sightlines.usitt.org: From a confetti cannon to a trick sword to a person-lift to breakable jewelry made of soap, this year's Tech Expo submissions again proved that necessity is indeed the mother of invention.
The 17 entries that made it into the 2013 Tech Expo were all great examples of "the creativity, ingenuity and ability to work under constraints that all of us in USITT are all too familiar with: time, money, and manpower," wrote Tech Expo Chair Rob Kerby of Northern Kentucky University's Department of Theatre and Dance.
10 comments:
So CMU made top three which is pretty great. What is more amazing is how creative some of theres projects sound. I'm the most intrigued by the led sequins. I know in dance light it often becomes a question of how to incorporate lights in costumes and they sometimes end up a little bulky. These tiny lights are quite intriguing (though I wish they had attached a picture of the dresses in the article). Also well the lights may be small, I wonder how they hid the wiring in the costume as well as how it was programed to turn on and off. A switch on the dress I assume, thought wireless would have been cool.
This article sums up theatre. We are always looking for ways to do nigh on impossible things in a way that is impossible. Therefore this article directly pertains to us: how to make impossible things cheaply, easily, and quickly. Props is really all about that, although most departments have to find a way to do some pretty amazing things on a very skimpy budget.
The winners they mention in this articles also have very cool ideas. I hope I get the chance (and the reason) to use them.
I love competitions that test innovation, because they always somehow manage to find incredibly creative people who develop new and extraordinary projects. I am so happy (and yet completely unsurprised) that Carnegie Mellon made it into the top three in this competition; I wish I could have been here last year to see the performance of Sweeney Todd. I would also really have liked to be able to see this inventions in person because they sound so intriguing that I want to see them in action. It always amazes me how the impossible is never really impossible, and people keep finding new ways to defy the laws of physics and plausibility.
What I think is great about this is how someone's invention of sorts came to be via problem solving. And by problem solving in such a way, they have created an innovative solution that people have recognized as a great way to go about certain things. It's fantastic! It kind of reminds me of Rube Goldberg and how we had to problem solve problems we had without a proper knowledge of physics and things of the like. It was all based on idea and see just how it all would work out in the end.
This is a great competition to have especially at USITT. A huge part of theater is coming across problems and having to find new creative solutions to them. While the scenic fly rig developed by our very own is cool I am really interested in the LED sequins technology mostly because they would be fun to mess around with. Speaking of which I need to build myself a confetti cannon.
The need for creative minds to come together and create things never before imagined is what drives us as a successful species. It is so much more productive when teams of minds come together, each with their own unique set of skills, and create something marvelous. This articles evokes the spirit of theater in all of us.
I think this article really speaks to the uniqueness of theatre. As it mentions, directors often ask for effects and actions that really do defy the laws of physics, and so theatre technicians often come up with solutions that can seem crazy to outsiders. On top of coming up with insane solutions, theatre also has a much smaller budget, fewer people, and a much shorter timeline than many other industries that are asked to innovate. It's great that USITT is able to have this expo so that theatre technicians can showcase what they've come up with in the past year.
A big congrats to the CMU Sweeney rig team! I really appreciated seeing their presentation at the Expo, as their model was really efective in explaining the challenges of flying that rig and making it work for the show's purposes. As someone who has worked with the rig on the end-user level, I appreciated understanding a bit more of how it worked.
Some of the coolest things I saw in the expo this year were several costume elements - projecting maps of a human face onto a mask and the embedded LEDs in a flowing garment. It was fascinating to see the applications of new technologies in the craft of costume construction.
So I love this tech expo and the combination of ideas. I feel like owning a copy of each year would be something that is worth having around. The ability to just get the ideas moving in the head is a great ability. Even if you never use an idea as the idea was laid out does not mean you would not alter the idea or change to better suit that particular situation. So I love it and hopefully through the rest of this year and the next year I could think of something to enter into the 2015 tech expo. That would be a great way to leave my tenure at CMU.
Is that the back of Dale Harris' head? I didn't even know you guys were entering. Is the cash in the pig then? I've never been to the USITT, but I'm assuming we will go in 2015. I can't imagine bothering to go that year without an entry into the tech expo, so I guess we've got some work to do. No time to rest on out laurels. I propose something to do with levitation, or ball bearings, or both. We applaud your success, outgoing class, and accept the challenge for 2015. Maybe we can donate the cash prize to Stu-Tech so they can buy some gaffer's tape.
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