Upcoming events

A collection some of the upcoming dance, musical and costume events in Nottingham which I may attend as a part of my research:

name: "Black cats can be see in the dark but can't be seen"
director: Dinis Machado
date: 14th Jan
place: Waverly Studio Theatre
more information on: http://dance4.co.uk/artists/project/new-work/event/artists/2014-01-14/black-cats-can-see-dark-are-not-seen

name: "Collabor 8"
organizer: "Get Involved 17"
date: 1st Feb
place: The Space
more information on: http://www.nottinghamcontemporary.org/event/collabor-8-0

name: "The Green Room"
choreographer: Marvin Gaye Chetwynd
date: 7th Feb
place: The Space
more information on: http://www.nottinghamcontemporary.org/event/green-room

name: Extreme Dream (Makeover)
artist: Paul Kindersley
date: 18th Feb
place: The Space
more information on: http://www.nottinghamcontemporary.org/event/extreme-dream

           

Presentation work

There are hours left till the official presentation for the end of first term of my MA degree. In this article I plan to show some of the pre-presentation work on Photoshop. One of the hardest part was creating the font and this is the final result:

The script:

Cover Slide - color variations:

And some editions to a photo which was made during our collaborative project.

References:

Lee, J., n.d., n.d. [digital image]. Derelict Heaven. Available at: http://www.derelictheaven.com/ [Accessed: 07.01.2013]

n.d., n.d., n.d. [digital image]. Boot kidz. Available at: http://www.bootkidz.co.uk/shabby-chic-mannequins/ [Accessed: 07.01.2013]
n.d., n.d., n.d. [digital image]. 4shared. Available at: http://www.4shared.com/all-images/GmZcYu9b/Frames.html [Accessed 07.01.2013]

Interview

I found this short interview while I was cleaning some needless files on my computer. It was created for the course called "Media Research". It was part of a case study about film industry as a practice of creating research questions. I took an interview from a friend of mine who is involved in the film industry.
Boyan Kalev is a student who currently work as manufacturer of prop design for productions. He studies "Illustration" in the National Academy of Arts in Bulgaria and had already been involved in some of the most expensive productions filmed in Bulgaria such as "The Expendables" and "Conan the Barbarian".
Although his orientation totally differs from my target productions by media and budget , there could be some useful techniques which even the most massive hit shows are applying in order to save some part of the finances. For this reason, I may consider taking some advice from my friend. Now here's the short interview which I made before 1 year:

S: What do you like in you job?
B: I really enjoy my job because it gives me the opportunity the see the backstage of the films. The scenery which I watch as a little kid and felt excited about, are now building in front of my eyes for days. Of course, this also breaks some of the illusion I believed in, because the camera was creating them.
S: What is your dream position in film industry?
B: Actually, I can't imagine seeing myself as a prop designer, although this is the usual growth for those who have my job. My dream is to fulfill my potential as an illustration. So in the nearer future I may reorient in creating illustrations for animated films.
S: How could you assess the Bulgarian Film Industry and would you work for a Bulgarian movie?
B: To be honest, I am not a huge fan of the Bulgarian film industry. The weakest sides of Bulgarian movies are the exaggerated drama and the theatrical acting. You could rarely see a good Bulgarian Film, but when they are good, they are perfect. Unfortunately, most of the good film are the classic ones. I also do not enjoy the quality of American productions - they are very good as sets and visualization, but the scripts are weak.
I prefer European movies so a future work in European production would be a great challenge.

"This is not a love story" - costume comments

One of the outcomes of my volunteering involvement in the "Embody" performance was an invitation and a ticket to see another choreography performance on stage, this time as an observer. "This is not a love story" is from the famous Swedish choreographer Gunilla Heilborn which took place in Nottingham(10th Oct) and was co-producted also by Dance 4.
The capturing element in the scenario is that the play consists of only 2 characters, played by Johan Thelander and Kristiina Viiala, which normally prepares the audience for a love story, especially when they are a man and a woman. Unlike the expectations set,  the narration reveals a unique mind journey through memories presented with a great sense of humour.
Here's a link which Gunilla Heiborn has posted on her official website about the idea of the performance:
http://gunillaheilborn.se/wp-content/uploads/lovestory.pdf

Although the performance aimed to capture the observer's attention mainly with unrelated spontaneous questions, I managed to noticed some specifics of the stage costumes. The costumes definitely weren't on focus, mostly were just additionally framing the main idea.The actress' costumes were 2 - one on the first scene and one for all of the other scenes, during part of which was accompanied by a cardigan and a wig. The actor's costume were 3, accompanied by one boot(which mostly served as a prop) and also a wig.

