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The Wolves
No full textThe Wolves stand in a circle, about to start their pre-match warm-up. Right after the players run onto the field, I began each scene with a harsh white light from above to emulate the fluorescent lights of a stadium kicking on before warming up to their full brightness. This is to represent a new week, and a new soccer match.https://ir.uiowa.edu/lighting_design/1080/thumbnail.jp
The Social Media Project
No full textThe computer crashes and goes black. The walls transform into bright, calming videos of nature. The participant leans back in his chair and looks up for the first time since entering.https://ir.uiowa.edu/media_design/1035/thumbnail.jp
The Wolves
No full textThe Wolves is about a team of teenage girls on an intermural soccer team in the Midwest that takes place over a period of six weeks, during their fifteen minute warm-up period before each weekly match. The characters all have the comradery that comes with being on the same team as one another and working together to defeat their opponents. Our goal as an artistic team was to show how these characters could be any group of individuals, involved in any collaborative activity, in any location. All humans undergo the internal struggles of conformity versus individualism, and this story is presented in a slice of life manner that makes it able to relate to the audience no matter who they are.
The primary purpose of the lighting was to create a full even wash of the space, so that every character could be seen at all times to emulate an indoor soccer field. This allowed the individuality of the characters to be represented in the accessories of the costumes, as well as to portray the space being a neutral territory that is used by other soccer teams throughout the week. During scene transitions between the weekly matches, I used an animated wash of light that swept across the green turf field to represent a passage of time in-between the weeks. This light was choreographed with the actors’ movements between each scene to keep the tempo and pace of the action fluid and constantly moving forward. Overall, I designed The Wolves so that the set would emulate the intense environment of a sports arena, while also not being so visually dominant as to avoid upstaging the actors and costumes.
While the production was a success in all aspects, lighting-wise there were a few ways that I could have achieved the same end-result while also using less labor and resources. At the beginning of technical rehearsals, I utilized a lot of light that would hit the performers from diagonal angles. While this achieved the atmosphere that I desired, due to the audience being seated on opposite sides of the stage, this meant that the audience could also be seen, thus taking attention away from the performance. To alleviate this issue, I drastically reduced the amount of diagonal light and utilized more side light that would not hit the audience
Love + Information
No full textLove + Information, written by Caryl Churchill, explores and examines the ways in which we communicate as humans. Written in a series of genderless conversations, the play can be cast and assembled with great flexibility which allows the creative team more freedom in discovering how to tell this story.
Our director wanted to focus on the ways in which technology enhance and interfere with communication. I created a series of animations that consisted of dialog from the text and placed it into text messages, snapchats, and internet conversations. It was then projected on a series of wall panels and a large plastic drop. Scene titles were also projected onto the set to indicate the mood or direction of the conversations.
Another aspect that we explored in this process was the concept of gender and the binary. Characters were clothed in ambiguous, non-gendered garments. A sequence of binary numbers was projected across the set for several transitions as the lines of communication began to breakdown. Binary is the language of technology and as it glitched and flickered upon the stage, it represented the basic language of our world and how easy it is to misinterpret.
In retrospect, the specificity that was needed in projecting entire scenes of text should have been more considered. The surfaces were not large enough to be read by every audience member and the plastic backdrop created problems with cleanness of projection. In the future, I will be more cognizant of the material on which I am projecting. While the mode of communication was effective, the execution could have served the text better. More careful examination of scenic elements and location would have been useful in understanding how the text was to be used and consumed. I think the most effective media-driven visual was the binary streams of numbers. On the plastic, they created an interesting texture and clear indication of the breakdown that was happening within the world. This production taught me to be more careful in my execution of media in the future
2 PM in Faith, Nebraska
No full text2 PM in Faith, Nebraska debuted as part of the 2019 Iowa New Play Festival, written by KT Peterson. 2 PM in Faith, Nebraska, comedically follows a series of mysterious and magical events that occur in the modern day, fictious small town of Faith, Nebraska. These events lead the characters to question if they believed in magic and faith.
