POST SCRIPT/ POST MORTEM and final PICTURES

hi ALL--

this will be the final post for this blog. It's been really energizing to write about it as it was happening, even if it was typically after midnight each night, and I was running on alcohol-laced fumes (I swear, I drank more on this trip than I have in the previous 15 years of my life). I've been home for 3 full days now, the jet-lag has pretty much worn off, and perspective has begun to set in... alongside the weird mental notion, of "did that really happen/did i REALLY just spend 10 days bouncing around an Eastern Bloc country?!?" It's funny how getting back into the swing of everyday life begins to slightly warp the out-of-the-ordinary experiences in our lives... perhaps WARP isn't the right word... it CONTRASTS with everyday life, and somehow separates it from the humdrum.

I've debated how to write this last post, and strangely enough I kinda feel like I could write several more posts on tangential ideas and thoughts that were evinced and evoked by the experience, but the onrush of daily life, the haze of memory that has already begin  to sink in and and the immediacy of the fact that a week from now I head to Michigan for 2 weeks to work on an opera and I have a bucket-load of deadlines to meet before I can get on that plane... kinda tells me that I need to wrap up this chapter and deal with the things that are about to bear down on me.

So... final thoughts...

first off, WOW! in many ways I saw this adventure as two-pronged... experiencing a foreign city I'd never imagined visiting, and getting to be at one of the few international symposia that speak to the somewhat esoteric career I've chosen. on the one hand, getting to experience Prague was amazing. the way that they (and in truth, most Europeans) LIVE with their history, in a way that we, of the western world, only experience in fits and starts, and only in a much more contained way. While there, I daily walked by buildings that have served (and continue to) as houses/tenements/apartments from the time of Christopher Columbus... think about it...5+ CENTURIES of lives passing thru... this history has worn itself into the structure, the colors, the physical textures of these buildings in a way that is intrinsically difficult for me to comprehend. my first day, I couldn't help but take nearly 200 pictures of buildings, stonework, archways, bridges, a veritable smorgasbord of ephemera that had me wide-eyed as a westerner, and fascinated as a designer.  I have to admit, that more than once, I found myself trying to figure out how to achieve a particular look via scenic painting techniques, and making notes.... what can i say, I can't help myself.

As to being at the EVENT... again, WOW! I feel that the greatest thing I took away, was WITNESSING the fact that there are others like me, out there across the world that also have a love of theatre, a love of story-telling, and a desire to support those thru visual presentation. i KNEW they existed, but it takes actually MEETING a costume designer from Bali, or a media/projections designer from Greece to really bring that notion home to roost. I got to see ideas about theater and design that I'd never considered, was able to see how different countries and regions deal with the education process of student designers, and got to compare/contrast my experiences of being a designer and educator with those ideas. It's going to take me a while to fully process how these ideas might alter my own viewpoints, but deep down, I know that they will, and that alone is a tremendously exciting thought.

I'll stop blabbing now, and get to the pictures.... these may come out randomly, but I'll try to put a few words of explanation with each. pardon any repeats from previous posts....

This was the view I saw coming out of the Metro inside the city of Prague for the first time... all my baggage in tow.. coming up out of the Karlovo Namesti stop, on Gorazdova, two blocks south of the apartment I was staying at.  See i couldn't help but start taking pictures... how beautiful is THAT?!?!

And here's looking down the street... note the small, almost mosaic-like stonework on the sidewalk.

the guardhouse to the grounds of the Industrial Palace. the Germanic influence throughout prague is stunning, but also inasmuch as how they've ADAPTED Germanic ideas to create their own.

a peek into the Old Jewish Cemetery in the heart of Josephov,  which during the Second World War WAS the ghetto of Prague, holding people before most were transported to Terezin Concentration camp, which is just north of Prague. I'm told that there are graves here that date to the 13th century.

a lamppost just east between Loreto Square and Prague Castle.

inside St. Vitus' Cathedral, Prague Castle

the Baroque insanity of gilt ormulu plasterwork inside the Prague State Opera house, as seen from my loge box.

the hallway of my incoming gate at Copenhagen Airport on my way home... this pic is cool, but BEING inside of it was awe-inspiring....

and now on to more exhibit fun...

A Romanian ballet costume- student exhibit.

inside the Latvian Professional Exhibit --  it was a really intersting installation... the walls were of burnt oak, so the smell of char was pungent, but not overpowering. there were instruments and tools/gears around the space that created a very sparse but beautiful aural landscape.

the student exhibit from GEORGIA (the country NOT the US State), you can barely see the wires that ran all over it... getting to see things up close required a bit of effort and placement of feet... kinda interesting.

student exhibit from the Netherlands... was basically a VERY steep ramp with a tight turn at top,  that then looked down a steep angle to a tinted window that looked into the aisle between exhibits... what it had to do with theatre, I have no clue.....

the Norwegian National/ Professional Exhibit - it was this Rube Goldberg-like contraption that made lots of noise and moved about . very theatrical, and really engaging as a piece of installation art, but not really an EXHIBIT, per se.

the Romanian national Exhibit... kinda cool to walk into... inside each of the buckets was a production photo. the walls glowed interestingly,  although I had a hard time understanding the WHY of it.

