While the studios are incredibly busy this week, it's important not to forget the other things in your life. This is your reminder, for British readers at least, that it's Mother's Day this weekend! Take a moment to step away from your projects - you'll be surprised what new ideas you come up with when you take a break.
SPECS collaboration for IT IS - Luisa Pereira Pires
IT IS is an immersive interdisciplinary performance installation piece created by Lumia Shurong Liu, with help from students across multiple institutions. This multifaceted work combines architectural installation, visual projection, choreography and music live performance, it is the art of resistance bringing to life the narrative of millions of silent asylum seekers. The whole performance duration is 55 minutes, including 4 sections:
REALITY - DREAM - FIGHT - DEATH
CREDITS: Supervisors: Theo Lorenz/ Tanja Siems Scheme design and concept: Lumia Shurong Liu Structures: Tim Tilong Fu /James Yufeng Zhai / Lumia Shurong Liu Music: Remi Panossian / Nicolas Gardel Video graphics: Emre Önol Choreography: Lumia Shurong Liu Costume design and construction: Lumia Shurong Liu/Luisa Pereira Pires / SPECS Oxford 3D masks: Tim Tilong Fu Dancers: Panayiotis Pavlopoulos/Guo Teng /Julian Nichols/Qin Nan/Rémy Rodriguez /Patricia Rodriguez Laso /Lumia Shurong Liu
Part of the outcomes of the research led by SPECS were applied to the making of latex costumes in ‘’Dream’’ section. It has been a pleasure developing this work on the side of AAD and seeing how a multifaceted discipline such as architecture can play an important role in connecting multiple experts within the same project as well playing an important role in humanitarian causes.
The creative process started by understanding the materiality of the yarn. Being fascinated by movement led us to utilising elastic bands normally used by ballerinas to stretch their feet. We extended this exercise to the entire human body, creating a costume that resembles a trap that we are trying to escape. It is not something poetic or admirable, it is a misery; disgusting and neurotic, that twists your bowels. It is a representation of being trapped between borders and paradoxes and questions, inspired by the plight of refugees. I visited Lesvos in 2016 right before Europe shut borders, and met the bravest young. Creating the pieces became an emotional investigation, echoing my long fight against depression and anxiety.
The suit is beautiful, the exterior effect is brilliant, especially when in tune with the surrounding CNC structures and lighting effects. However to wear it and perform in it is painful and hard, as hard as it is not fitting in any aspects of your surroundings – people, education systems, country. You still do it every day cause what else can you do? For example: what else can you do if you are 18, no longer a minor, and are trapped on an island because your family put all their money on a trip across the sea so that at least you might make it to better shores? You do not get pity, you only have access to non-registered NGO camps that are full of untrained vegan political punks that put you on a diet lacking the nutrients you need to make it through another day. The pile of problems is infinite and you are alone, alone in your trap of bad memories and trauma and you live in between. In between borders, in between the paradoxes.
What did we do in Lesvos? We had a good time, we cried, we drank, we had a swim in the sea, told some camp volunteers off for their pathetic oblivions.
What did I do with Lumia? Stayed up all night, got our fingers hurt in the sewing machine, drank tea, and had a blast.
For more information about the event, visit the instagram page. For more about Luisa's trip to Lesvos, read this article.
What's On
Pitt Rivers Museum Highlights Tour - Wednesdays at 2:30 and 3:15. After attending one of these volunteer-led tours I can attest that they're a really interesting way to experience the museum. The tour gives context and background to the museum that would otherwise be missed, and explains some of its curiosities.
Student of the Week
This week, we're looking at Yap Shook Yen from DS4. Her project is based around the deep social problems caused by gambling in the city of Skopje, using AR to alter people's interactions with the city. She writes:
'Based on the local gambling crisis and unsuccessful metabolist’s masterplan in Skopje, the game of Chance proposed a self-sustainable gaming route that allow visitors to trade for an ever-changing hyped-reality space.Envision of pushing the original ambition of the post-earthquake metabolist plan, the system reverse the crisis of “chance” into a self-growth plan to the city, masterplan as a game board, visitors as players, locals as dealer, city as winner.
'The idea of the project starts from the proposal of an augmented projection gaming system with the statues of Skopje 2014, the formation of networking across the city will be controlled through the location of the statues, then predicting the urban growth of the city by overlaying the location of statues with the post-Earthquake masterplan route.
'Players will end up at the Trade Centre (Checkpoint) where their outcome of the game will be measured. Inspired from the metabolist, the Trade Centre offers a changeable E-Virtual Suite and underground Hyped-reality experience which can only be traded using Player’s outcome from the game. The Trade centre offers a pair of lens to the visitors to observe and critic the city, their walkthrough with the city through the statues will then revealed and explained in the Hyped-Reality projection of the Trade Centre, offering a new understanding of the city through player’s own vision and memory.'