INFLUENCES

My thesis has developed from a strong interest in my passion for live music and culture. I carried these interests through by investigating the possibilities of human interactivity and design opportunities into a spatial and experiential form. Performance seemed like a natural choice, as it encompasses both sensory experiences and dynamic movement. Culture was translated into an investigation of local history to inform the content of the project.

Having a graphic design background, I have a full knowledge of what the practice entails. Design can feel flat, as its regular formats are generally based on a paper or computer and television screens. Taking the affordances of performance with sensory experience and having a three-dimensional space is alluring, and it is a fascinating field to reconfigure the idea of one to tell a story or to communicate a focused idea.

Architect David Rockwell and theatre director Julie Taymor have similar thoughts regarding live- action spectacles and using technology to view a digitally captured performance.

"...the experience of virtual community (made possible by technology) pales in the face of the physical experience of spectacle. Spectacles are larger than life." Rockwell.
"Live performance will always surpass media like the internet." Taymor.

Merely trying to view a performance through a medium dulls the impact of the event, because without being present one can never fully appreciate the sensory experience. A lot of the connectedness one feels with a group of people in witnessing something extraordinary can not be achieved through video or digital recording. Regardless of the outcome, there is the excitement of an unexpected event that comes to a group of people. While most of them will be more surprised than appreciative, it’ll be an occurrence that they can take away as theirs in the end.

Combining the mechanism of performance with in-depth content is crucial. In looking at the city I was investigating, I felt that taking the roots of a space and externalizing that history into a show for public viewing could be a rich idea. It was removing layers of a city in order to seek what existed before that made for compelling material to create a story.