Process Documentation
This piece grew out of two concepts, the first was a large eldritch horror that would transform over the course of the piece, growing tentacles and opening its head to reveal a beating heart. The other was an ambient piece that would cover the walkways of the stage with a shibori coral reef that the audience would be forced to walk through to get to their seats. However, such a form factor posed many difficulties in terms of actuating, and in order to successfully make sure our fabrics were kinetic, we decided that we would incorporate a large coral reef inflatable around the stage which would be lit and actuated in conjunction with a stationary but interactive shibori fabric walkway. Continuing with the theme, the horror was adapted into a sea creature, growing, exploring, and eventually dying.
Initial sketches for the horror
After initial tests, we had planned to cover the inflatables with small features resembling coral to add texture; however, as we were running out of time to the performance, our professor suggested that we might use dyeing as a method to add texture to our piece more quickly. With her assistance, we were able to dye the coral reef and the tentacles of the sea creature to add color against the stark white of the inflatable cloth.
Additionally, because of the challenges of finishing the walkways in time with the inflatables, we decided to incorporate the shaped shibori intended for the pathways as patches of color around the reef to add additional color contrast and texture.
The central body was approximately 10 feet in diameter, with the tentacles each reaching 30 feet.
The dye job made both inflatables much more interesting and were a big part of making the performance much more interesting to watch. The biggest learning curve in this project was discovering exactly how much time was needed to create and practice the inflatables and performance; with more time spent practicing with the musicians and on the performance stage, we feel as though an even stronger emotional effect could have been achieved.
More information about the software and hardware interfaces can be found here.