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Dima Kavko - Zinday adventures

As my subject area is close to poster design, I went to Dima Kavko’s talk in order to get the main idea about his art.

I was pleased to become familiar with his way of thinking and learn some tips. To be honest, although graphic design and illustration are similar to each other, there are different cognitive approaches. While illustrators produce own visuals and come up with a narrative (it isn’t necessary what you draw, the most important is how; a graphic language is a basic tool), graphic designers pay attention to a strong concept mainly redesigning already existing work.

Projects above are the most relevant to me in terms of figurative solutions and levels of expression. The second layout is about an exhibition that demonstrates a room full of posters, where people were welcome to participate and draw on top. Design calls to action!

What if I could offer my public to get a similar experience? Why and for what reasons?

https://wordshop.academy/puteshestvie-v-zindaj/

http://ostengruppe.com/designer/18/gallery/6

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‘The Geogian Avant-garde: 1900-1930s’ at The Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts.

One section of the exhibition is dedicated to theatre, where I became familiar with art of Zygmunt Waliszewski, Kirill Zdanevich, Irakli Gamrekeli and others. Their caricatures demonstrate ideas of grotesque that are close to my taste. Fragmental images are always powerful, because of sharp angles. Also artists exaggerate some body parts to its extreme in order to reveal characters’ nature. Emotions can be delivered differently, it depends what I am going to pay attention to: facial expressions or body language. Ideally, it can be both, but it isn’t necessary.

I think one of the strongest pictures here is Irakli Gamrekeli’s ‘Cry’. It seems that the personage will pierce herself through with long fingers. It is very painful!

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Dmitry Krymov - Not-Yet-Fairy-Tales, 2004

This is an extraordinary show without words about people in Old Russia and their ways of living. The story is about savage time, when killing, hunger and death were inherent elements of existence. Although the performance is no longer available, I had a look at some extracts on YouTube. I should say that it is a very powerful and symbolic story, where even choreography doesn’t play the main role. Actions and background music are the most important focus, where only artists participate.

As for me, I am excited by characters. They are made of baggy clothes and excessive stage makeup that highlight their awkwardness and absurdity. This is interesting to note that a body surface is used as a basis, but some parts are replaced with another, so hands could embody a mouth, for example. I appreciate such adventurous visual approach and try to refresh my graphic language!

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The performance of everyday life (1930-90s, USA, Europe). Merce Cunningham, John Cage and their experiments at Black Mountain College (USA). Live art and audience participation.

Josef Albers Theatre is an experimental laboratory.

John Cage - 4'33 The American composer intended to reinvent approaches regarding academic music. A range of sounds from surroundings is a part of a musical composition. It seems that there is pure silence, nevertheless we can follow people's emotions (cough, tears, etc.) Thus John defines frames, where sounds from audience are a part of the composition; each time this experience is new. Everyone focuses on different things (subjective perception): - silence; - sounds around; -specifics of the place. Borders between art and life are vanished.

Allan Kaprow - 18 Happenings This is about a physical contact with public, where viewers are potential participants of performance. People go over one space and move to another. There are no planned actions beforehand; everything is improvisation that tends to be a fragment of reality full of surprises.

Marina Abramovic - Rhythm O, 1974 Public interacts with actors using objects. An actor is motionless.

This lecture was focused on interconnection between actors and audience; their roles interlace with one another; it creates a unique interpretation that can’t be reproduced anymore. So I came up with an idea: what if an audience hall is even more exciting to explore on emotions than a stage?

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Dmitry Krymov Lab

My classmates asked me to research Dmitry Krymov’s experimental performances. He is a Russian painter, stage designer, theater Director and teacher. His unique approach reunites actors, directors and artists and stimulate them working in tandem. This is interesting to note that some plays are without words in order to emphasise on actions. I watched some talks, read interviews and noted the most relevant ideas: - good plays are unexpected, a viewer has to be an erudite child; - curiosity and openness are the main characteristics for a viewer; - a play could be compared to sweets when they are swallowed, a basic meaning is revealed; -stage is a magnifying glass;

The most fascinating fact is while playing three performances consistently, reaction and results are always different; there is an invisible battle between actors and audience.

I am intrigued by Dmitry Krymov’s attitude to theatre, so I am going to explore his work further: the talk called ‘Inner circle’ on YouTube gave general information about his preferences in art.

http://www.teatral-online.ru/news/12469/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPZseGe489k

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Eugenio Barba & Nicola Savarese ‘A Dictionary of Theatre Anthropology’.

While reading this book, I got a general overview on theatre design.