Polish national exhibit - they had these BEAUTIFUL images of the inside of their state theatre printed hugely on the walls, which were covered in plexiglass and then they painted over them with white, and asked viewers to scratch and scrape parts of the paint off... made for a very graffiti-esque look.

Taiwainese costumes

what happens when you cross a Porsche with an evening gown.... no ... seriously... that's a windshield and there are front and tail-lights on this dress...

a 17th century-styled Spanish wedding dress... entirely encrusted using live ammunition shells... again, not kidding...

the Brazilian Student Exhibit - resembled a marketplace stall with stage design stuff tucked into parts... kinda cool really.

the Czech National Exhibit - 6 strangely abstract, but interactive rooms across two levels... they had women dressed up in squirrel outfits handing out canapes... nnnnnope.. not a clue as to why...

the Japanese national Exhibit - a definite departure... what they did was have a series of Japanese DESIGNERS performing short word-less works that all required designed-elements in them... In this one, two dancing foam stomaches with mouths, ate everything in sight... curiouser and curiouser....

and finally....

... the reason I was there in the first place. here's the American Student Exhibit that I've been working on for the past 2+ years. All in all, it went really really well. We involved more students from more colleges and universities than has ever been utilized before for the American Student Exhibit. final numbers aren't in, but we will have presented (between the DISPLAY and PARTICIPATORY aspects) the work of nearly 300 American student designers from over 50 schools. I'm really really proud of that.

There were other things I did while in Prague that I haven't written much about... the workshop I took, a couple of the lectures I attended, and a rather substantial research part, funded by my school, University of Chicago. if you're interested, ask. 

In general, thank you for your interest in this blog. I wrote it primarily for myself as a record of the event, but it seems that it's gotten read a bit by others who wanted to know what the heck I was up to. I hope it's been entertaining to read. 

All my best,

tom

day 10/11 - a TALE OF THREE AIRPORTS...

... or...

 How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Accept the Ubiquitousness of Starbucks...

Well... here I am, in the airport lounge of Gate C29 at Copenhagen Airport, about to start the final leg of this strange (and I DO mean strange) and incredible journey. But first about day10… my last in Prague…

After getting back to the apartment to drop off my bag from London, I headed out and went to see one of the SIX ACTS Projects… these were teacher-led/student-created pieces that are happening all over Prague as site specific performances created by the leader/teach and the students. I never caught if they had given it it’s own title, but at least on the ‘boards’ it was called SECOND ACT and was led by designer/professor Roma Patel. They did it in the basement underneath the Bethlehem Chapel, in an area called the Lapidarium… It was a very interesting installation…You went down a winding stone staircase into the first basement, and had to inch along a tight corridor where they had placed lighting instruments shooting obtusely along the wet stonework, creating some really interesting shadows. You then entered a small antechamber of stone that had an installation of playing cards, an antique lamp and a soundscape, you then had to turn up a short stone stair and were then asked to go thru this hallway-like contraption made of gauze and netting. You then emerged into this large, low ceiling-ed room and had “stations of scenic installation… the first projected flames onto tinfoil that was arranged in a away that it reflected the flames at strange angles around a corner. Another had projections of flowing water hitting and passing thru netting that was hitting a wet stone wall behind it… and you had to traverse in between layers of netting  to get to the next area, which had hundreds of nails suspended by fishing line, so that they looked like big raindrops that tinkled against each other…. Oh , and the floor in various areas was covered in mud-caked women’s shoes… What it all meant… I have no clue, but it was visually and aurally interesting. Afterwards I headed back to Havelska market to get a couple other trinkets and things, and then headed back to the Veletrzni Palace to walk thru the exhibits again and see how things had progressed in the American Student Exhibit..

Had I not, stupidly, put the camera cord in my CHECKED luggage, I’d include pix, but alas, that’ll have to wait until after I get home. Sorry.

