Project Requiem: The Seven Movements Photographed By Jonathan Simms

As regular follows of the our blog will know, last week saw the culmination of an interdisciplinary sound visualisation project in which motion-capture data of an orchestra conductor was transformed into physical works of art.  An official summary of Project Requiem will follow soon, but I couldn't wait to share these portraits of the seven resulting sculptures, as photographed by UCA photography lecturer, Jonathan Simms.

Requiem from an original Maya model by Anita Gill

Dies Irae from an original Maya model by Joey Ku  

Offertorio from an original Maya model by Sasha Hart

Sanctus from an original Maya model by Tom Beg

Agnus Dei from an original Maya model by Tom Beg

Lux Aeterna from an original Maya model by Sasha Hart

Libera Me from an original Maya model by Michael Smallwood

Project Requiem: Seven Sculptures On A Purfleet Lawn

 

This isn't the official Project Requiem write-up, but rather some eye-candy to whet your appetites!  The short version is this: on a scorching July afternoon, the seven sculptures derived from a conductor's movements of Verdi's Requiem were installed on the lawn of the Royal Opera House's High House Production Park.  The sculptures dazzled under perfect blue skies!  They looked utterly gorgeous, as these images should prove.   Getting this project from start-to-finish has been a real collaborative effort, pulling in a host of different skillsets, techniques and processes.  I have many individuals to thank, but Ethan Shilling, if you're reading this, you're pretty amazing, and Tim Hall - wow! - you did it!

Project Requiem: 'Sanctus' - A Sneak Peak

'Sanctus' - photography by Jonathan Simms

In truth, this first week of July 2014 is a sort of creative fever-dream! Not only is the course team busy launching New Designers this week, Project Requiem comes to fruition on Thursday too. Very soon now, the seven sculptures we've conjured from motion-capture data, Autodesk Maya and sheet steel will be installed on the lawn of the Royal Opera House's High House Production Park in Purfleet. The sculptures will augment a live performance of Verdi's Requiem as performed by 300 singers, and conducted by Arie van Beek, from whose original movements our sculptures derived.

These vibrant portraits of the sculptural piece deriving from CGAA alum Tom Beg's 'Sanctus' 3D form come to us courtesy of UCA Photography lecturer, Jonathan Simms - all I can say is 'pow!'

'Sanctus' - photography by Jonathan Simms

'Sanctus' - photography by Jonathan Simms

Project Requiem: The Sculptures Have Been Built!

Latest update from Project Requiem ... our Kinect data-derived sculptures have now been fabricated by Tim Hall in glorious sheet steel!  Tim provided these sneak peaks of the sculptures as they awaited their respective paint-jobs.   Not long now until they're looking resplendent on the perfect green lawns of the Royal Opera House High House Production Park.

Project Requiem: The Maquettes

The final seven

Yesterday at 2pm, Project Requiem transitioned from digital data to physical forms, as Tim Hall, our fabricator, revealed the laser-cut maquettes of our seven Requiem-derived sculptures.  There was a real sense of excitement as Tim unwrapped the bubble wrap and we could see the sculptures-to-be for the first time.  Now all you have to do is imagine them four times as large, welded together from sheet steel and painted in solid, bright colours... 

Dies Irae

Offertorio

Sanctus

Libera Me

Lux Aterna

Project Requiem - The Final Seven

From the submissions we could only pick one sculpture for each of the seven parts of Verdi’s Requiem.
These are the seven sculptures that were picked.

Because of the complex and varied nature of these sculptures we needed to find a common method of abstraction in order for these sculptures to be fabricated. The method we chose involved processing each sculpture into seven flat, interlocking shapes, which are generated from their profile at seven equidistant angles. Think of them as snapshots, which when recombined, form a buildable structure, which derives from its original sculpture.

Requiem

Dies Irae

Offertorio

Sanctus

Agnus Dei

Lux Aterna

Libera Me

The outcome of this is that we now have our final seven sculptures representing the seven movements of Verdi’s Requiem. You can view the all the turnarounds in the following playlist. (Note the colours used in these turnarounds do not represent the final chosen colours.)

Ethan Shilling

Project Requiem - The Student Submissions

Today we are presenting the complete catalogue of sculptures submitted for the project.

I’ve compiled a playlist of all the turnarounds. There’s 42 in total so it’s quite a marathon!

For those with less time on their hands, here a quick overview of every sculpture.

Requiem

Dies Irae

Offertorio

Sanctus

Agnus Dei

Lux Aterna

Libera Me

In the next post we will be revealing which sculptures were picked to form the final set of seven.

Ethan Shilling

ACT 2/Project Requiem: Briefing Presentation

See below - briefing presentation for ACT 2: Project Requiem:

The short version is this:  late last year, we converted a conductor's movements into seven Maya curves.  The curves express the conductor's physical movements as he was conducting a performance of Verdi's Requiem.  We're asking you to use the seven curves as the basis for the creation of seven sculptural forms in Maya, that capture and reflect your own responses after listening to the Requiem.  Ultimately, we will be turning a selection of the forms into physical metal sculptures!

A 'one-stop-shop' folder will be shared with you via Dropbox, containing the seven curves, the seven sections of music, templates for rendering and exporting, and instructions for manipulating the original curves.  You are to listen to the 7 sections of music and then seek to express your visual impression of what you hear via the choice of manipulations outlined in the presentation (extrude, loft, planar and revolve).

7 curves, 7 sections of music, 7 Maya objects, 7 metal sculptures.

This is a one-week challenge; closing date is Friday 16th May.

Good luck - and have fun!  We can't wait to see what you create.

If you don't receive your DropBox access, email me and I'll sort it.

Contact Sheet and Turnaround

Following yesterdays post, here is a contact sheet and turnaround for the construction of the 'conductor gyro part 2 -  Dies Irae' sculpture.

Ethan Shilling

Cut-outs and Grids

This is really a continuation of my last two posts, with a few more variations and examples based on the curves and shapes we're working with.

First we have a selection of curves represented in this form (similar to the example in this post).

Cellist Arm - Taken from Part 2 - Dies Irae

Conductor Arm - Taken from Part 2 - Dies Irae

Conductor Gyro - Taken from Part 2 - Dies Irae

Cellist Arm - Taken from Part 7 - Libera Me

Conductor Arm - Taken from Part 7 - Libera Me

Conductor Gyro - Taken from Part 7 - Libera Me

The left versions are taken from the outer most shapes, while the ones on the right are from the inner (intersecting) shapes. As some of the intersecting shapes were to small to use, I decided to filter out the smallest shapes by setting a minimum size to be generated from the curves.


Now here is something a bit different. I have taken a selection of shapes (that I created earlier - refer to this post) and represented them in grid like structures.

Conductor Gyro - Taken from Part 1 - Requiem

Conductor Gyro - Taken from Part 2 - Dies Irae

Cellist Arm - Taken from Part 3 - Offertorio

Conductor Arm - Taken from Part 4 - Sanctusi

Cellist Arm - Taken from Part 5 - Agnus Dei

Cellist Arm - Taken from Part 6 - Lux Aterna

Conductor Gyro - Taken from Part 7 - Libera Me

By themselves, they are perhaps not as expressive or fully representative of Verdi's Requiem, but the techniques could be applied to better effect if combined as part of a more elaborate sculpture. Maya's boolean tools were used to cut the shapes up, although it took quite a bit of fiddling to get a consistent result as the boolean tools can be somewhat temperamental.

Turnarounds to come later on.

Ethan Shilling