These were the costumes from the first scene which were presented while the actress appeared on the stage was dragging the motionless body of the actor. In addition there were some sound and visual effect of a storm on the background. The bright contrast made from the flowers on the characters' shirts introduced the humorous approach of the whole play. In my opinion, this was the strongest impact achieved by the costumes throughout the whole play.

In the beginning the actress and the actor are presented with similar shirt while afterwards their costumes remains with bright difference which follows the division of their journeys which are also delineate by their dances which often mismatch.The wigs and the cardigan illustrate the characters'change of personality during their travelling through history.





References:
Gusztáv, V., n.d. [digital image]. Blogspot. Available at: http://dancescript.blogspot.co.uk/ [Accessed 07.01.2014]
Johnson-Small,J., n.d., 2013. [digital image]. BellyFlop Magazine. Available at: http://bellyflopmag.com/reviews/gunilla-heilborn-this-is-not-a-love-story [Accessed 07.01.2014]
Bohlin, St., n.d., n.d. [digital image]. Loco World. Available at: http://www.locoworld.se/agency/gunilla-heilborn/this-is-not-a-love-story/ [Accessed 07.01.2014]

Book recommendation

            "Visualizing research: A guide to the research process in Art and Design" is book which I detected during Scale up sessions which were added to our program as an introduction to the research process. The sessions were an innovative mixture of narration and workshops while trying to acknowledge some initial research techniques. Hence, we gain a stable ground on which to supplement more and more information and develop our art and design investigations.
             As a new experimental practice these lectures had their gaffs. Their schedule as though was quite occasional - some there was around a month between two sessions. I got the impression that most of the students often had forgotten the explored topics from the previous session. In addition, during every 2 hour period (which lasted 1 session) the mixed up rotation of the listening and the involving part caused quite a confusion through the students.
            Although the appeared negative sides of the sessions, I managed to catch up with my research knowledge from this book which is ideal for international students which have decided to continue their education in the UK. It can build a durable transition answering questions such as "How important is research to be made?", "How to identify gaps in existing research","What is methodology and which methodology is appropriate?" and "How to build your main project and start releasing it?".

The production designer as a part of the team

           A scheme of the team of positions collaborated in theater which is also valid for most performing arts. The image is taken from Costume and Make-up (Holt, M.,1988). In smaller production a costume designer is also charged with the creation of set design.

“Designers, more than any other members of the production team, need to discover the largest amount of possibilities in every  script and find many visual statements that are true to the play so they can absorb  and assimilate all the ideas the director, actors, and other designer have about the play” (Ingham, R., 1992 )
   

           In order to develop these options, costume designers should attend a certain amount of meetings and establish certain amounts of relations with other professionals within the field, some of which are part of the working team, other - not. Here's a rough rough summary of the communications and there incomes which the costume designer should maintain during each stage of the production process. 

Pre-production Period:

• Participate in the earliest stages of discussions with the director and the other designers in the production (if there are other designers). Clear some initial base on which the designer continue his work alone
• Contact a manufacture team which is chosen by him(cutters, sewers, ect.) or a company which could provide a manufacture team.
• Select and correspondent a company to buy the materials and borrow some additions (wigs, accessories, etc.)for the garment from;

Production Period:

• Communicate with the actors to present the clothes
• Attend every activity during the production (rehearsals) because because some changes (also in the costumes)often need to be made.
• Maintain constant communication with every member of the team

Post-production Period:

• Dry cleaning agencies to clean the costumes

References:
Holt, M. 1988. Costume and Make-Up. Oxford: Phaidon 

Another practice on the horizon

I'm delighted to announce I received an invitation to take part as an volunteer dance performer in "Brain Bug" by the Marvin Gaye Chetwynd . Chetwynd is a contemporary British artist known for reworkings of iconic moments from cultural history in deliberately amateurish and improvisatory performances.

Brain Bug prop at Home Made Tasers exhibition,
New York 2011

Brain Bug will take place in Nottingham Contemporary from the 25th of January till the 23rd of March. The performance with include "low energy" and "high energy" period and the choreography will be center around a giant Brain Bug prop which has already been the main element of Chetwynd's exhibition in New York in 2011-2012. 