I met up with ALESSIA (a  grad school classmate, and the Assistant Production Manager for the whole of the USA’s exhibits here) and we went to a lecture session on mentorship at the Canadian National Exhibit and then headed back to the American exhibit to see Paul Zaloom (aka Beakman) perform his 1-man political satire puppet show… THE ADVENTURES OF WHITE MAN, which was really quite funny. He uses normal everyday objects to create physical worlds and puppets that  comment on society in harsh and yet funny ways… WHITE MAN is about a American astronaut who goes exploring in space and finds a planet inhabited by aliens, whom he decides to “help” by bringing human technology and American mass-media to their world. It’s VERY tongue-in-cheek, and spoke amusingly to the American need to “civilize” others. I then walked back down from the VP thru LENTNA across the Stafanikuv Bridge, and thru Old Town down to the National Theatre where I re-met Alessia to see  the THIRD ACT, which was on the island in the Vltava (forgive me I can’t remember the name at the moment) right adjacent to the National Theatre. It was a site-specific performance led by British auteur Louise Anne Miller. It was charged with ”revealing thru performed tableau the history and myths of this particular island of Prague”… It was all outside… it was starting to rain, and it was so crowded you really couldn’t get much out of it.. I’ll chalk that one to the LOSE column… but kudos to them for attempting something so different!

Alessia, myself, and one of her grad scudents from Univ. of Montana then hit “the most famous pub in Prague” according to Alessia, it goes by the name of U FLECKU, and was just a couple blocks away. Perfect! It certainly landed somewhere in the GERMAN side of Czech food and décor all the way to a roving accordion-player in liederhosen, who seemed to have a penchant for Argentinian tangos?!? We were each served a shot of Berechkova, a very… tangy very Czech variant of whiskey… it is incredibly spicy and very much with a cinnamon-aftertaste. Alessia despised it, but I thought it quite good… and rather powerful… most of you know that I’m not a big drinker of alcohol, but between two shots of Berechkova and the dark house ale.. lets’ just say that I was “feelin’ it”.  I had a variant of Svichkova a braised steak in gravy with dumplings… again… REALLY good. It was a lovely and peaceful end to my last night in Prague.

As to today (day 11) I got up as quickly and quietly as I could and snuck out to get to the train to get to the bus to get to the airport…all in all it took about an hour 15. It’s funny, I was actually a little leery of how to get from the airport into Prague, but it turned out to be rather easy each time.

The flight to Copenhagen was uneventful, although the plane was oddly situated… we entered thru the rear of the plane and there was luggage directly behind and between the cockpit and the cabin. Granted it w s a half-full puddle-jumper with full-on propellers…

The Copenhagen airport is GORGEOUS ( again I REALLY wish I could show the pix).and I had my last European meal… a Danish variant of the Indian dish Chicken Tikka Masala.. slightly odd, but still, quite good.

Wow! Is this journey really ending? It still seems more than a little surreal, but I’m so grateful for having the opportunity. There are a lot of thoughts still swirling about that haven’t solidified yet in my mind…. The question of European design and its’ relationship to American practice… the amusement of the varied moneys and languages I’ve experienced... but those’ll need to wait. We’re about to board and I want to get this posted quickly…

There are also a number of things I left undone… in part because I was trying to not break the bank (though the overage charges on baggage for the return flight have blown THAT hope out of the water), but in large part because I like doing many of these things with Janna. The Kafka Museum was really the only one I did… I really wanted to hit the Museum of Decorative Arts, the interiors of Prague Castle, the National Museum… I didn’t see anything at the National Theatre or Laterna Magica, or the gardens of the Petrin area of Prague that requires a funicular ride to get to them properly. Nor did I get down to the Cubist houses just a few blocks south of where I was staying… There was simply too much to do, and I hope to make the trip back there with Janna at some time in the future.

Oh well… to the fun of this time! And the excitement for the next time!

Pictures and a final wrap up coming tomorrow… or the next day depending on how exhausted I am!

day 10/11 - a TALE OF THREE AIRPORTS...

... or...

 How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Accept the Ubiquitousness of Starbucks...

Well... here I am, in the airport lounge of Gate C29 at Copenhagen Airport, about to start the final leg of this strange (and I DO mean strange) and incredible journey. But first about day10… my last in Prague…

After getting back to the apartment to drop off my bag from London, I headed out and went to see one of the SIX ACTS Projects… these were teacher-led/student-created pieces that are happening all over Prague as site specific performances created by the leader/teach and the students. I never caught if they had given it it’s own title, but at least on the ‘boards’ it was called SECOND ACT and was led by designer/professor Roma Patel. They did it in the basement underneath the Bethlehem Chapel, in an area called the Lapidarium… It was a very interesting installation…You went down a winding stone staircase into the first basement, and had to inch along a tight corridor where they had placed lighting instruments shooting obtusely along the wet stonework, creating some really interesting shadows. You then entered a small antechamber of stone that had an installation of playing cards, an antique lamp and a soundscape, you then had to turn up a short stone stair and were then asked to go thru this hallway-like contraption made of gauze and netting. You then emerged into this large, low ceiling-ed room and had “stations of scenic installation… the first projected flames onto tinfoil that was arranged in a away that it reflected the flames at strange angles around a corner. Another had projections of flowing water hitting and passing thru netting that was hitting a wet stone wall behind it… and you had to traverse in between layers of netting  to get to the next area, which had hundreds of nails suspended by fishing line, so that they looked like big raindrops that tinkled against each other…. Oh , and the floor in various areas was covered in mud-caked women’s shoes… What it all meant… I have no clue, but it was visually and aurally interesting. Afterwards I headed back to Havelska market to get a couple other trinkets and things, and then headed back to the Veletrzni Palace to walk thru the exhibits again and see how things had progressed in the American Student Exhibit..