The costume design of this show focuses on the playful and funny lens that these characters look through while approaching serious questions. For this production I had to transform two actors into six different and unique characters. To create characters that were funny but could still have moments of seriousness, I focused on creating characters that the audience could laugh with rather than laugh at. To do this effectively, I had to examine what real people wear in Nebraska; what clothing is practical and how people present themselves in everyday small-town life. I also had the additional challenge of having two actors who played multiple characters of different ages and genders. This meant that every costume had to be easily identifiable so the audience could follow the plot. Once I understood how the costumes had to function, I was able to focus on the patterns and textures to give each character elements that were fun and unique. This helped bring back a sense of light heartedness to the characters.
To achieve this design, with my budget of $75, I took advantage of our items in stock, buying as little as possible, so I could spend the bulk of my budget on magnetic strip tape. Magnetic strip tape is a twill tape that has magnetics sewn into it. It can then be sewn onto garments to quick rig them. The advantages of this, are that it is easy to install, always in line, and can quickly close an open garment, and it can break away even faster. Having this as my method of quick rigging, made it easier to train my crew on how to perform these changes, extremely quickly as the actors ran about the stage.
Overall for this design, I created costumes that were real and relatable but had unique quirks to give each town member of Faith an interesting and fun look
The Social Media Project
No full textAs part of a class project, fellow graduate student, Chelsea June, and I were tasked with creating a meaningful, interactive installation for students to experience. Presented with three prompts, we chose to design an experience that embodied the idea of “Art + Resistance” through illustrating the impact of social media on both the individual psyche and the world around us.
For research, we scanned one of the dominant social media websites, Facebook, for content that was intended to create strong negative emotional reactions. This included fake news and propaganda relating to the political climate and public figures. Compiling a range of examples, we created the framework of a generic Facebook home page, leaving a transparent window where the newsfeed would normally be. Behind this window we inserted a curated feed of ads and images that the user would scroll through while sitting at a computer desk in a dark room with three windows. As the user continued to browse the feed, triggers points within the feed would cause the passage of time through the windows to speed up. Eventually, there was nearly no time between night and day and as the user scrolled to the end of the preset feed, a system meltdown was triggered and the computer monitor turned off. In the same moment, the room was replaced with the outside world filled with warmth and nature. Uplifting music accompanied this shift.
One of the most interesting observations that we made while watching users navigate the experience was the change in their body language. With no instruction, students entered the space and all followed the conventions of the setup by sitting at the computer and scrolling through Facebook. It was interesting that no instruction was needed and this action felt so natural that there was rarely hesitation. As the user continued to scroll through the feed, their shoulders become hunched and they hardly noticed that windows and time passing around them. The emotional impact of the content was clearly distressing. When the computer shut off, there was often shock, and it was always followed by a complete relaxing of the body as they leaned back and opened themselves to view the images of nature surrounding them.
Ultimately, we feel that we were successful in illustrating the emotional toll that social media takes on us as users and the way that we feel when it is removed and we are forced to acknowledge the world surrounding us
Shape and Form
Get PDFFor my honors research I will be exploring the use of wood board to make a book holder that can change shape to cope with different situations. All the furniture I made before were fixed shapes, but I want to explore design and techniques for a structurally changeable book shelf.
First, I used a pocket cut technique, making grooves on the side walls of the book holder. These grooves could let the clapboards of the book holder move and sit in different positions. But in this plan, the book holder can’t change its shape and size, making it unable to work well in a small space. Through the inspiration given by Chinese traditional katydids’ cage, I got my second plan. I let two small book holder cross through each other. Next I changed the spacing and size of the bookshelf by pushing and pulling the side walls. After I finish my drawing in Auto CAD, I used a 0.25 inches thickness MDF board laser cut a 5.5 inches wide, 6 inches height and 12 inches length book holder model for testing. Most books are between 4 inches and 13 inches wide. The model fit the books under 5.5 inches wide. But it was too short for books wider than 5.5 inches. Based on this test, I decided to expand my bookshelf 66% to accomodate books wider than 5.5 inches. In order to put the book more firmly in the book holder, I tilted the bottom and back of the book holder 15 degrees from the horizon. For the final material, I used birch plywood, for my book holder. I choose to use 0.75 inches thickness birch plywood first, but the wood strips on the bottom looked too thick. For these reasons, I choose using 0.5 inch birch plywood for my final work. Unfortunately, the 0.5 inch birch plywood board is too brittle. When I router cut the wood board, some of the surface was broken. I used wood chips and glue to fill the broken surface and smoothed it with sandpaper. Although the final results are good, if I do another book holder in the future, I will choose to use solid wood instead of plywood.
