{"id":27103,"date":"2023-06-29T14:02:28","date_gmt":"2023-06-29T18:02:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/?p=27103"},"modified":"2024-07-08T06:04:16","modified_gmt":"2024-07-08T10:04:16","slug":"preserving-and-enhancing-theatre-the-blending-of-high-and-low-techs-in-costume-and-scenic-design","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/2023\/06\/29\/preserving-and-enhancing-theatre-the-blending-of-high-and-low-techs-in-costume-and-scenic-design\/","title":{"rendered":"Preserving and enhancing theatre: The blending of high and low techs in costume and scenic design"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\"Sarah
Sarah Oliver uses all the tools at her disposal to teach Fashion & Costume: Western Silhouettes in a state-of-the-art classroom in the new Central Campus Classroom Building.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

With the rise of high-tech in nearly all aspects of our world, it\u2019s important to appreciate and continue practicing low-tech, hands-on skills, which even the most innovative of technologies would be meaningless without.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is the goal of Kevin Judge, scenic designer and associate professor of theatre & drama, who aims to find the right balance of high- and low-tech methods to create a well-rounded educational model in which these technologies work together, creating an enriching and enhanced environment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe technological tools, especially the most cutting-edge stuff, are an incredible asset to your work; they can speed up what you do and open up new horizons,\u201d Judge said. But, these tools help \u201cmost effectively when you have a solid base to leap off from.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This belief is shared by Sarah M. Oliver, costume designer and assistant professor of theatre & drama, in designing and building costumes. Both agree that while the technologies available to students are amazing, \u201cthere\u2019s something that can be lost in translation if they don\u2019t get to touch the three-dimensional.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"An
The AI-generated image that inspired Kevin Judge\u2019s tree design for “The Heart of Robin Hood.”<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

\u201cYou can pull a fabric sample and drop it onto your iPad. You can squish it, manipulate it, squeeze it, twist it. But if you want to actually understand how it drapes on the body, you\u2019ve got to put it on the body and drape it,\u201d Oliver said. \u201cYou still have to know how to draw a figure. You have to understand shadow, form, and shape.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This idea expands to set design as well. The world of theatre also covers a broad spectrum in which SMTD graduates might work in terms of budgets and resources, from local theatre productions to big-budget shows or educational settings. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Judge\u2019 own first job as an assistant set designer after college, \u201cI went to a guy\u2019s house, and we worked in basically his living room,\u201d he said. There was no 3-D printer or laser cutter. \u201cHe was like, make this model, and it was just, you sit there and make it.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

More recently, Judge worked on the design process for the fall theatre & drama production “The Heart of Robin Hood.” As the scenic designer, he began to ask \u201cHow am I going to abstract these trees?\u201d when designing the Sherwood Forest. \u201cHow am I going to take that and make it into something that is creatable and potentially repeatable on stage in some way which is not totally cost and labor prohibitive?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He ultimately turned to artificial intelligence (AI) to spark inspiration. Eventually, he found an image from which a design concept was developed. While this solution was high-tech, he found that in order to bring the scene to life, the team needed to return to basics: building scale models, a full-size prototype, refined the concept further, draping the trees with fabrics and lights before a team of students and scene shop professionals built the design that would make up the Sherwood Forest on the Power Center stage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\"Tree
The final product \u2013 the stage for “The Heart of Robin Hood.”<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

This is why students \u201cneed to put their hands on things and do the tactile work,\u201d Oliver said. Once they master the basics, then they can implement the high-tech and, \u201clook at the information again with a whole other lens.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Article summarized from U-M SMTD\u2019s Michigan Muse<\/em>: Striking a Balance: A Mix of High and Low Tech in Costume and Scenic Design<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With the rise of high-tech in nearly all aspects of our world, it\u2019s important to appreciate and continue practicing low-tech, hands-on skills, which even the most innovative of technologies would be meaningless without. This is the goal of Kevin Judge, scenic designer and associate professor of theatre & drama, who aims to find the right balance of high-\u2026 Read More »<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":191,"featured_media":27106,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","_umich_oidc_access":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27103","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-campus-news"],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Set-Heart-of-RobinHood.jpeg",1500,1002,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Set-Heart-of-RobinHood-400x266.jpeg",400,266,true],"medium":["https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Set-Heart-of-RobinHood-300x200.jpeg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Set-Heart-of-RobinHood-768x513.jpeg",665,444,true],"large":["https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Set-Heart-of-RobinHood-600x401.jpeg",600,401,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Set-Heart-of-RobinHood.jpeg",1500,1002,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Set-Heart-of-RobinHood.jpeg",1500,1002,false],"excerpt-thumbnail":["https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Set-Heart-of-RobinHood-200x140.jpeg",200,140,true],"themonic-thumbnail":["https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Set-Heart-of-RobinHood-60x42.jpeg",60,42,true],"ioslider-thumbnail":["https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Set-Heart-of-RobinHood-658x300.jpeg",658,300,true],"post-thumbnail":["https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Set-Heart-of-RobinHood-665x444.jpeg",665,444,true],"400x250-crop":["https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Set-Heart-of-RobinHood-400x250.jpeg",400,250,true]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Josephine Anderson","author_link":"https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/author\/jganders\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"With the rise of high-tech in nearly all aspects of our world, it\u2019s important to appreciate and continue practicing low-tech, hands-on skills, which even the most innovative of technologies would be meaningless without. This is the goal of Kevin Judge, scenic designer and associate professor of theatre & drama, who aims to find the right…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27103","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/191"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27103"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27103\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27202,"href":"https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27103\/revisions\/27202"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27106"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27103"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27103"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27103"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}