Had I not, stupidly, put the camera cord in my CHECKED luggage, I’d include pix, but alas, that’ll have to wait until after I get home. Sorry.

I met up with ALESSIA (a  grad school classmate, and the Assistant Production Manager for the whole of the USA’s exhibits here) and we went to a lecture session on mentorship at the Canadian National Exhibit and then headed back to the American exhibit to see Paul Zaloom (aka Beakman) perform his 1-man political satire puppet show… THE ADVENTURES OF WHITE MAN, which was really quite funny. He uses normal everyday objects to create physical worlds and puppets that  comment on society in harsh and yet funny ways… WHITE MAN is about a American astronaut who goes exploring in space and finds a planet inhabited by aliens, whom he decides to “help” by bringing human technology and American mass-media to their world. It’s VERY tongue-in-cheek, and spoke amusingly to the American need to “civilize” others. I then walked back down from the VP thru LENTNA across the Stafanikuv Bridge, and thru Old Town down to the National Theatre where I re-met Alessia to see  the THIRD ACT, which was on the island in the Vltava (forgive me I can’t remember the name at the moment) right adjacent to the National Theatre. It was a site-specific performance led by British auteur Louise Anne Miller. It was charged with ”revealing thru performed tableau the history and myths of this particular island of Prague”… It was all outside… it was starting to rain, and it was so crowded you really couldn’t get much out of it.. I’ll chalk that one to the LOSE column… but kudos to them for attempting something so different!

Alessia, myself, and one of her grad scudents from Univ. of Montana then hit “the most famous pub in Prague” according to Alessia, it goes by the name of U FLECKU, and was just a couple blocks away. Perfect! It certainly landed somewhere in the GERMAN side of Czech food and décor all the way to a roving accordion-player in liederhosen, who seemed to have a penchant for Argentinian tangos?!? We were each served a shot of Berechkova, a very… tangy very Czech variant of whiskey… it is incredibly spicy and very much with a cinnamon-aftertaste. Alessia despised it, but I thought it quite good… and rather powerful… most of you know that I’m not a big drinker of alcohol, but between two shots of Berechkova and the dark house ale.. lets’ just say that I was “feelin’ it”.  I had a variant of Svichkova a braised steak in gravy with dumplings… again… REALLY good. It was a lovely and peaceful end to my last night in Prague.

As to today (day 11) I got up as quickly and quietly as I could and snuck out to get to the train to get to the bus to get to the airport…all in all it took about an hour 15. It’s funny, I was actually a little leery of how to get from the airport into Prague, but it turned out to be rather easy each time.

The flight to Copenhagen was uneventful, although the plane was oddly situated… we entered thru the rear of the plane and there was luggage directly behind and between the cockpit and the cabin. Granted it w s a half-full puddle-jumper with full-on propellers…

The Copenhagen airport is GORGEOUS ( again I REALLY wish I could show the pix).and I had my last European meal… a Danish variant of the Indian dish Chicken Tikka Masala.. slightly odd, but still, quite good.

Wow! Is this journey really ending? It still seems more than a little surreal, but I’m so grateful for having the opportunity. There are a lot of thoughts still swirling about that haven’t solidified yet in my mind…. The question of European design and its’ relationship to American practice… the amusement of the varied moneys and languages I’ve experienced... but those’ll need to wait. We’re about to board and I want to get this posted quickly…

There are also a number of things I left undone… in part because I was trying to not break the bank (though the overage charges on baggage for the return flight have blown THAT hope out of the water), but in large part because I like doing many of these things with Janna. The Kafka Museum was really the only one I did… I really wanted to hit the Museum of Decorative Arts, the interiors of Prague Castle, the National Museum… I didn’t see anything at the National Theatre or Laterna Magica, or the gardens of the Petrin area of Prague that requires a funicular ride to get to them properly. Nor did I get down to the Cubist houses just a few blocks south of where I was staying… There was simply too much to do, and I hope to make the trip back there with Janna at some time in the future.

Oh well… to the fun of this time! And the excitement for the next time!

