Week 4 Texture

This Saturday I went up to my old stomping ground and had the privilege to see Cuesta's "Man of La Mancha". The show was full of interesting choice for this productions. The play was set in a holding cell and the actors climbed up and around the bar while the audience watched through the bars. with the action in a barred metal cage, the stage and our view from the audience always was full of texture. they used moving gobos to give the effect of passing trees on their horse rides and spot follows that were shot into the cage from right behind the audience seating that followed the action on that stage but also enhanced the shadow of the bars. This was a very interesting use of set design and lighting design and it keep me very engaged the entire show. Really this piece inspired me to start looking at what could be interesting when we play with texture as lighting and or concealing the face of an actor, and how and when it would actually be beneficial.

Week 4 Texture

 It's weird how much we pass by these textures everyday and don't even realize them! I was having trouble finding texture throughout the day since the sun wasn't out as much during work, and I wasn't as inspired with the leaf texture from all the trees. As I was walking home from work at night I saw the lamp posts creating this texture on the floor which reminded me of the GAM Gobo G357 "Beams". It's interesting to see how most gobos are inspired by textures all around us, whether its organic, or geometric, it seems like there is a inspiration for all sorts of patterns and textures. It's hard to see the actual fixture itself but its a fairly simple lamp post with a hexagon cylinder shape. Also what intrigued me so much was because it felt like a pattern and color I would see on stage. The amber warmth with the texture creates this geometric sun, almost like the rising sun from the old Japanese flag. I wish my photo could have been more clear, but I was still glad to be able to capture this texture.

Week 4: Texture

I was having a bit of difficulty finding inspiration for this week's blog post, but when I came home last night my housemate was doing homework in the living room, and my eyes were immediately drawn to the lamp she had on. The photo doesn't really do it justice because of the way my phone camera works with strong sources of light, but the room looked much brighter than it did in the photo, and the light source looked much softer and more diffused. I was struck by just how soft the ring of light looked, especially since it was in a perfect circle. I feel like I've grown pretty used to either the cool, fluorescent and even lights of classrooms and my kitchen, or of harsher lines, such as the wall lamp I use in my room (my apartment's bedrooms don't have ceiling lights) or my desk lamp. This soft, warm light was really gentle on the eyes, and it reminded me a bit of a Fresnel light because of the soft ring. It gave my living room a very homey, cozy feeling, and in a strange way, seeing the light made me a bit happier to be home.

Week 4: Texture

Given the theme of texture, I started thinking about how light can be “textured”, as in the amount of light hitting something is broken up (ie, from a gobo). But then I realized that as light hits an object that itself has a three-dimensional texture, it will hit the different parts of that differently. I tried to keep that duality of texture in my mind as I walked around this week, and the other day I saw something that perfectly fit that double theme. In the little hallway stair area, leading from the arts courtyard toward my office, I glanced over and saw how the light was streaming through the trees, creating this leaf breakup pattern on the bumpy stucco wall. I was struck by how the various parts of the leaf shadows were all different shades. Of course, some leaves are thicker, or perhaps the sunlight angle was going more directly through depending on the orientation of the leaf. But even more than a pattern, I felt that you could really see how the different leaves all had different qualities and dimensionality. And then looking at the uneven surface of the wall, each of the bumps having a different shape and height made for all different of their own shadows and different ways they are taking in the light. Light really does sculpt objects, as we talk about in class, and looking for this kind of scene made me start thinking about that in a much more intentional way.

Week 4 - Texture: Stairs

Earlier this week as I was going down the stairs near studio 4, I noticed a really cool shadow on the ground. So, when I reached the bottom of the steps, I decided to turn around and snap a photo. The thing that intrigued me the most about the shadow was the fact that even though the railing is straight, the shadow is zigzagged. Also, depending on which step you look at, the zigzags are different lengths. The top of the steps just look like diagonal lines whereas the bottom of the steps look more like chevrons. Everything in the photo makes it look very industrial - the linear pattern, the black shadows against the grey stairs, and the metal rails with the concrete steps. This photo really made me think about how light and shadow is affected when it is cast on objects that are not evenly shaped. The shadow is even slightly altered if you look at the ridges on the edge of each step - it creates little waves in the shadow. Had the top of the photo been cropped out, I think it would take me a minute to realize that I was looking at a staircase because of the unusual texture on it.

Week 4: Texture

Window Detail, UC Irvine.

