Inquiry

At the start of the episode, Es commented that her practice over the years has been to follow the path of inquiry and then find collaborators who are willing to share their paths with her. What does this mean to you?

–> To me, this shows how you have to get ready with ideas and models (design constraints) before diving into a design/concept, which shows that she is really passionate about her work. Finding collaborators represents how collaborating with a team of people who are willing to work with you and share inspirations/passion is really important because that could often impact the result.

Ingredients

During the episode, Es stated 5 ingredients of stage design… (and perhaps photography). What are the ingredients?

Ingredient 1: Space

Ingredient 2: Light

Ingredient 3: Darkness

Ingredient 4: Scale

Ingredient 5: Time

Pick ONE ingredient and describe or explain what it means according to Es.

–> Scale:

In different performances, you can change the scale, which is the position of a human/object, huge or tiny, depending on the view. The size and the length may change the audience’s mood. For example, a giant close shadow may scare the audience, but a tiny small shadow may be cute for people, not scary.

 

Communicating

For the “Watch The Throne” tour featuring Kanye West and Jay-Z, Es questioned what the word Throne meant to the artists. For them, Throne was being on top and then having to fight to stay on top — in other words, the Throne meant the tension between power and vulnerability. Can you describe how she created a design that communicated the ‘tension between power and vulnerability”?

–> She made a design that Kanye and Jay-Z can perform both fifteen feet up in the air on boxes. Being in a box expresses how they are on top of everyone and are emphasized and focused, which shows power, but at the same time, they can fall down at any moment and are left isolated (showing vulnerability).