A Lost Season-Covid 19 Thoughts

It has been a while since I have posted, but I have had much on my mind as I am sure have you.

We are alone-together truly for the first time in decades and many of us do not know how to handle it.  We are a group of individuals and a field of professionals who thrive in a chaotic of too much work in not enough time.  We often take on monumental tasks that haven’t been done and find ways to do it.  We are the inherent storytellers, dreamers, innovators; the creatives who make things happen.  And currently we find ourselves idle, our stages dark, our shops empty, our event spaces hollow, our studios littered with incomplete projects and our hands empty.  Our minds and our hearts are far, far from that.  We are teaming with new ideas and itching to get back to the grind even as we find a way to grieve for the productions and projects that we have lost or those that we will never see to fruition.

We do not know how to be idle, we are great at being nimble and responsive and we as a whole find ourselves with nothing but time on the horizon.  Well what I have seen from the entertainment, event and experiential industries is a great amount of creativity, productivity and resilience.  When the call first started coming out that many medical facilities and first responders were running out of appropriate personal protective equipment “PPE” our industry was quick to respond.  First in donating what PPE we had access to in our shops and facilities, not to mention personal collections, but were also the among the first to start finding ways to product more equipment.  Either in stitching or fabrication.  I saw posts on various social media platforms where governors were reaching out to know stitching houses and organization both in theatre and in fashion to stitch masks.  Followed by more posts of opera companies, regional theatres, production shops, event companies, equipment companies stepping up to offer support in not just PPE but in communication equipment, coordination, temporary medical shelters, and so many other ways across the US and even globally.  Each country and region I have seen amazing responses from people in our greater industries step up to the plate. I am so honored to know that this these are the industries that I am a part.  I wish I could be more specific in who was doing what when, but I did not think to make notes or jot down things as I have seen them.  Our industries are made up of wonderful and innovative companies that even when down step up simply because that it what we do. 

(On a side note, I take no credit for any of the companies but just want to mention that it just makes me unbelievably proud to see).

Looking forward our collective industries are going to be fighting an uphill, no a up shear mountain side battle with no shoes on and no climbing gear, battle when allowed to come back on-line.  Sadly, I know many small companies will not weather this storm well or at all, a painful and unwelcome reality.  Hopefully the fast majority will have means and method to carry on because that we what we do best, we persevere.  I have found new avenues of discussion and discovery occurring in the way that we are continue to do business or teach.  Finding ways of creating material, platforms of communication, software and in some cases technology (or re-purposing of existing); I believe we will see a period of innovation and riding on the heels of this lowly pandemic.  New scripts and materials, new styles of art and integration in performance technology, even more human connectivity in experiences.  I have seen so many offers of professional development both formal and informal, individuals taking time to delve into new skills and creative pursuits that “we never have time for”.  How can we not come away with even more drive and desire than we had before.  We have even more human-centric stories to share and a greater audience that has had time to connect back with their humanity.  We will all be hungry to reach out and experience again, and we will be ready. 

Until then the “work waits” (Sweeny Todd) and we dream, create and breathe (but not breathing too close for the time being).

Be Well!

Engineering in the Art

Magic in the Design and Engineering in the Art – Part 2

Engineering in the Art:

Part 2

We are so commonly taught that so many fields don’t cross with others.  Especially when it concerns a creative fields, why on earth would creative types and artists have anything to offer other fields.  And for that matter what do other fields have to offer creative and art fields.   The truth, as I see it, is that we all have something to offer regardless of field and profession.  We think in different ways and our brain see and process in different patterns.  And that is the heart of this particular post…

So often we get caught up in what something looks like and forget that what we create or design also must be produced in full to life scale and more often than not interacted with by humans.  There are so many design specializations these days and just as many structure, engineering and other areas.  The thing is that most of these area have limited interaction with one another.  Often forget that these more “technical” fields also often are manned by those who have a creative thought process.  These individuals are invaluable contributors to the creative process and especially the execution of the product. 

Technical Directors, Automation Engineers, Structural Engineers, Electrical Engineers, Computer Programmers, Coders, and many other more specialized that I have not listed; are typically classified as “non-creative”.  What I have found through experience and observation is that these areas are in fact quite creative but just not in the sense of the typical aesthetic that we think of as art.   By and large these people are just as creative as the typical creative as they must problem solve and “create” or reverse engineer what we, the typical “creative”, dream up.  And truly that is just as strenuous and an outside of the box development process as the design process. 

Looking at the term “reverse engineering” I find it fascinating as it implies that what they are undertaking requires a base knowledge and theory, like ours, that is specialized but that it requires creation of new solutions that have not been used before to achieve creative works.  They have great skill to understand and work through this based on what they and others have done to create custom solutions.  The key here is that they create, and that is why I call engineering an art form.  The knowledge base is vast, but they are visionaries and problems solvers just as we, as designers are. 