Pictures and a final wrap up coming tomorrow… or the next day depending on how exhausted I am!

day 9 - where DOES the time go?!?!?

heigh ho!

sorry for the lack of a couple posts, was having fun elsewhere and away from my computer! I was in London for the past two days. It was brilliant fun! I met up with (and stayed with) good friend of mine (from back in early-post-undergrad days at Univ. of Bristol, England), Rob. He, oh, so very generously, played host. first, we his the Royal Academy Summer Show (which was surprising and really quite cool). It's their open show, where established artists like Anish Kapoor (think Chicago's "bean") are up on the walls next to academics and amateurs. There were several REALLY nice pieces and items.. some of which were so reasonably priced at more than 32,000 pounds (about $50,000). We then met up with a couple other Bristol pals, Fred and Jon. It really was quite a blast to see them all... the last time the four of us were together was at mine and Janna's wedding... thirteen + years ago. It was slightly insane to think that my scholarship year abroad really was 16 years ago. time certainly flies.

anyhow... after a lovely meal , Jon, Rob and I dashed off to see the matinee of WAR HORSE. The puppetry, and the design are beyond outstanding. For those of you who have no knowledge of WAR HORSE. it's a play that was originally staged in London about 4 years ago in partnership with Handspring Puppet Company which is based in South Africa. it's source is a children's book of the same name by Michael Morpurgo, which chronicles the story of a pony growing up being raised by young English boy, who is then sold into the cavalry at the outbreak of the first World War. The boy, then sets off to France (signing up for the army when he's too young), and he goes in search of his horse, Joey. To say that the puppets are amazing is a complete and utter understatement. if you google WAR HORSE or better yet youtube it, you'll get an idea of what I mean. Rob got us tickets about the 6th row center...
WAR HORSE opened on Broadway a couple months ago to absolutely raves, and just a week ago trotted off with 5 Tony Awards, including a special one to Handspring for the puppetry. After several drinks at the London Cocktail Club, Rob and I continued on to our evening's entertainment... Andrew Lloyd Webber's sequel to Phantom.. entitled LOVE NEVER DIES.... I'm still at a COMPLETE loss of what to say about the show... to say I was stupefied would be an understatement.... and I DON'T mean that as a compliment. While it was stunningly and expensively designed. the story, the music , the acting were of such...  well... I still don't have the words.... suffice it to say, there was a REASON the Broadway producers pulled out upon seeing it in London... and rightfully so. There is simply so MUCH wrong with the show, I can't imagine where to begin explaining it's problems.

Yesterday consisted of the National Portrait Gallery, the Tate Modern (including it's comprehensive and beautiful JOAN MIRO exhibit), and a late matinee of GHOST STORIES, which was a real treat and fun to boot. then THIS morning, we got up at 4:30 so that I could catch my flight back to Prague. A truly exhausting and thoroughly FUN two days.

forgive me for not continuing about my last day in Prague... which was also event, and fun-filled, but it' snow midnight and I have to leave for the airport in 6 hours and am in desperate need of sleep, a shower,  and PACKING!

tomorrow's plans are PRAGUE to COPENHAGEN (3 hour layover) and then home to CHICAGO. maybe during the layover, I'll have the chance to post again... am hoping so.

it's hard not to have feelings/thoughts/etcetera about the experiences I've had here, and I'd like to share them. but for now... goodnight!

day 6 - tired, yet MILES to go before....

am going to try to be quick again, my apologies... its' 1am here, and I have an 8am flight out to London this morning and have to traverse half of Prague to get TO the airport. however, I promised pictures and so pictures there will be.

By and large it was a peaceful day. I took my time getting up to the Veletrzni Palace (where the exhibits are) as I needed to exchange some money so I went to Wenceslas Sq to do so, not because that was the ONLY place to do so, far from it, but I enjoyed a leisurely stroll.  from there I headed north and came across the open-air Havelka market... stalls and stalls of fruits and veggies, and tchotckes  and knick-knacks abound. I got a small container of mixed berries and they gave me a tiny plastic fork (about half the size of a pickle fork) so that I could eat them as I walked.... they even offered me fresh cream to pour on my berries... and it was just a simple stall. That was fun. I hit a couple glass/crystal/ceramic shops on the way to the tram, but I'm just leery about traveling with such things as gifts... too bad, there's some lovely crystal work that the area is known for, and I was very tempted by a couple things, but knowing how bags are handled, I just don't trust my packing abilities enough to risk shattered glass all over my clothes.

I got up to the VP around lunch, and started making another set of rounds of the exhibits, picking up the leaflets and books that some countries produce to showcase their work. THis time I was less harried than at the opening gala... it was nice leisurely... So let' start with some of the STUDENT exhibits...

I should preface this by stating that aside from size, there are few regulations as to what countries can do with/ for their exhibition space... some do traditional displays of work (i.e. modelboxes, selected costumes on mannequins, pictures or video of selected scenes... basic stuff), other take more .... shall we say... artistic license, and their exhibits can be more performance-based, with actors, sometimes in full costume, moving about their space, climbing on things, or interacting with viewers, or they cam be more... conceptual in their focus... One such one is Norway's student exhibit... shown here...