I snapped this shot while chatting with Pam in the Prop Shop on campus. We were talking about a show, and all of a sudden I jumped out of my seat and started shooting. For this post, I had thought of grabbing things with different textures from around my apartment, and then shooting them in the dramatic golden hour light of early evening — but when I spotted this I immediately responded to its texture. The relationship between light and texture can exist between a beam of light and the surface it hits as well as between light and shadow. In this shot, afternoon light crosses through a tree outside the window, outlining the blinds with veins of branches and leaves. What I love so much about this image is how the outline of a tree, when in front of light at such a low angle, produces a mottled and distorted texture on a surface. In theatre, we strive to recreate this sort of texture through the use of gobos. This image has an added bonus with vertical lines of light breaking up the image even further, creating contrast. This breakage of texture creates a sort of tension within the stillness of the image.

Week 3 Morning Warmth

Light has a way of giving warmth to a cold early morning even if it is far away. I took this picture on Thursday morning at 6:00am and as I was crossing the bridge. I caught a glimpse of the vibrant pink and purple clouds peaking between the arts buildings. Since we have these massive building all around, we tend to not notice a lot of natural light. But this morning the light sneaks in and wraps you up in its warmth.  The contract between the shades the buildings are creating and the pink glow the sunrising is a really beautiful. I love that the contrast in list also made me feel a little warmer when I saw it, the cold grey morning had a little warmth with seeing the warm color revealed.

Week 3: Nostalgia

Costa Mesa, CA

Costa Mesa, CA

I took this picture today as the morning light flooded through my window. I bought this filter for my window to mask my room from the parking lot below it, but I chose this one specifically because I love the way light refracts through it, creating a rainbow on my walls. It is whimsical and pretty and without anything special I get a prismatic light show. Sometimes I feel like I'm looking into the sun through water, and at other times like I'm getting light through a stained glass window. I have an image in my head of my grandmother's house in Pasadena, which had a standing lamp with little crystals hanging from it. It sat by the window, and when the afternoon light would hit its strands of cut glass, I would run my hands through it, sit underneath it and watch the tiny rainbows it cast on the walls, imagining myself in a world that shined and sparkled like these crystals did. Maybe I'm too old to imagine myself as a character in some fantastical world like I used to when I was a child, but the light in this photo reminds me of that time when I was little and fascinated by tiny forgotten corners, where beautiful things reside.

Week 3: Clouds and Colors

I took this photo while walking to class on Thursday afternoon, and I was struck by how muted everything looked. We've been getting so much heat and sunlight these past few days, which made the world outside look so bright and colorful. The sky was a bright blue, the leaves on the trees and the bushes were a vibrant green, and the paint on the buildings in Claire Trevor shone with bold colors; everything had a dazzling, vivid quality to it. The world outside on Thursday was a stark contrast to the bright world I'd grown accustomed to in the days before. Instead of a intense blue, the sky was cloudy and gray, and the colors of the plants and buildings were a lot cooler in comparison to how they'd been the past few days; it was almost as though someone had turned down the "saturation" setting in a photo editing app. It was interesting to observe how this affected my mood-- there's been a lot on my mind these past couple weeks, and the dull-looking world outside seemed to put me in a more pensive and thoughtful mood than usual. I wonder if it was because there weren't bright colors to distract me from my thoughts, or maybe because we tend to associate grays and cool tones with solemnity and warmer, brighter colors with happiness, like how somber scenes in film and television are often colored with a blue tint.

Week 3 - End of the Day

This past Thursday was unexpectedly long for me. Usually, I go home right after class so I can eat lunch and do my work. However, this Thursday, I got a last minute call to go into work. My boss made it sound like an easy day - we'd be cleaning things up and doing some painting on the new conduit that had been installed in the theater. Little did I know what I'd be in for. I was the first to arrive and my boss informed me that my other coworkers would be coming in a bit later. My job requires a lot of manual labor, which is difficult when you're working alone. By the time the others came in, I was already tired. I ended up staying until 6 pm because of how long things took to do. It was already starting to get dark outside. When I finally got back to my room, this (image) was the first thing I saw when I opened the door. My roommate wasn't home yet, so all the lights were off. I basked in the quietness and the stillness of the room, which was still undisturbed from this morning. The last bit of sunset coming through the window was the only source of light in the room, which gave it a dim, warm glow. It amazed me how much a place I see every single day can change just because of the lighting. It made me feel peaceful and relaxed. All of a sudden, the loud noises from outside and the stress of earlier disappeared and I had a positive ending to my day.

Week 3 Light behind Glass

I wasn't quite sure on coming up with a blog title for this photo, but it was defiantly a fun and unexpected one! I went to Yard House with my two roommates, Marlee and Caitlin. On our dinner table we had a tiny little LED candle light. Once our drinks were placed in front of the fake candle light, it was so cool to see how nicely it lit my glass of coke. It reminded me of how back in the day we used wine glasses as a form of gel color! It was also interesting how a little bit of light could create this ombre effect. I wonder how this effect could be brought on stage. It almost seems as if it was light shinning through a stain glass window with liquid and texture within it. I wish to know more about how light reacts with glass, such as why we would pick glass gobos over some steel gobos. Even in art galleries I have worked with art pieces that are either made of glass or protected by glass. It was always fun to see how a small source of light shinning behind a reflection of the glass could change an entire look.

