Bosch Glitch 1: The Hermit Saint

Last week I got a somewhat urgent call from my colleague Nic in the theater department. Nic is an astonishing set designer. I've seen him do things with cast off junk that could make you believe that you were looking at a cathedral. I worked with him on New Islands Archipelago summer before last, he was the set designer and I was the projections designer/performer (what do they even call that job? video design? media design? booth geek?). He calls me, and he needs media design for a play he's written and directed, about Hieronymous Bosch. OK. It's at La Mama. Great! It's in two weeks.

Long story short, I said yes because a.) I'm an idiot and b.) I love to do theater. Keep in mind that it's also the first two weeks of the semester. But it seemed do-able and I get a quick trip to New York, and what the hell I've always wanted to do a show at La Mama. Here's a neat opportunity, though. A really big project, a very short timeline, a definite start and end. It'd be perfect for me to blog about as I go, especially give my students a rare look at how I try to work. I shall try to be diligent about recording thoughts and processes as I go. Maybe other people will find it interesting. Or if it turn out to be a disaster, we can all look back and see why.

(later that day…)

Got started by sketching layers of hell. I need a kinetic impression of Bosch's visions of hell, without overpowering the actors on stage. Problem: Bosch's painting are so fussy that if I borrow directly from them, it'll take all the attention away (plus look stupid). This starts to give shape to some common Bosch-y hell-y ideas. I'll keep these separate and see what I can make them do in AfterEffects.