It consists of 90 old wooden forklift palettes stacked together, that makes the exhibit really tiny to walk around the perimeter of... against the backwall they put up an image of a design installation of a thousand such palettes that they did in Oslo a couple months ago... no word of explanation, and no contextualization as to how this was a THEATRICAL expression of space....

Hong Kong chose something more... experiential ... viewers removed their shoes and were given booties, they could then slide up a curved ramp to a viewing platform, or they had to crawl thru a small padded tunnel to get to a viewing area where they had a monitor set up that showed a variety of images, and occasionally one of a stage design.

Bulgaria lined the walls with images of student work, but then had a 3-dimensional reworking of a Klimt painting that viewers could stick their heads thru and have their pictures taken as if they were IN a Klimt painting... kinda cool... though I'm not sure the meaning of the large puppet mosquitos overhead...

Russia's was a giant bird's nest with large acrylic dome "eggs" that housed set models, and there are flat panels on the walls that opened up to show costume drawings and pictures of the mounted productions

Not to be outdone on the EGG front, Finland's EGG EXERIENCE was actually kinda fascinating and hysterical... you had to take off your shoes, pick a number and then you'd be seated on the giant cushy eggyolk to wait your turn. a doctor or nurse would then call your number and they would run a couple basic "tests" on you to make sure you were "fit" for the experience, you'd then get placed inside the egg via a hatch near the bottom, and you'd snuggle into a 'mork-calling-orson' video presentation.... though I doubt Finland has ever experienced the wonder and glory of the 70s TV show MORK AND MINDY.

Japan's was rather interesting ... they covered the walls and floor with linen, and then built, out of paper and various white cotton fabrics, these statue versions of the 4 main characters from WIZARD OF OZ (Cowardly Lion showing here). They are really stunning creations.

Korea's was a series of cardboard and paper-constructed boxes that viewers were encouraged to poke holes into the rice paper to see the installations inside the boxes. it was cool for the first 20 minutes, but once all the boxes were revealed, it just kinda looked trashed... neat idea though...

And here's our American one... my baby... (aside from the 3 stateside, of course) we went the more traditional route and have video screen showing the work of selected students from across the country, and then there's a worktable in the center where we have American student designer pairing off for a design exercise that results in a piece of display work that then becomes part of the exhibit. the idea is that over the 10 days of the festival, the exhibit will grow from a black white box, to one overflowing with interesting design art. So far so good... it seems to be going well.

the NATIONAL EXHIBITS are far bigger and more involved than the student ones... but, like the student ones, they are not bound to any methodology.. Some countries will display design work that focusses on a single playwright, others will focus the exhibit on a single designer or subset of designers, some can be very conceptual/performance based, and trust me they can run from the fascinating to the bizarre VERY quickly.... some highlights....

Taiwan's focussed on 8 living costume designers, and had a very polished exhibit that curved around itself in sworls and arcs, the costumes they presented had delicate embroideries and hand-painted silks, and they all chose traditonal Taiwanese shows that they pulled costumes from, making a point about the connection between historical research and costume and clothing.

Israel's was decked out as a condom warehouse, with monitors and elements peeking out of boxes and off of shelves. it focussed on several productions from various companies thruout Israel of works by a single contemporary author.. who's name I didn't recognize... but apparently he died this past year and is considered  incredibly influential in the Israeli theatre scene. so this exhibit was an homage to him. it is also the TALLEST exhibit stretching upward nearly 28 feet in the air.

New Zealand's is almost as tall as Israel's and has video projectors and a repelling wall and a big blow-up slide that are a part of it... not really sure how it relates to theatre, but it was fun to go inside!

Mongolia's was situated inside the shell of a yurt... or traditonal teepee of sorts.

I've voted Columbia's entry THE MOST ANNOYING. it's this 20 tall tilting wall with the underside covered in fabrics and puppets, with confetti all over the ground, and on the backside there's a native guy dressed like a Minotaur in a ballgown who, is attached via repelling ropes 2/3rds the way up the tilted wall, and every 15 seconds he crack a 12' bullwhip... it's loud and in the gallery directly below the American student exhibit.

Spain's is just about my favorite... it's an open-design polished but worn-looking workshop floor that's been curved at the ends to allow a really interesting angle to the space. they then have a 20' long worktable in the center, also of worn wood, and along the long sides they have these beautifully bound books that highlight a craft or region of production house and show's what they are best known for in Spain. it REALLY shows respect to the design AND execution of ideas in a way that many other exhibits did not... color me VERY impressed.

and last for now... the outside of the American Exhibit... I'll post better pics later, but it's made up like an urban artist's backyard/garage studio complete with beams and ladders and worktables that showcase a lot of stuff. the outside of which is graffiti-ed over. it's actually pretty darn cool, I think.

OK that's it for today... I GOTTA get some sleep. I'll post more later, though it may be a few days... I'm not taking my computer with me to London, but still hope to post the two nights I'm there.