Week 3: Saturday Sunset

It had been a long week, and I was very ready to be home, to actually spend the evening in my apartment, and to not have to wake up at any particular time tomorrow. It had been a good week, yes, and it’s nice to no longer be in the insanity of the “beginning” of the year, but into more of a rhythm, and it was very productive, but it was exhausting. I do appreciate that on this campus, I do get time outside between classes, I can have meetings outside, or even just go read outside my office. But at the end of the day, it’s a lot of time inside for rehearsals, classes, and just working. So I treasure any outside time I get. In particular, there’s something so magical and beautiful to be about a sunset. I’m basically always in rehearsal when that’s happening— it’s kinda light out when I go to rehearsal (maybe not bright, but I can see), and then by the time I walk home it’s fully dark. So to get to be walking home during sunset was so wonderful. I was walking home, listening to some music, grateful but exhausted, and I happened to turn around and the sunset took my breath away. It was basically dark, but seeing that last bit of orange and purple peek through the trees near the horizon was sort of a beautiful metaphor for the end of the week, saying “goodnight” to this week’s installment of craziness. The sky wasn’t quite dark yet, it was the beautiful slate blue on an incredibly spectrum, getting darker and darker as I looked higher and higher, which made for pretty stunning silhouettes of the trees. And then the tiny crescent moon off in the distance made it look more like a postcard than real life. Natural light is just so wonderful, and being stuck inside all day, I become  that much more appreciative of that beauty. Seeing how the sunlight was waning and warping into glorious colors, but still lighting up the sky enough for a stark silhouette (an image I really love) made for a perfect end to the week. 

Week 2: Inspiration

I was doing homework the other day when I noticed the way the sun was coming through the window of my apartment. The light, broken up by the shutters, shone brightly on the table and lit up the otherwise dim room, but what really caught my attention was the way the light hit my succulent and welcome cat. I don't really know why it was, but somehow I felt inspired. The way the light landed on the table, for whatever reason, made me feel hopeful- for what, I'm not sure, but it still felt very calming. Maybe it was because it made me take note of the sunny day outside, or maybe it was the way the light contrasted with the dark table. If nothing else, it did inspire me to finish up my homework!

Week 2 Inspiration: When You're Given Lemons

Just outside of the Claire Trevor Theatre and right before the bridge to the humanities campus is a small ornamental lemon tree.  This sad lemon with what looks like a rough plummet from the branch it also was deformed and mangled. I would have never noticed this natural peculiarity if it was not for the light. The sun was just starting its evening fall, so the light was bright on the tree and its branches were directing the light on to the lemon. The light was wrapping around the lemon and casting shadows down each of it crevices, highlighting all of its flaws and beauty. This great light moment, reminded me that even deformed, broken, anhslighly rotted thing can be beautiful. We often forget that beauty can be found all around us if we just pay attention!

Week 2: Inspiration

Detail of Ceiling. Ace Theatre, Hollywood, CA.

Panoramic detail of ceiling. Ace Theatre, Hollywood, CA.

What is it that we find so inspiring about light? I have been asking myself that question for as long as I can remember. Perhaps it is that light is such a perceptible yet untouchable form, that we can feel at times enveloped by its presence. I was at a show in LA this weekend at the Ace Theatre in downtown, where the extraordinary romanesque and gothic inspired architecture of the venue is brought to life and made whimsical or mysterious by even the most simple set up of lights. When I am in venues such as this (of which there are many in downtown LA and Hollywood) I always look up, because the ceiling often has a story to tell that is entirely different from the one unfolding on stage. The expansive ceiling and surrounding proscenium in the Ace Theatre was lit by LED tape and LEKOs, with a set up that was uncomplicated and straightforward. But even this simple configuration, with its clear paths and patches of multicolored light, provided an environment that made me feel inspired and excited; through this I was immersed into the architecture of the building and the music I was hearing. It enclosed the space around me, while multicolored lights concealed corners and crevices in shadow, leaving pockets of space shrouded in pulsing mystery. It didn't take extra fancy effects or equipment to create an environment that was inspired by joy, playfulness and beauty — it just took some creativity and light.

Week 2 Inspiration: My Dogs

I was walking my dog Shiao Ai yesterday at San Diego in the afternoon with my friend's mom's dog Dixie. The sun was slowly setting and the blinding light haloed so nicely around the dogs, and I had to take this picture! Ever since my parents stayed in Taiwan, and my status changed, my dog was suffering through moving homes, and not being able to be close with me. She is the only closest family I have left and she keeps me going. I hope to someday provide something nice for her. Right now my friend's mom is taking care of her and I'm glad that now she feels safe, and she has found a home that she knows she won't be removed from. The sun makes the photo look hopeful and heartwarming, and its so inspiring to see how natural light could invoke such a beautiful emotion.

