolios to the general public and the theater industry.  Below is a photo of  the work of my dear friend the fabulous costume designer Kate Fry.  

I'm always inspired by the world of theater, and how it relates to architecture, but in a way that allows our imagination runs wild. 

The Unisphere!

I finally made the trek out to Flushing Meadows Corona Park, the site of the 20th Century World's Fair, where I saw The Unisphere, and some other strange alien buildings.  The theme of the fair, back in 1964, was"Peach Through Understanding" and dedicated to "Man's Achievement on a Shrinking Globe in an Expanding Universe."  

 

Seeing the colossal spherical structure and connecting with the theme of the fair was rejuvenating and gave me the inspiration I was looking for last week.

Radiohole: Inflatable Frankenstein

My dear friend and talented costume designer, Kate Fry, took me to see Inflatable Frankenstein, by the anti theater theater company, Radiohole.  I've never seen theater like this before - messy, with no narrative, giant inflatable body parts, and messy gooey brains being flung towards you as the actors recite stories of Frankenstein and control the light and sound from the iphones they wear around their wrists. All in all, it was completely nonsensical, and I loved it. 

This image taken from the NY Times review of the show, found here. 

FORCES

I was lucky to see an Elizabeth Streb show back in December.  As I have been working on a set for an aerial acrobatics show, I find her work to be very inspiring. She explores movement on a very elemental level, and sometimes her work almost seems overly simplistic, and repetitive.  But I find it incredibly valuable to get to the root of the matter at hand, and as of yet I have not encountered anyone doing that in such a way as she.

I love the sketches she projects on the screen...

but the monologues are a bit much...

But then you forget about it when they start throwing I-beams around at you...

and flying around on pretty flying machines.

But probably my most favorite thing about Streb is their movable truss rig.  Its so simple, yet it affords so many different opportunities, simply by moving a truss along the Z axis. 

And  last but not least, we musn't forget about spatial sequencing!  Seeing a giant wall rotate forward before your eyes, to become the floor, and then a curtain slowly lowers to reveal a mini half wheel of death and the concrete wall beyond, is incredibly dramatic.