entr'acte |ˈänˌtrakt; änˈtrakt |
noun
an interval between two acts of a play or opera.
• a piece of music or a dance performed during such an interval.
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Winnipeg: On the Edge of Coherence
LAWRENCE BIRD, Architect, Urban Designer (Winnipeg)
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Screen
KYLE JANZEN & CHRIS BURKE, JNZNBRK & University of Manitoba
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Patterning Temporary Atmospheres: Temporary Installation
CLAY ODOM, University of Texas School of Architecture
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Reclaiming Space: Between the Pyramid and the Labyrinth
PAOLA ZELLNER and NIKOLE BRANCH, Virginia Tech, School of Architecture + Design
This entr’acte accompanies the paper presentation Reclaiming Space, which contextualizes and describes a responsive installation, entitled Between the Pyramid and the Labyrinth. Erected in the black box theatre of the Center for the Arts at Virginia Tech during the building’s opening week (October 2013), the exhibit, sponsored by the Institute of Creativity, Art, and Technology, offered opportunities for visitors to interact creatively while learning about the potential within art and technology to stimulate engagement and inquiry. The installation occupied the volume of theatrical space measuring 40 feet deep, by 48 feet wide, and 32 feet tall, and performed the dual purpose of being itself a responsive environment while providing spaces for invited technology and media artists to exhibit their personal work and research. The design offered an environment of labyrinthian qualities that revealed content and enabled knowledge to be constructed through lived experience, relative to the degree of curiosity and interaction of the visitor.
The installation was composed of four curved pods and a forest of 25-foot-tall luminescent, cylindrical textile pieces hanging from the ceiling and hovering above the floor. The pieces held responsive technology that, when triggered by the presence of human motion, lit up to reveal the volume of the penumbral space otherwise hidden. In addition to the layout of the installation, participants’ awareness of space was enhanced by means of vertical perspectives drawn by the long cylindrical textile pieces, and by sound arrangements traveling through the volume of the space by means of eight speakers located at multiple elevations along the periphery.
For Atmosphere Action, this entr’acte will use dual projection of video and stills from the opening event, as well as portions of the soundtracks developed for Between the Pyramid and the Labyrinth, to create an environment that embodies and reinterprets, at a much smaller scale, ideas, characteristics and spatial qualities of the original piece.
Acknowledgements: The concept for the project was developed within the frame of the course Textile Space, taught by the author, with the collaboration of Dr. Tom Martin (Electrical and Computer Engineering). Students involved in Schematic Design: Nikole Branch, Esther Chang, Heather Davis, Rick Fischl, Jon Runge, Paul Toler, Ben Turpin, and Lily Xiong. Students involved in design development and fabrication: Jon Runge, Paul Toler, Katlyn Econom, Shiba Patel and Nikole Branch.
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Atmosphere is generously supported by the Faculty of Architecture Endowment Fund and the following professional associations: the Manitoba Association of Architects (MAA); the Manitoba Association of Landscape Architects (MALA); and the Professional Interior Designers Institute of Manitoba (PIDIM).
Aspects of Atmosphere 2014 ACTION are being presented in collaboration with StoreFront Manitoba and aceartinc.