Without these partners on our creative teams we cannot dream of achieving the best versions of the visions that we dream up.  We cannot claim to hold all the knowledge that we need to create it all on our own and we are not experts in everything.  Most designers I know do not wish to be experts in it “all” and want to stick to the artistic side of the vision.  Though sometimes we do get wrapped up in “our” vision and can take for granted others who are our partners, we can be a bit single minded at times.  These partners and counter parts are valuable and worthy of much respect, as many this makes the seemingly impossible ideas achievable. 

On the flip side it is equally valuable to understand that all creatives approach to design and industry are different; there are those who hold more technical and engineering knowledge that others.  There are still factions in our industries that believe that designers in general should have little to no technical knowledge as though it might hamper the creative process.  That is one school of thought, but I believe that if it works for your process and practice as a designer then there is nothing wrong with it.  Also, that is should not hold you back from being a creative powerhouse but that is should only make you stronger.

Art and creativity come in many guises and many of the scientific and engineering breakthroughs would not have occurred if creative people had not thought in non-traditional ways to come up with new methods and solutions. 

Do not think inside a box, or even outside of the box.  Create the box, create many new boxes.

Magic in the Design and Engineering in the Art – Part 1

I hope that all are rested and rejuvenated after the holidays, though often for those of us in these industries it is a very busy time of year.  In any case much appreciated the continuation of your eyes on my rantings.

I started this as one long post and realized that it should actually be two as it seemed as I worked through my thoughts that they were two related but distinct topics.

———

“ What the eyes see and the ears hear, the mind believes.”

-Harry Houdini

Magic-

Abracadabra………………alacazam………………………..POOF!!!!! And there lies everything in a production, film or experience except for the performers.  Ok, so maybe that is a bit of an exaggeration but as far as the audience is concerned that seems to be how so much happens behind the curtain, so to speak.

Designers and creatives are taught for the most part that our art and creation are an integral part of any production.  Yet it often seems that our work is to be seen but never to stand on the merit of effort of ourselves and the many others that it takes to produce it.  So, it often feels that we act as magicians where what we create and produce are the coveted secrets and only the product is the viewable to the audience and client.  As a result much is not understood in regard to what it takes to design, engineer and produce the works. And to some situations this is very detrimental to the over all value for us, our clients, audience and profession both fiscally and creatively. 

We as designers spend weeks, months and in some cases years working to create purposeful design and effects to help tell a story and create an environment. This is not to cause controversy in the way in which we work within these industries but in hopes of starting a larger conversation within ourselves to start placing a higher value on our own work.  We owe it to ourselves to understand that what we produce is art and should be treated and valued as such from the beginning. 

 Design is not just something that is in the background but that is a partner in the tale or the brand.  This is not a wish to have design or effects take place or prominence over the performers but to reset the balance and understanding of it as an equal partner.  Nor it is meant to take the true “magic” out of a production but to help ourselves, our audience and clients know that there is so much more value in what we do than what is recognized in most of our industries. 

It is some wish that there be understand of those who produce our creative visions as part of the great vision and worthy of value as well.  For without the technicians, stitchers, artisans and crafts people the creative vision will not be achieved.  It has been too long in our industries where we have placed so little value on these individuals who create our “magic”.  But this seems to be a potential topic for a later post.

Magic has a place but what we do is use a visual language to tell a story that both enhances the performers or speaker but that is an equal partner in representing and enacting that story.

Introduction: What is Design Mind?

Structure and foundation can be just a beautiful as the finished product. KMK Design image.

So design in the contemporary creative market and world can mean so many different things. As many of you know I find design, art, design theory, and creative practice to have so much more value that just the accepted norm (whatever that might be). In other words this will become a place to discuss design, design thinking, in depth application of design into many different industries, design education and how it has changed and how it needs to continue to change. Also another point will be the broader value of Entertainment Designers and how underrated we are in a broader industries simply because no one understands what we do. Even if what we do is similar to everyone other design field.

My goal with this is to have a place for thoughts and ideas, I may eventually open this up to guest authors and comments, but I have to see where this might go. There are so many paths and topics and I am really fascinated to be creating this as an avenue of expression and discussion.

As many of you who know me through social media I love to share interesting, unique, inspirational and even captivating images of art, architecture, technology and even design theory. At times I am even impassioned when I find a crossover discussion or article relating the parallels between the creative process or an artist/designer and how important that “creative mind” can be in non-traditional applications and fields.

I can’t promise that this will be the most organized idea I have had ever had, but I have been thinking about doing something like this for a while. So here goes.

I came up with the idea for “Design Mind” as a starting point because so often I find creative fields are not understood and the “industries” are changing so quickly. I wanted there to be a platform to discuss traditional methodologies and advanced ground breaking technologies. To that point even to follow flight of fancy into theoretical used of creative fields.

Also there are so many companies, materials and uses of traditional and non-traditional elements these day, I just want to chat about them. I suppose its a way to create a round table discussion of the contemporary design and production world.

Lets give it a whirl, shall we.