Through this project I had a better understanding of wood joints and structures. I learned how to make joints that allow furniture to change shape. Although not intended to be, I have a better understanding of the material differences between woods and how important the appropriate choice is to the success of the final project. However, I also learned how to repair damaged wood surfaces. I will be more cautious when choosing materials in the future
Can Semantic-Phonemic Discrepancy in Verbal Fluency Help to Detect Alzheimer’s Dementia?
Get PDFWord retrieval difficulty is one of the early signs of Alzheimer’s disease, although such difficulties can also occur in typically aging. Therefore, it is necessary to find a task that differentiates the early stages of Alzheimer’s dementia from typically aging. Verbal fluency is a widely used measure to assess subjects’ cognitive processes following neurological damage, and often includes two subtests: semantic fluency, in which participants are asked to produce words which meet a semantic criterion, such as food or animals; and letter fluency, which requires participants to produce words starting with a certain letter, such as F or S. People with Alzheimer’s disease have more difficulty with semantic than letter fluency, although this pattern has also been shown in typically aging. In the current research, we investigate whether the semantic-letter discrepancy can differentiate Alzheimer’s dementia from typically aging
Soda
Get PDFSoda Firing is an atmospheric firing technique that produces radiant colors and surfaces, ranging from oranges and yellows to deep reds and browns. The flame pattern and soda vapor interacts with the clay body creating a color response. Once the kiln door is shut these pots share an experience together that the creator is isolated from. My research is based on operating the soda kiln and turning the spontaneity of the firing into a controlled process to produce results geared towards my personal aesthetic.
The clay body, glaze and slips, temperature, atmosphere, placement of an object and direction of soda ash determine the outcome of a pot. While the pyrometer reads the air temperature of the kiln, pyrometric cones are placed inside the kiln near the spy hole to determine the temperature of the work. Cones are made of ceramic materials that have different melting points. Each cone melts at a certain temperature, giving an accurate representation of the temperatures progress. Clay rings placed inside the kiln close to the spy hole are pulled out of the kiln throughout the spraying process to monitor the amount of soda. When the kiln gets hotter, there are small adjustments made to the damper, air, and gas. The damper allows for air to flow through the kiln. It should be pushed in slightly to start the reduction at cone 012 (1600° F). Reduction fire starves the kiln of oxygen and produces intense earth tones. The air and gas need to be slowly bumped up over the duration of the firing in order to gain heat. Soda ash is crushed into a powder, dissolved in water and sprayed into a soda kiln during high reduction at cone 8 (2280° F). The fire and soda ash strike the pot at different angles, creating a dynamic surface. I’m interested in the different effects produced by the amount of soda ash and placement of pots. While these pots sit together, they create pathways for the soda to travel. Pots that were closer to the spy hole were blasted with soda ash, producing a thick grey/blue surface. After the first firing I noticed a mesmerizing brown that appeared inside my vessel. I’ve learned that the inside of my pots generated this color because they are enclosed; receiving a light coating of soda ash that produced a shiny brown surface. My goal for the second firing was to produce this color on the exterior. I fired small cups that were surrounded by work twice the size. These cups were sheltering from soda exposure, triggering the rich color on the interior and exterior. In the third firing I fired a large vessel and placed tall pots around it in hopes of generating shadows. These tall pots work as a shield, obstructing large amounts of soda ash from hitting my vessel, ultimately obtaining a diverse surface.
I’ve learned how to successfully operate the soda kiln and place pots in a manner where I can achieve a variety of color and texture. In order to have a controlled outcome, I will need to continue to study the pattern of the soda kiln. This will be achieved by recording the process of multiple firings to come