Company:
Transformit Gorham, ME

Project Details

Fabric 1

Symmetry
Producer: Fisher Textiles
Supplier: Fisher Textiles


Design Name
Tom Newhall

Design Company
Transformit

Fabrication Company
Transformit

Graphics Name
(lighting)

Graphics Company
AV Technik

Installation Company
Transformit


Please describe the project specifications

As a pro bono project, we were asked to provide a compelling stage installation for TedX Dirigo, an independently organized TED event held in Bar Harbor, Maine on May 21, 2016. The event was titled Ebb + Flow, a reference to Bar Harbor's location on the coast. All the speakers live and work in Maine, and most presentations were closely linked to Maine or the ocean. The event took place at the beautifully restored 1932 Criterion Theater in Bar Harbor.


What was the purpose of this project? What did the client request?

The assignment was quite open: design an artful backdrop for solo speakers standing on a large stage.


What is unique or complex about the project?

Our designer decided to make the stage look like “...tumbled rocks on the Maine Coast.  I initially designed the set on the computer by building a model of the octagonal theater, then picking the most challenging seats in the house as camera positions.”

Since the project was pro bono, his design was restricted to items already in our rental inventory. Fortunately, we had recently “rescued” a collection of white fabric cubes ranging from two feet to five feet in size from another customer’s warehouse, where, we all agreed, they would have lain unnoticed for millennia.

The designer’s challenge was to make an interesting and beautiful stage without modifying the cubes, and to install them so that they were not damaged. And since the work was pro bono, the designer was also the installer!

“Once the lighting people had hung the projection screen, I went to work arranging the cubes as I had on the computer.  By propping the back corners up with sandbags, resting the pieces on each other at angles, and cradling larger cubes with undressed frames in the rear, I was able to build a stable foundation on which to stack smaller cubes.  The stretch fabric allowed me to dig corners into the flat surfaces, which provided enough tension to hold cubes at interesting angles. The lighting crew placed 8 LED lights in the spaces between the cubes so they could all glow different colors, depending on what was happening during the TedX talks.”  

“Another constraint: in between rehearsals, big-screen movies were being shown in the theater. We made sure that almost all of the set was positioned behind the large movie screen, which filled the entire proscenium. When the movie screen was lifted, we could prepare for the next rehearsal simply by bringing a few cubes out to the outer stage, so they would look like they had fallen off the pile.”


What were the results of the project?

We received many compliments on the beauty and simplicity of the stage. Big impact, small footprint: We were able to keep the cubes in circulation without damage, and we kept everyone’s expenses down. Reduced weight, reused structures, and nothing in the landfill. The recyclers will get their turn, but they’ll have to wait!


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