Looking forward to work with a professional artist and I'm expecting to gain much essential experience throughout this great opportunity. Furthermore, I'd try to cover develop some research by interviewing the creative teams standing behind the production, including the costume designer, reflecting it on my blog.

References:
Anon., 2013. Marvin Gaye chetwynd. Wikipedia [online]. Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marvin_Gaye_Chetwynd [Accessed 07.01.2014]

Timetable

This is my proposed schedule starting from December (right after the end of "Carcass project") and ending in the middle of July divided into the 3 educational stages, including milestones and tangible objectives:

What are the specific tangible project objectives? (with dates on which they each will be achieved)

Stage 1 - Context and research

Gain experience as a backstage assistant for the dance performance “Embody” - 11^th Oct

Acquire basic knowledge of set building and gain connections with dance performance producers – 11^th Oct

Obtain initial costume design knowledge from costume design literature read.7^th Jan

Gain awareness of some knowledge gaps in the niche of costume design from costume design literature read. 7th Jan

Develop basic drawing skills from “Carcass” project. 4^th - Dec

Stage 2 - The project

Gain advanced costume design knowledge from costume design literature. - 31^st Jan

Access to costume design practice – 15th Feb

Analyse classical musical/dance performances and their costumes in order to

select one production for the practical work – 28^th Feb

Complete case study 1 for “Brain Bug” performance – 15^th Mar

Complete case study 2 for the production for which I find a costume designer practice – 31^st Mar

Complete case study 3 for another production part of my practice- 15^th April

Experiment with new alternative ways of creating costumes using a limited budget. 30th Apr

Prepare sketches, materials and plans as a preparation and schedule for the practical work- 9^th May

Stage 3 - MA stage

Create the one or two costumes from the selected production- 31^st May

Interview 2 designers from my case studies and assess their reaction to my costumes. 15^th Jun

Create questionnaires to test the costumes' impact. 30st Jun

Leave a period of time for possible corrections and repeat the testing work. 1^st Jul – 15^th Jul

Evaluate the done work analyse the conclusions 30^th Jul

Determine if the target impacted of the practical and theoretical work is achieved. 30^th Jul

Timetable

     January 2-20

Creating and training the presentation for the end of 1^st term (until the 6^th of Jan)

Reading costume design literature, watching musicals. Choosing a classical musical and which costumes from it I will recreate.

Contact some galleries and art spaces in Nottingham to apply for a costume design practice.

17st Jan – Attending the 1^st training session for the Brain Bug practice

    Stage 2 - The project

Jan 20^th – 28th February

Continue reading costume design literature

Attend musicals and do questionnaire about people’s perception of the observed costumes.

Finding and staring a practise in costume design

Explore possible techniques of designing clothes for less financial amount

Developing computer programme skills

Mar 1^st – 18^th April

Costume design practice

Analyze my own creations and assistance in creations of costumes

Develop some new techniques for costume design by experimenting with materials

Improve drawing skills, read drawing literature and practise drawing.

18^th April – 25^th April – Easter Holiday

25^th April – 9th May

Create sketches, drawings and plans of the costumes which will be recreated

Milestones:

Gain Advanced costume design knowledge

Exploration of local musical/dance performances - participation as a dancer

Access to costume design practice

Analyzing classical musical/dance performances and their costumes

Determine one classical musical performance to recreate part of its costumes

Exploring and testing possible costume design techniques to utilize

Experience with new alternative ways of creating costumes using minimum financial resources during practice.

Prepare sketches, materials and plans for the practical work

Stage 3 - MA stage

12th May – 26th May

Start the design work for the costumes

Contact designers and supervisor during the process.

26th May - 30st May Spring Bank Holiday

1^st Jun – 30 Jun

Complete the recreation of costumes

Test their impact on audience by polls

Leave some time for corrections

1^st Jul – 15^th Jul

Preparing my art space as a part of the expo

Milestones:

Create the costumes for the practical work

Interview designers about their attitude for the designed costumes

Create questionnaires to test the created costumes' impact

Leave a period of time for possible corrections and repeat the testing work.

Evaluate the done work analyse the conclusions

Determine if the target impacted of the practical and theoretical work is achieved.