There are some ideas that should be taken into account:

- theatre is more about organic growth than a mechanical construction;

- a play is a collection of different signs (in other words, everything in a theatrical context has to be transformed into signs and reinterpreted in order to be shown for a viewer);

- an actor is a spider which aims to involve people's feelings into its web of movements;

- the main goal for an actor is to educate his consciousness in order to make a body react to its inner requirements;

- peripeteia is a basis for a theatre living organism;

- the whole idea is a mutual distrust between actors' and viewers' points of view. Theatre art creates a visual direction in order to involve public in a story and provoke to draw some conclusions.

I have realised that I am really interested in connections between actors and viewers. This is important to note that theatre stimulates brain activity and provokes the audience to think and argue. Moreover, principles of grotesque tend to lead a viewer and his personal emotions from one state to another that he does not expect to experience. So I decided to focus on people’ feelings analysing facial expressions and body language. Pictures above represent a variety of psychological states: elegant, sensible and protest. They are characterised not only by poses, but also compositions (different angles and colors). 

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The performance of "isms". (Avant-garde,1900-1930s, Italy, France, Germany). ‘Words in freedom’ by Filippo Tommaso Marinetti. The futurist synthetic theatre. Bauhaus.

There are some highlights from the second lecture.

Alfred Jarry - Ubu Roi

There is a wild and comic play that contests cultural rules and norms. A king is represented as a caricature in order to shock audience. The main idea is to destroy a bourgeois perception of life referring to farce and satire. Marionettes borrow characteristics from puppet theatre.

Bauhaus theatre: synthesis of shapes, colors, plasticity and rhythm. Principles of new art: go beyond a comfort zone. Futurism tries to reveal expression of changing time. A viewer is an observer. He is involved into a story. Fortunato Depero - ‘Balli Plastici’ (theatre of objects). There is a Futurist ballet, where puppets move like robots and replace human actors and dancers. The story is based on the Futurist ideals of technology.

Principles of simultaneity (with respect to individual perception) - a viewer has to choose elements in a play that he is going to pay attention. Otherwise, this is impossible to concentrate on everything what happens around.

Jean Cocteau - Parade, 1917.

The ballet introduces exotic characters such as fire-eaters, clowns and acrobats. Their costumes are made of wood, cloth, papier-mache and other materials and resemble structures of buildings. These grotesque shapes are appealing to me, because they consist of visual metaphos and embody strong concepts.

Oskar Schlemmer - ‘Das Triadisches Ballett’, 1922.

Fine art invades theatre design. Movements are linear and gradual. A stage is divided into color sections. While facial expressions are permanent, body language plays the most important role. Although there is no clear storyline, this experience encourages people to come up with personal interpretations. I am inspired by its simplicity and mysterious interaction of music and choreography!

http://www.mmoma.ru/lectures/sovremennoe_iskusstvo_i_teatr/

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A play called ‘№13D’ at Moscow Art Theatre is a contemporary English comedy that is full of dynamic scenes and fancy characters. The story of a playwright and actor Raymond Cooney is about the living corpse‘s misadventures. An ironic tone of voice directs audience and background music highlights crucial moments. The plot is almost similar to “Rumors’, but I felt more involved and intrigued maybe because of actors. Personages represent a variety of specific features that make them unique. Body language, costumes and props are essential elements for a performer to play a role on stage. There was a great opportunity to feel an exact moment here and now and come up with new compositions and characters for myself.

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FMP Proposal

The area of study:

The area of my study is theatre design, which is going to be focused on exploration of an idea ‘what if viewers became actors and performed their own play’. Initially, I was inspired by the fact that starting from the 20th century there has been a tendency to integrate actors into public in order to direct a story from the inside. So there is a question what role do the people play, when they become a part of a performance? Theatre production is a living organism and the main source of life is audience, whose certain emotional state and degree of openness influence their understanding of the plot. They go to the theatre for many reasons: while someone is eager to have fun and show yourself, other treat the theatre as a sacred place and take a chance to confess. How do these people influence each other? How do they behave? In other words, actors introduce an idea and viewers reflect on it according to cultural and social backgrounds. A level of perception is different, that is why one story has multiple interpretations. Nevertheless, the main concept that works for everybody is that the theatre creates special conditions where people show a real essence of their personal characteristics, no matter whether they are positive or negative. This place doesn’t assess, but perceives everyone with a diversity of their moods, actions and flaws.

My aim is to come up with a range of characters and reveal their inner state (to show a bouquet of emotions that people experience during the play and visualise this dumb show) that is an ironic representation of theater audience in Moscow. I would like to give an opportunity to the viewer to look at himself from a different angle and ask a question ‘What kind of theatergoer am I?’

 The working title:

Dumb show (‘Немая сцена’)

Research steps:

1.      theatre

I have already been to two plays called ‘Rumors’ and ‘№13D’. In the nearest future, I am going to reflect on their structure and plot tricks. Also I consider asking Galina Solodovnikova for advice about visual interpretation and set design.