I'm in London for two days to do some research and see some shows, and some old friends that I went to school with eons ago... for those of you reading who DON'T know the backstory, the school year after I finished undergrad ('94-'95). I spent at the University of Bristol in England doing a postgraduate diploma program on an Ambassadorial Scholarship from the Rotary Foundation. It was a most excellent year, and I made friends that I still keep in loose contact with. I'm having lunch with them tomorrow... er... today.  ok, now for real.... am off to bed....

goodnight. 

day 5 -- REALLY ?!?!? have I been here this long already?!?

it'll be a little shorter tonight, sorry. it's been a long hot day and I'm in desperate need of a shower, and SLEEP.  I know that I'd promised pix of the exhibits, and I apologize for reneging, but I'll be spending  a chunk of the day tomorrow at the exhibits and will get better pic than those I got from the opening gala when they were inundated with viewers.... promise.

I spent the biggest part of the day in a workshop at DAMU, the Czech National Theatre Conservatory. It was a workshop called TABLE/ABLE/BLAB/LAB, and the description made it sound kinda fascinating... it talked about the creative process and how designers need to be able to step up as STORYTELLERS and how we sometimes use outdated technologies to create new methodologies for visual storytelling... using an old slide projector to project images onto scenery or actors/ using an overhead projector as a shadow screen for puppetry... you get the idea. it sounded REALLY cool.... I wish it had been... the workshop leader is a native Pole who emigrated to New Zealand several years ago and has worked on film and theatre work there (including as a set decorator on the LORD OF THE RINGS movies). Although she was really nice, it was obvious that she was a still a little jet-lagged and disorganized, and even by lunchtime it was clear that we had no real agenda or focus. It was still interesting to work with students from all over and see what we all created, so it wasn't completely worthless. At the end of the class we went over to one of the INTERSECTION projects... part of the PQ, but run by a separate wing... this one is/was/will be for another few days.... a conglomeration of 26 rooms that were built, interconnectedly forming a junglegym/city sort of a thing on the open plaza of the National Theatre (Narodni Divadlo).

in each "box" a different designer/artist created a theatrical installation... some were simply showing films of works they've done elsewhere, another had created puppetbox installations with working lights...

still others had performers inside doing things,  one had a pair of tango dancers giving lessons to people walking by... for another you had to put on a blue fur-covered bear suit in order to go in, another had wallpapered the outside of the box with men's dress shirts while a manically dressed "wedding-gown beast" loped about... it was very much installation/performance art-based work, but kinda fascinating. I think my favorite (aside from the puppet-box guy), was this sound installation, where you edged into a pitch black box, and wherever you stepped, it caused a sound cue of someone whispering something urgently in a language you may or may not know... as you walked thru, taking more steps and causing more sounds to fill the tight room... it was really kinda cool... another one had two ficus trees wired up to sensors, and it (according to it's thesis statement.. not sure I'm believing it though) would turn vibrations in the leaves into sound waves, as if the trees were "talking and responding: to people being in the room with them"... though provoking, if perhaps not scientifically sound... get it... SOUND.... sorry. I'm tired and sweaty... bad jokes are only going to multiply.

after walking thru the rooms I headed on over to Wenceslas Square, and did a little shopping before my entrtainment for the evening... the opera TOSCA at Prague State Opera House...

NOW let me show you pictures of the INTERIOR....

It truly is a Baroque masterpiece. sumptuous, beautiful, elegant. I was in a Loge just to the left of the first balcony. The opera was very nicely sung, and the set was exciting to see (as per my previous posting about Josef Svoboda). I'd seen pictures of it in design textbooks, but to actually SEE it in the flesh was really exciting for me. it was also a little sad. It was truly a marvel of 20th century stage design, and gorgeous, but the physical pieces of the set are obviously kept in a backroom and brought out of mothballs every so often... paint was peeling, edges were left raw, obvious "break-lines"-- where the scenery breaks into pieces for storage -- were left unhidden, minor alteration had obviously been made to make it easier to pull in and out of mothballs.. perfectly legitimate fiscal/logistical choices, but they were choices that diminished the overall effect that the original was intended to make. oh well... I'm still really glad I got to see it.

bad news of the day... after the opera... on my way home from the grocery, a 500 Koruna note apparently fell out of my pocket... (it's worth about $30)... irritated and frustrated with myself... but these things happen.

still, all in all a very good day... the weather, uniformly since my arrival here, has been wonderful... it rained a littel at teh airport when I arrived, and aside from getting rained on the evening of the Exhibit Completion Party, it's been really moderate, and sunny/partly cloudy, but today was decidedly warmer and sunnier... which, as I'm sitting here  looking out of the Vltava, River... the storm finally arrived... windows are open... cool air is coming in.... ahhhh... comfort.

good night all.

day 4 -- Another Openin', Another (gallery) Show!

