CanvasRebel Magazine: Having new or innovative ideas is essential to pushing the world forward and so we asked the community to share stories of the most innovative things they’ve done in their career. Our hope is to inspire folks who think only scientists or tech-wizards can innovate – innovation is possible for everyone, regardless of job title or function, industry or geography.
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This is an inspirational story about building a community and a life centered on passion and art. I particularly admire the environment Shawn has created in Atlanta—providing a space not only for art to be created and viewed but also for community gatherings. His unique perspective, shaped by years of unwavering commitment to showcasing artists he truly believes in, speaks to the values he holds as an artist: bringing people together and enriching the world through art. This vision closely aligns with the type of community I aspire to build within the entertainment industry—a space that not only showcases the work of artists but also fosters collaboration and innovation. I hope to create a shop where artists' work is displayed and appreciated while also enhancing the skill set within a scene shop. This, in turn, could introduce new and innovative ways to continue advancing and evolving the industry. For example fine woodworking has become more of an art in our world but if we cultivate these individuals and provide them the space there would be room to provide a more sustainable practice in the life of scenery by allowing them to build and create furniture from shows that are going to the dump.
I clicked on this article because the set that is the thumbnail looked oddly familiar to our production of “Dollhouse” years ago. I decided to read more on the scenic designer, Ningning Yang and their experience becoming a set designer, having grown up in China and experiencing the culture shock of coming to America to pursue a higher education. I loved how they said that even though there were language barriers, that understanding a story shouldn’t be limited by this, and that there’s always a way to pour emotion into art. I really admire their work and I am glad that I had the ability to read this. Their work is incredibly impressive and is another inspiration to push for big things. I completely agree with their motivators and values as a scenic designer, and I can’t wait to dive into these more as I continue with my education here.
This article highlights how important the work that we do in theatre and the arts is so important. Innovation is how humans thrive and what we do best. It is where all of the greatest ideas have come from, as well as how we will continue to move forward.The section on scenic design was super cool because it shows how important art is to innovation and that good design can inspire creativity, art, and new ways of thinking. I am so excited to learn more about my own creative side and how I can express my art through different mediums such as sound, lighting, and visual art. I hope that I can keep a sense of innovation and creativity in the work that I do for the rest of my life. It’s important to me that I am always pushing myself to try new things and more elaborate concepts. I hope that I in my time at CMU I will learn to be truely innovative and knowledgable about theatre.
This is a fascinating article in the way it highlights innovation across areas. I love how different the types of innovations profiled are. From art galleries to restaurants to businesses, it really shows the spectrum of things which can be called innovation. I think often the word innovation is connotatively confined to the world of STEM and specifically technology, but that is objectively not true. There are of course artists who change the game, in both visual art and in performing art, but the nature of art is also itself innovation. Every piece made, production staged, and dance choreographed is new and different and creates its own problems that it must solve. A definition of innovation is “a new method, idea, product, etc.” The creation of art unequivocally satisfies that definition and its very existence depends on creating new methods, ideas, etc. Art is nothing if not constant and never ending innovation.
I immediately clicked on this article because the thumbnail photo was the production photo from a doll's house, which was one of the first Scenic Design photos I looked at when I was applying to this BFA program. this set was just beautiful and such a new way to use the Chosky stage, so I immediately clicked on this article when I saw that. it seemed the designer talked about their Point of view on design, specifically Scenic Design, and then I looked at some of their other production photos from Pippin, and I could sort of see how their designs are similar to each other and how they're separate and sort of how they incorporate the lighting designer into their pieces as well that was a very like linear trait for this specific designer in the article. I was very intrigued and interested in this designer specifically because, obviously, she's a CMU Alum who did this beautiful set for A Doll’s House. I think my favorite thing that this designer talks about is how they try to make all of their art and Designs immersive, and I could see that in every production they had sort of shown us throughout this article, like making Pippin have movable Scenic pieces and how a doll's house had a camera that directly interacted with the cast and how they were confined to the singular box it was just very mind-blowing and what sort of a full circle moment because the last time I really looked at this set was a year ago so to be able to sort of read more about this designer and where their inspiration came from is super incredible.
The title of the article being “Think outside the box” while having a very box shaped artwork as the thumbnail definitely caught my attention with the juxtaposition of it. Though further on realizing what the topic of the article really was I still enjoyed reading it. It's always interesting to learn about a person’s individual journey to where they are now and how the path they took influenced the artwork they create. I really enjoyed reading about Ningning Yang and her progression as a scenic designer. I really enjoyed getting to see more examples of her work, she’s a fantastic designer. It was interesting to read about her journey learning about scenery in the US. I think the people involved in the arts are in general a very resilient type of people, and this article just provides a few specific examples of how much artists are able to endure and persevere through the hardest of times.
When Ningning calls set design a translation from story concept to physical space, it makes so much sense to me. I often could visualize spaces in my head when reading scripts and books and having set design and building be a chance to bring those places for everyone to see is such a magical experience. It is so cool that she is going into multiple different mediums to help tell the stories that she wants to. Especially with sound, when closely intertwined with the physicality of the set it can truly elevate the experience to something profound and deep. I love that Ningning is focusing on healing as a core part of the story, particularly when also working with heavy emotional topics like dystopias. Healing after something happens is not something I see a lot in media, typically just the defeat of the evil, but the growth and build back up afterwards I find a lot less, so I am glad to hear of Ningning focusing part of her career to work on that.
One of the reasons I want to concentrate in Production Technology is because I’m interested in making new innovations for theater. I want to experiment with all the interesting ways we can use technology to make theater happen. Ningning Yang’s focus on the relationship between audio and visual elements and her set design is intriguing. When doing scenic design, it's really important to consider how the actors are going to interact with their environment. You need to make sure they fit in and what their staging might look like. I’ve often seen amazing set design and amazing actors but they're very separate from each other. The actors only exist within the space, and it feels like a green screen. They could be anywhere, but they happen to be here. Yang’s approach to scenic design considers how design elements will influence characters, actors, and audience, and that leads to a very immersive form of storytelling.
This article is a testament to the fact that art is everywhere and creativity is the fuel. In times of distress humans will become creative in order to survive in a happy manor. This can apply to jobs such as accounting which is known to be a very corporate monotonous job. But through creativity and innovation you get people who are entrepreneurs of their own fields making waves to improve the lives of their employees and the overall corporate environment. In the world of theater we have both aspects of monotonous paperwork and extremely artistic design so we have to find ways for the two worlds to collide. The standard procedures regarding how a production is put on in America is a testament to the need for both paperwork and creativity. Without one or the other the final production would be boring or never get put up. In the end it's a balance of attempting to put out a work that is beautiful and on budget.
I was immediately drawn to the photograph of Ningning Yang’s scenic design featured as the thumbnail for this article. It turns out Yang is a CMU alum and used to teach scenic painting here! She is clearly very into set electrics which in my opinion really enhances her design. In CanvasRebel’s interview with Yang, she discusses her design for Pippin at Syracuse University, which included a giant glowing clock and brick walls which glowed between the brick. This makes a lot of sense given her background with audiovisual installation pieces. It’s also really interesting me that Yang thinks of her design as a form of translation, and I wonder about how other theatrical disciplines could also be framed as translation. (I recently read Babel by R. F. Kuang, which is a fantastic book whose core theme is the impossibility of translation, so it’s been on my mind a lot recently.)
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