In No Time
In these trying times, its only natural for us to reflect on what we have accomplished in our lives so far, looking back on the roads we’ve walked. In No Time draws attention to this, and focuses on the feeling of being caught in between. Between a life well lived, or squandered, and the everlasting void that looms at the end for all of us. The isolation of regret, and of the two most dangerous words in existence: ‘what if?’
The Team
Projection Designer: Timothy Swenson
Choreographers: Emma Colligan, Mandy McLenigan
Lighting Designer: Francisca Losada Hernandez
Lighting Programmer: Molly Crandall
Dancers: Emma Colligan, Mandy McLenigan
Music: 'Experience Life' by Robin Williams, 'Everything must Change' by Oleta Adams
Photo Credits: Ken Smith, UBPG
Design Concepts
Originally, I had planned for the usage of so called ‘liminal spaces’ to really focus on the idea of being trapped, isolated, in a place where a person does not belong. Liminal spaces being someplace where something is lacking, I thought them fitting to convey a sense that this stage is temporary, or transitional in nature. Betwixt life and death, the past and the future.
Design Iteration
The Warm Collage
Early on in the process, it became apparent that the piece required something more abstract than what I had initially put in for research and possible usage. Following that, I decided to collage various elements of architecture, landscapes, and various fauna/flora together to achieve this, one warm, and one cool. The warm would accompany the first half of the piece, looking back on a life. The cooler of the two would be looking forward, into the uncertainty of death.
The landscape, inverted in color
The cool collage did not pass muster, and I was pretty thoroughly stumped as to what might fit the bill. I needed something abstract, but with enough definition to still convey the nebulous isolation that lives beyond the grave. Eventually, it occurred to me while out hiking that a landscape inverted might do the trick. Similar enough to be knowable, and changed far enough away from the current to be totally abstract.
A Van Gogh landscape
The first draft held promise, but was still too similar to reality as to be recognizable and ‘real’, which would remove from the uncertain isolation that the piece generates. With some work, it was perfect however. Flipping it 180 degrees and painting it in the manner of Van Gogh brought back some familiarity, while simultaneously feeling cold, and distant. Perfect for an isolated view. Eventually, the Choreographers would end up cutting the warmer section, as we realized that the isolation and loss at the end of the first section would be more poignant if covered by the projections. The second section would be covered more thoroughly with the silhouette light in blue, and the same projection at a much lower opacity.
