Safwan Chowdhury Project 3 — Architectural Mapping

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e79jE1AbuN0

Concept: 

I was given the opportunity to serve as Co-Production Design (focusing on projection and show control) for the recent Theatre UTD production of Oedipus the King at the school of Arts and Humanities. Collaborating with Director Michael Cleveland (who took point on sound and scenic design), we decided to use projectors to transform the metallic and stark scenic design. The set of the play is largely defined by the presence of the large palace doors and dais center stage and the scaffolding which surround that centerpiece. It was my responsibility to augment the emotional effect of the actor's performances and other technical elements (namely sound and lighting by Christopher Treviño).

The production of the play had a contrast between the formal elements — translated Classical Greek dialogue and the turn-of-the-20th-century costuming (by Michael Robinson) — and the experimental elements by way of sound, light, and projection. This contrast was intended to develop a sense of foreboding in the audience, who know the terrible fate which awaits the tyrant Oedipus but can do nothing, of course, to stop it.

Process:

I used MadMapper to complete the projection mapping and used QLab for sound mixing and overall show control/programming. 

First, we determined that a rear projector would address the palace doors, which had the benefit of creating interesting silhouettes when characters entered the scene. For every other part of the set, a front projector (with an extreme wide throw) hung above the sound booth was used.

Then, I mapped out surfaces for all of the different elements of the set, first creating master masks omitting all parts of the stage that would never be contacted by projection. I duplicated those masks and then further masked out individual elements of the set —

• palace doors
• stage floor
• dais/platform
• palace doorframe
• stage left scaffolding
• stage right scaffolding
• the canvases hung off of the scaffolds

— these elements all had individual surfaces created for the maximum control possible.

Above photo depicts the pre-visualization within MadMapper for a particular cue.

After completing this mapping/masking, I developed looks for different scenes/moments in the play and recorded individual Scenes within MadMapper. In several cases, I duplicated surfaces in order to get smooth transitions from scene to scene — ending up with several copies of the palace door quads for example.

I made extensive use of the internal visualization tools in MadMapper - using specific parametric/modular generators as motifs in the design - as well as found media for certain elements.

After completing the design, I implemented each of the programmed Scenes in the show control via QLab and OSC addressing. I made extensive use of auto-following in QLab in order to associate sound and projection cues with each other since many of those cues were relevant to the same, specific moments in the production.

Interpretation:

This experience gave me some wonderful experience in applying the lessons learned this semester to linear performance art. I do wish the footage gathered of the production (snippets of which I compiled in the embedded video) represented the projection better — it was much more evident in the theatre than it was in certain shots. That being said, I am still extremely happy with the work and the level of cohesion achieved with projection and the other elements of the production design, especially the lighting design.

Great thanks to all involved with the production, including but not limited to those named in the program available here: https://buff.ly/3soW0dD