THE MONOGRAM
2023 | Installation, Performance, 16mm Film, Animation, Sound Design, Corian Lithophane
Collaborators/ Contributors: Syracuse University Atelier Course, Alyssa Forte, ElissaLeCoque, Budapest Orchestra, Jacob Dodd
I was invited to Syracuse University as the Alpert Fellow in the Fall of 2023. Through this atelier-style course I worked with a team of graduate and undergraduate students to realize a large scale, multimedia project.
Initially, the proposal was to create a 22’ long lithophane, from a scroll-like, episodic graphite drawing I had done of many tiny moments stitched together, using the CNC router to carve a bas relief of the drawing in Corian. When illuminated from behind, the relief would show a full value range, mimicking a black and white film negative. However, the scope and the vision of the project soon expanded to include choreographed movement, 16mm film, sound design, and stop motion animation. I invited a choreographer Alyssa Forte to work with the students on designing movement for non-dancers, and I invited film professor Jacob Dodd, from SUNY Oswego, to introduce the students to the Bolex camera and join us for the film shoot. I constructed an animation stand in my studio, and together with the students we storyboarded, conducted movement tests, and cut thousands of pieces of colored paper into the elements needed for the stop motion animation, which we shot frame by frame. I worked with composer and musician Elissa LeCoque for sound design, and she engaged the Budapest orchestra in the recording of the musical score.
