CMU School of Drama


Friday, April 08, 2011

Pae White Uses Computer-Assisted Loom To Weave Opera Curtain Of Scanned Images Of Aluminum Foil

FEELguide: "Pae White is the artist responsible for the best damn stage curtain of any damn opera house in the whole damn world. Hot damn. For the main stage curtain of the Oslo Opera House, the L.A.-based artist scanned images of crumpled aluminum foil and sent the scans through a computer numerically-controlled loom which transformed the pixels into a massive tapestry of cotton, wool, and polyester.

2 comments:

James Southworth said...

While I'm not sure if it will make any audience as contemplative as she would like, it is quite beautiful.

As a tool Geek, I must say that a pretty awesome CNC that made that. I so would like to see the machine and the software thats running it.

I also see a director asking to rent a standard one and not use that one at all for their show =(

Sam said...

That curtain is awesome! I like it when main curtains are works of art, it gives the theatre a relevance and beauty that an old red velour curtain just doesn't. While I agree that it won't necessarily make the audience contemplative, I think it will have an impact on the audience experience - as a conversation piece and as part of the architecture. It would be a shame to not use it because it doesn't fit with the show's concept, but I can definitely see that happening as well.