Design a portfolio

A day of quoting

In order to accomplish my rationale part of the project, I spent a day (to be honest a couple of days) in the library searching for persuasive quotes which would precisely fit into the conception. Here is the wider list of quotes which I marked:

“The costumier must try to produce costumes which appear authentic on stage  but are also adaptable, hard-wearing and practical to wear – quick changes and ease of movement must be accommodated. Cost, of course, is another factor which can never be forgotten” (Kidd, M., 2002)

“Recreating historical costumes exactly is neither necessary nor even desirable” (Kidd, M., 2002)

“Always develop the basic shape of a costume before you tackle the decoration – this is the key to making effective stage costumes.”(Kidd, M., 2002)

“In most amateur groups the money available are extremely limited, and often there is only one person – usually a dressmaker – responsible for designing and making of all costumes.”(Kidd, M., 2002)

“A costumes department consists of the team of buyers, cutters and costumiers…” (Kidd, M., 2002)

“The design of producing costumes today, whether for the professional or amateur stage, can be prohibitive.. the designer on a low budget event must be inventive and resourceful from the start, planning carefully and making use of all kinds of surplus materials.” (Jackson, Sh., 1993)

“Do not be deterred by the restraints of a low budget. Instead, let it be a challenge – avoid wrongly-directed ambition and extravagance and err on the side of simplicity” (Jackson, Sh., 1993)

“Especially valuable experience can be gained when you see the same play in different productions with different sets and different actors. …the goal of production is not doing the play right but making it coherent” (Ingham, R., 2003)

“The lager scene, the other characters, the broader action, are simple eliminated from the picture and the viewers are carried through the story seeing precisely what the writer and the director want them to see” (Ingham, R., 2003)

“Young theatrical designers whose main experience with drama has been through the media of film and television often have difficulty have difficulty manipulating focus in their designs. They are used to seeing everything in detail, up close and selected for them. Their sets and costumes, therefore, have too many areas of interest to allow for any focusing of attention or they may be uniformly bland. Such design are waiting for an outside eye, a camera, to select from them.” (Ingham, R., 2003)

“Designs and performance must, therefore, be flexible enough to allow for a certain amount of variations from performance to performance.” (Ingham, R., 2003)

“Designers, more than any other members of the production team, need to discover the largest amount of possibilities in every  script and find many visual statements that are true to the play so they can absorb  and assimilate all the ideas the director, actors, and other designer have about the play” (Ingham, R., 2003)

“Imagination seldom approaches problems in sequential manner. Instead it produces images, perceptions, and emotional responses which may, on the other hand, present themselves as fragment which seem to have little connection with one another or, on the hand, spring forth whole and intact like Venus in the myth.” (Ingham, R., 2003)

"The designers of sets, of costumes, and of properties must not try to occupy first place in the audience's attention"(Roussel, D., 1973)

"There are times when the designer is not interested in actors at all but only in the creation of rich, sensuous effects in movement on a stage"(Roussel, D., 1973)

References:
Kidd, M., 2002. Stage Costume : Step-by-step. Cincinnati, Ohio : Betterway Books 
Jackson, Sh., 1993. More Costumes for the stages. London : Herbert Press 
Ingham, R., 2003. The Costume technician's handbook. Portsmouth, NH : Heinemann 
Roussel, D., 1973. Stage Costume Design: Technique, Theory, and Style. Englewood Cliffs, N.J. : Prentice-Hall 

Main Project - relevance, debates, theory

The 3 most essential questions part of my learning agreement:

·         ·         What is the wider context of your project?

             The project explores the essential role of stage costume in contemporary performance in terms of historical, psychological, practical, and commercial context. The included analyses cover some classical dance and musical performances and will compared them with contemporary local performances and determine the budget reflection on the tools of costume communication. In addition, the project covers some psychological analysis on questionnaires and case studies of people’s perception of combination of clothes, colours fabrics, and shapes and the way they are displayed. 

              Another aspect which is related to the main research question is the financial part of a production. For that reason, the project will identify some alternative methods, material and objects which could take part in the clothing creation of significant factors affecting the budget amount and how productions have been compared in terms of financial resources. The gathered techniques will be combined and tested while discovering some new approaches.

               Afterwards the new knowledge and skills will be collaborated to recreate one or two of the costumes from a classical music performance with minimum financial resources using some of the explored techniques. The outcomes of this practical work will be analyzed and tested on observers by polls. The made conclusions would be reported, comment and criticized (including period for possible corrections) in depth drawing the achievement of the research objectives.

·         How does the project relate to your previous experience/practice?

           I’ve already been a promoter and organiser of low budget events and I am familiar with  some of the difficulties one can encounter.

 ·         How does it relate to relevant current practices, debates and theory?