2.      interview+ social survey

I have a friend, who studies at GITIS. So I am going to come up with relevant questions about her life, theatre atmosphere, rehearsals, unusual situations, improvisations and something that happens behinds the scenes and a viewer is not aware of. Moreover, I would like to write a survey questionnaire and make a comparison between actors and viewers’ attitude to theatre and each other.

3.      lectures

There is a course of lectures on Contemporary art and theater at MOMMA museum that I am going to attend in order to get a proper overview of theatre development and its influence on a current situation. Also this is a great opportunity to become familiar with significant figures of that time and reflect on it referring to my project.

4.      exhibitions

 -         ‘The Geogian Avant-garde: 1900-1930s’ at The Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts (‘a major section of the exhibition is dedicated to the theatre’);

-          ‘The world is the theatre. Architecture and set design in Russia’ at Schusev State Museum of Architecture.

 5.      visual language

 Theatre aesthetics: Bauhaus, Dmitry Krymov, Vsevolod Meyerhold, Robert Wilson, Oskar Schlemmer.

Artists: Kazemir Malevich, Picasso, Sergei Eisenstein, Fernand Leger.

Contemporary artists: Nenad Cizl, Seripop (refer to posters - its visual clarity and playfulness).  

Work format:

1.      Theatre branding

This is the main part of FMP that consists of visual identity. I am going to create a set of posters and a booklet (for example, a format of brochure with explanations for the story exhibited). The research might change the final outcome; it will depend mainly on the final idea.

2.      Installation (conceptual space)

There is an opportunity to sum up the story and demonstrate it as a panoramic overview of the audience. This structure may have a surface made by plywood/ a piece of fabric and colored with acrylic paints or there will be a big printed illustration.

 Materials, processes and outcomes:

I am going to work 50% off-site and 50% at college, because primary research involves observation. In order to develop my characters, I plan to go to the theatre once again and draw people, follow their movements, actions and record their conversations.

I intend to use mixed media in order to achieve as playful and experimental result as possible. So I suggest drawing with pencils, ink and charcoal; also, I would like to refer to a collage technique.

The installation is a big graphic summary of the story that offers an area for a viewer to look at himself from a different angle, feel the environment and be a part of a play.

Is it interactive space or just an atmospheric representation? Is it a flat surface or an illustration transformed into 3d (with elements of integration)? What is the meaning and context of the exhibition place?

 Progress measurement and assessment:

A blog will be the main analytical tool that will help to critically review a development process and identify some flaws. All information will be recorded digitally, so I won’t waste my time and retype everything once again. Tutorials will help to identify my strong and weak points and push me further in terms of idea generation and its clarity. References and sources will be combined together and transferred directly to a project log file in order to see everything laid out according to stages. As for project planners, if something goes wrong, I will replace steps with each other or find alternative solutions that will lead to a more successful direction.

 Schedule:

Week 1 (30.01- 05.02) - primary research (books, lectures, etc) + first sketches based on research;

Week 2 (6.02- 12.02) - FMP proposal confirmed + research (lectures, books, exhibitions);

Week 3, 4 (13.02- 26.02) – secondary research + idea generation + character design + search for visual identity, trying out different techniques + come up with the plot and identify its ways of development (start drawing);

Week 5 (27.02- 5.03) – visual identity confirmed + character design refinement + experiments with layout and book format + typographic solutions;

Week 6 (6.03- 12.03) - compositions are established for visual identity (posters, brochure) + color palette + start working on final illustrations (different options of representation) + experiments with shapes (a cardboard installation)

(11.03) – performance ‘The Demon. The view from the top’, 19:00, School of dramatic art, Dmitry Krymov (the director of the play);

Week 7 (13.03- 19.03) –developing/drawing FMP + a booklet format is chosen + work on exhibition space (prepare a Photoshop file, if it is a laser cutting + production) + confirm a final structure + come up with a final composition for the installation+ work on the installation, trying out different materials and surfaces;

Week 8 (20.03- 26.03) - developing/drawing FMP (visual identity) + design and lay out the brochure + start working on the final version of the installation;

Week 9 (27.03- 2.04) – assessment preparation (AOM +Size matters); design and lay out the brochure + work on the installation;

Week 10 (3.04- 9.04) – visual identity is ready for print + work on the installation;

Week 11 (10.04- 16.04) – printing/binding FMP + produce additional works for the exhibition place + installation is ready (try out lightning if it is necessary?):

Week 12 (17.04 - 23.04) – FMP crit, Project Log FMP (layout);

Week 13 (24.04 - 30.04) – Project Log FMP (layout);

Week 14 (1.05 - 7.05) – BHSAD closed, Project Log FMP (layout/printing/binding);

Week 15 (8.05 - 10.05) – Project Log FMP (binding), FMP Deadline, Exhibition construction.

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