PART 1

  • Conduct Research – include academic references, art works, literature, products in the market, anything that you think is part of the ecosystem of what you are working on
  • Pick at least one academic paper, post a link and your response to its claims/insights

RESEARCH

Dance + projection:

Midsummer Night’s Dream at Polonsky Shakespeare Center in Brooklyn, NY

“Julie Taymor’s production was conceived as a “fantasia of light and shadow”. Projection is tightly interwoven with lighting and set elements. The design features starkly contrasty imagery that borrows its appearance from traditional silhouettes, cut outs as well as real flowers, ferns, roots and branches. A complex projection system enabled me to project on a variety of billowing and handheld materials that gave the entire production a magical and handmade appearance.”

S Katy Tucker’s similar use of projecting onto fabric – http://www.skatytucker.com/#/sfodutchman/ 

Aaron Ryhne’s Design for Anastasia – http://www.aaronrhyne.com/project/anastasia 

Caite Hevner’s (female projection designer) projection design for Footloose on a cruise line – http://caitedesign.com/footloose 

  • The lighting works well with the projection and doesn’t seem to work against it

 

Dance in films:

Sven Ortel x Hubbard Street Installation – https://www.svenortel.com/work#/space-in-perspective/ 

-choreography by Peter Chu (MY KING)

Music Video Direction by Canada Canada – https://canadacanada.com/work/music-videos/ 

Burberry campaigns – 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCbfq_-cd-g 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QbmW76Cp4s8 

La Horde (choreography collective) film “Ghosts” – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZ4Tl5mW2bk 

 

Projection Design Projects:

S Katy Tucker (female projection designer) floor projection on Wolf Trap Opera – http://www.skatytucker.com/#/boheme/ 

 

Projects on Mexican Identity:

Un Estado de Gracia at BAM Nov 2021 – March 2022 – https://www.bam.org/state-of-grace 

 

Academic References:

Reference 1:

Identidad social y estereotipos por color de piel. Aspiraciones y desempeño en jóvenes mexicanos 

by Campos Vázquez, R.M. Medina Cortina, E.M.

Affiliation:                     El Colegio de México, Centro de Estudio Económicos

Source:               In: Trimestre Economico. (Trimestre Economico, 1 January 2018

Publication Information:   Fondo de Cultura Economica

 

Link 1 , Link 2

 

RESPONSE

There is an association between lightness of skin and socioeconomic class in Mexico. Vázquez and Cortina conducted an experiment with teenagers in Mexico City to see the correlation between this lightness of skin, gender, stereotypes and their future aspirations. Their multiple trials of tests showed the obvious, at least I see as obvious because I’ve lived through these circumstances. They found darker skin in most cases meant lower aspirations, lower quality education and quality of life, lower salaries, more chances of being wrongfully incriminated, and worse health. It’s been found that this does affect the aspirations that Mexican teenagers (specifically in this study) have for their future lives. There are many passions that aren’t pursued as full-time careers due to teenagers feeling discouraged by not only their identity or socioeconomic status, but their physical appearance. Vázquez and Cortina specifically also found that European teenagers in France with the same academic circumstances and grades as Mexican students in Mexico have higher aspirations for their future lives.

These topics brings a very specific image to mind. I think of hiding from the sun because my parents and aunts and uncles told me to. Hiding from the sun is something that is commonly passed generationally within the black, brown, and asian community. It is something that my cousins and I were told to do as children –  to stay out of the sun as much as we could because we “didn’t want to get too dark.” Across these cultures, it is eurocentrically ingrained that lighter skin signifies higher class, and therefore better opportunities, treatment, circumstances, etc.. Growing up between Laredo, Texas and Mexico did not expose me to diversity and only immersed me in my Mexican culture. It was until I moved to NYC that I was able to realize the similarities between all cultures of people of color. I feel compelled to share the visceral feeling that these lived experiences bring up through visual images and performance. Reading articles like this make me feel more motivated to create visually compelling performances that get a broad audience to feel something very specific, all in a shared moment.

 

Images this article inspires:

  • Hiding from the sun (a bright light shining in, people hiding)

 

Informal Articles:

How Projection Design is Changing the Landscape of Theatre – https://playbill.com/article/how-projection-design-is-changing-the-landscape-of-theatre 

“Projection design is an art form that can add to the theatrical experience and not detract from it. What are we trying to get the audience to feel and think?” 

 

Products in the Market:

List of Projection Mapping softwares – https://projection-mapping.org/software/ 

Only one I know how to use is MadMapper

Disguise (we had seen this in class i think) – https://www.disguise.one/en/ 

HeavyM – https://www.heavym.net 

Seems user friendly

 

Theater Spaces and Resident Programs:

La mama theatre (east village)

-they have about 10 resident artists

– Shauna Davis resident dancer and choreographer 

https://www.lamama.org/artists/shauna-davis

https://www.instagram.com/shaunaydavis/ 

http://www.shaunadavisdance.com/work 

Pioneer Works in Red Hook

Resident program for visual art, music, technology, and narrative arts

Residents page

-Carri Wang is a technology resident alumni!

Free workshops and classes IN PERSON

Caroline Garcia’s Green Screen Workshop in March

Caroline Garcia’s bio

Eyebeam Resident program – art and tech resident program

Polonsky Shakespeare Center 

BAM 

Culture Hub residency program

 

PART 2

  • Create a mood board combining visual research and takeaway quotes, ideas, studies. Post it to your thesis journal
  • Write a ‘Dream Review’ of your project

 

MOOD BOARD: https://miro.com/app/board/uXjVOQIszWA=/?invite_link_id=658911267075 

https://www.instagram.com/p/B5-naJTFfvG/

 

DREAM REVIEW

Samantha Chapa is a force emerging into the dance and technology scene. There is a fullness to the world created in her most recent work with it’s multidisciplinary approach. She merges dancers, projection, set design, lighting, and an original sound score to create the sad Mexican fiesta titled Borderline Nostalgia (working title). The performance makes the viewer feel invited into very personal moments where it seems nostalgia gets disrupted and destroyed. With visuals of a sunny day accompanied by a gloomy soundscape and a pinata being broken in slow motion, this feels like a slow motion decay of personal memories. 

Samantha is a choreographer and multidisciplinary artist based in New York City whose works are grounded in her dance background. When describing her choreographic approach she says “the sensation of the movement roots from a visceral feeling, every movement and gesture being in relationship to the dancer’s center.” 

The quality of the dancers’ movement in Borderline Nostalgia felt like the rawest form of exploration of identity. The dancers experience moments of hopeless emptiness and brief celebratory embrace. Samantha earns the audience’s attention through narrative arcs and the textures of both the choreography and projections. The juxtaposition of a stripped down moment with a performer listening to a voicemail to moments where all the mediums move at once, makes the viewers appreciate both ends of the spectrum. 

The Shed has just announced Samantha Chapa as one of their resident artists for 2023, and we should be expecting further exploration of her multidisciplinary practice through the form of an interactive installation.