One of the debates related to my project which casts doubt on the creative side of costume designer’s profession in general:

“Since the costume designer, unlike the painter and the sculptor, is an interpreter of another man’s artistic product, the concept of a designer having his own style and forcing it on each production with which he is associated is untenable…”(Russell, D.A., 1973)

 Should a stage designer consider himself as an artist when he is required to create only imitations of epochs, characters and attitude?

 At the same time, the clothing which stage designers create is a representation of their own creativity and the way they’re reading the rules for stage costume design.

“The designer is, in fact, an inventor and should be prepared to experiment with new ways of depicting stage sets and expressing personality and character through costume design”.(Cassin-Scott,J., 1998)

How far can a designer go with experimentation particularly in dance and musical performances?

How could different characters in a play and their personalities allow the stage designer to experiment in creating their clothing by combining fabrics, colours, etc?

“Design is a balance of creativity and compromise, says the designer, with audience appetites demanding new solutions.”(Crowley, S., 2013)

The frame set from the characters and the script isn’t the only limiting tool for the designer. Therefore, some of the conflicts which may occur are from his own imagination:

 “Imagination seldom approaches problems in sequential manner. Instead it produces images, perceptions, and emotional responses which may, on the other hand, present themselves as fragment which seems to have little connection with one another or, on the hand, spring forth whole and intact like Venus in the myth.”(Ingham, R., 1992)

·         Why is the intended research significant? (So what?)

The great presence of musical and dance performance is an unalterable part of the contemporary British art. Many of these productions are provided with limited budgets. My work will contribute to designer’s production work by adding new approaches to some old costume design techniques and presenting some new ones. Thus, the project will outline the variety of ways of impact which costumes could achieve and the process of their realization.

The chosen types of productions also can cause some confusions for the costume designer:

“Dancing imposes limitations on costume designs and construction, which do not in those for the actor’s stage” (Harrison, M.,1978)

On the other hand, musicals and dance performances build a different connection with the audience based on a stronger costume impact.

“Costumes for dancing must give an illusion of the real garment, and not become a meticulous reproduction” (Harrison, M., 1978)

I hope the experiences acquired during this project would prepare me best for a position in art performances such as costume, set designer, and stage manager.

References:"

Cite material using the Harvard System referenced in the previous sections.

J. Cassin-Scott. The Stage Costume Sourcebook. London 1998

D. A Russell. Stage Costume design – Theory, Technique, and Style. Englewood Cliffs 1973

Caines, M., 2013. Arts head: Sean Crowley, project leader, World Stage Design 2013 [online]. The Guardian. Available at: http://www.theguardian.com/culture-professionals-network/culture-professionals-blog/2013/jan/29/sean-crowley-world-stage-design [Accessed 07.01.2014]
Harrison, M., 1978. How to dress dancers. Tunbridge Wells : Midas Books

Main Project - idea

          My main project is focused on costume design as a fragment of performances which are much or less financially restricted. The research question is:
 How could the budget restrictions of a performance to develop the costume designer’s imagination?
Subject of study:

       The main focus of this project is the creative side of the costume design profession, and how it could be developed and restricted in the terms of the production’s budget. The research will explore live musical and dance performances and discuss various different ways to achieve a similar effect using a restricted budget The practical work will include a recreation of costumes for a classic musical production with a very limited budget. 

Research aim(s):

To analyze the psychological influence of stage costume on the audience’s perception.

To research the ways for different stage costumes to communicate with the observers.

To show different strategies to improve the effect of costumes.

To present the current organizational problems of a production, which may appear in terms of the size and allocation of budget.

The overall aim is to determine whether the low budget is serving as a limitation or a stimulation of costume designer’s creativity

Research objectives(s):

To complete 3 case studies of dance productions in Nottingham, including questionnaires in order to collect, explore, discover and test a broad variety of costume techniques, materials and ways to apply to my practical work .

To discuss and test “Do it Yourself” techniques shown on internet sources such as websites, blogs and youtube.

To look at the relationship between costume techniques used and the budget given and to conduct interviews with 2 designers.

I shall utilize the skills from my backstage experience as an assistant in “Embody” and my work experience as a dance performer in “Brain Bug” in order to build reflective analysis and conclusions.

I shall also try to become involved with the costume design in Brain Bug or another production during the project.

To recreate 2 costumes from a classical musical production with minimum amount of budget and test their impact by 1 questionnaire and interview with the same designers.