It started out slowly... couldn't crow-bar my way out of bed, so the sightseeing got started a little later than planned, but I still tried to fit in as much as possible. I headed out over the Jiraskuv bridge (the one right outside our apartment here), and then turned north in the Mala Strana (or Lesser Town). I decided to do a small photographic experiment and took pictures of the first 10 doors I came across on my trek... here are a few highlights...

betcha can't find any of THESE at Home Depot!

they're all between 8 and a half and 10 feet tall... and when you think about it... a normal door in an American home is typically not over 7 feet. Ya gotta hand it to the Europeans... they know how to make an entrance!

I could easily take a thousand such pictures here in Prague, but I will refrain as best I can.... having said that I did have one further architectural thought today.... even in the nicer, posh-er areas of Prague there's a degree of... decrepitude that's both incredibly aesthetically pleasing and obviously so completely overlooked. The a look at this first pic of a (for Prague) non-descript residence building at the corner of Nabrezi and Vitezna, just off the Legii Bridge...

note the Italianate details-- the dentil mouldings, and pediments with laurel wreaths, the carefully cut limestone blocks and the plaster columns showing the tell-tale tinge of weathering to them. It's truly a lovely set of proportions, not amazing, but aesthetically very pleasing and beautifully detailed.... now look at what this same building looks like on the GROUND level at the street....

note the  corroded plaster, graffiti, the lack of upkeep of the eye-level facade of the building.. . there's a dichotomy here that i think is rather fascinating. both the beauty of the dessication, and the juxtaposition of architectural beauty above with the trashiness of every-day wear-and-tear on these gorgeous buildings. Could the building owners do a better job of cleaning up and repairing? of course, but they don't... not because they don't care, and not JUST because they know it'll simply fall back into the disrepair, but the fact is that the contrast of beauty above to crumbling below GIVES IT CHARACTER... and Prague is FULL of that...

off my soap-box, and on to the rest of the morning's outing...

I came pretty quickly to a spot I'd been hoping to find... The Franz Kafka Museum... its' small, it's out of the way, being a bit of a fan, I really wanted to see this one, and it was worth it... it fell somewhere decidedly between kitch and informative... The use of moderately eerie sounds was at times,  surprisingly effective, and almost hokey at others. and without being preachy, or overly-biographical, it walked a fine, but interesting line between the two. I have to admit that I knew little of his life, but I now think I might need to check out a biography of him after I'm home... they interspersed bits of his life and personal history with the world evoked by hie stories... my favorite (and the only one that photographed particularly well) is the descent from the second to main floor... the "descent into madness"...lol.

having said that the fountain outside was also particularly amusing...

they actively encourage you to wash you hands in the ...um... erectile water spouts.

anyhow... I continued up toward the Castle, up the rather vertigo-inducing Nerudova Street and took a  brief break in Loreto Square... here are pic looking up Nerudova and equally DOWN it...

trust me, it's even steeper than it looks.

But it's also dotted with souvenir  shops, artist's shops and what must be my new favorite store ever anywhere... the Loutka Puppet store, where you can walk into the workshop at back as they're carving the wooden bodies for marionettes.  the tiny store even has its' own working theatre so that puppets can be properly tested. I so wanted to buy one of the hand-carved ones, but even the VERY small simple ones (about 12" high), start at 2000Ckr (about $125). they go up steeply from there.



I continued up to the Prague Castle Square, whose outer courtyard has the most amazing view down over the terracotta tiled roofs of Prague... I know this picture can't really do it justice, but trust me, it's breathtaking.... and not just because of the climb...




The castle grounds are really gigantic and the gate is duly splendid with armed guards flanking the entrance.

You go thru the main gate and then through another archway, that has a shortened hallway that puts you out steps from the front of this...

the facade of St. Vitus Cathedral... it's so big, so massive, and SO close to this gantry that it's impossible to get a full shot of the facade. the gantry really does serve a focal purpose in this... though massive and huge in ANY way you look at it, St. Vitus seems EVEN BIGGER after coming thru a small opening... very smart designers involved in planning this back in the 13th century...

The interior is gorgeously Gothic with splendid stained glass and towering vaulted arches...

truly magnificent! There are many other buildings in the compound, including the old Royal palace, and several nobleman's residencies which have also been turned in to galleries and museums.  In many ways, my travels for today went from the profane (Kafka) to the sublime. I had planned to do more, but as I'd gotten a late start and needed to prep for the gala opening, I decided to walk back thru Old Town and get ready for the party this evening.

The Prague Quadrennial opened with a reception at 5pm, and it was stunning. The exhibits were great, we got to talk with a LOT of fun people. and it started everything off rather nicely. My post tomorrow will include pix of many of the other exhibits, both student and national. it's already 1:30am and I have a workshop starting at 9am. goodnight!


I then headed back down the hill from the castle