Week 2 - Inspiration: Pasadena Playhouse

Last night, I went to the Pasadena Playhouse to watch a production of Our Town. As I was waiting for the show to start, I began to look around the theater, since it was my first time there. I was amazed by the size of the space and the architecture. The thing that interested me the most was the proscenium arch - more specifically, the top of the arch where there was a detailed carving of a face with swirls around it. Although my phone camera doesn't capture it that well, I enjoyed the way that the theater was lit. I liked how the lighting created shadows on the proscenium because it showed all the small details of the carvings. I also liked how there were shadows on the arches in the ceiling - that highlighted just how big this space was. It made me think about how theater is both about endless possibilities and attention to detail. I also liked how warm colors were used on the walls, while a contrasting blue was used on the ceiling tiles. That made me think about how lighting can make things look completely different than what they actually are. Even before the show started, I was already feeling amazed at how much work the crew put in to make the theater look the way it did. I am always inspired by seeing other people's work because it gives me a chance to learn about what kind of possibilities could be created in theater and it gives me new ideas to work with on my own.

Week 2: Inspiration - The Long Walk Home

As I walked home from rehearsal last night, my mind was racing. Rehearsal did not go well, for a number of reasons, and so I was in my head thinking about what I could do better, what I would do tomorrow, what are the things I could fix. I was down on myself, and focusing on all the problems. I was also stuck thinking about very literal, very pragmatic things. And I overall felt stuck and in this cycle of knowing things I don’t do well, but not knowing how to improve them. As such, I was mostly looking at the ground, and of course not in a great mood. I felt myself in this downward spiral, and took a breath to try to clear my head and get a moment to look at the stars. Of course, where I was, there really weren’t stars— there were several buildings, and the lamps along the walkways made it hard to see past. But then I noticed the lamp in a new way. The way it was this small contained object, emitting this powerful, almost blinding light. It reflected a beautiful, surreal green on the leaves just behind it. The tree almost looked cartoon, the leaves were so bright, and the crooked bending of the branches with its multiple colors seemed so beautiful it had to be created. And in that moment, I felt a little bit better. There was this beacon in the dark, helping guide me home. This tiny little container let out such a powerful light, it light up the walkway and the tree and was almost shocking how powerful it was. And it made the tree so beautiful and theatrical and intriguing and enchanting. And these ideas hit me in an unexpected way. I breathed a big sigh, and continued home. I was inspired by this beacon of light in the literal darkness, that gave me hope in a moment of feeling powerless. It lit things up around it with its own small but mighty force, and reminded me I had that power too. It was strong and bright and pure, determined to continue on. It was much needed inspiration after a very long week. 

Week 1: Beauty in the Darkness

This is a photo of Antelope Canyon in Arizona, taken on my recent road trip here to Irvine from my childhood home in CT. My mom came with me on the road trip, and even though I had been living with her for the last four years, we kept such different schedules and are such busy people that we didn’t have a whole lot of time to really connect. As I’m finding my adult path, developing that new relationship has been very important to me, and this road trip was an amazing way to just be the two of us. Antelope Canyon in particular is something we’ve both been talking about wanting to go to for 20 years. We used to go out to the southwest a lot as a kid, but haven’t in a long time, so (a) it was important to me and to her to finally go here and accomplish this dream, and (b) it was refreshing and healing to go and build new memories there for the first time since my parents’ divorce (which of course can sometimes put a weird feeling in regards to family traditions). Of course, it is an absolutely gorgeous place. And this photo reminds me of the awesomeness of being in this amazing place, and how happy and fulfilled I was to finally go to this place. So, this picture gives me that sensation of the joy and beauty of the experience, and the triumph of finally experiencing this place; I was not disappointed. The rocks are so vibrant, red and tans at first, but as you get closer, you see purples and blues and yellows. And as the light bounces through the canyon walls, you get these amazing shadows and colorations, lights and darks. Which to me all made a metaphor for this experience. There was light squeezing through, revealing things you might not have seen before, and creating something beautiful and new. It allows you to see different colors, see things in a different light (literally), see new depths and angles, see the layers and details, and end up with something beautiful. And that is exactly what this trip was about for me and my mom. Finding something new, getting to know each other better as adults, and finding beauty and light and excitement in a place and time when things can sometimes feel dark and weird. Allowing love and light and beauty into the dark chasm of reality, and enjoying something that much richer for it. 

Week#1 Texture

This was a photo taken at a Italian restaurant called "Sammy's". What intrigued me was the texture of the fixture. The neatly woven basket with a small opening evenly lights each table. What was so weird was that there was barely any texture shown on the dinner table. It was very faint, yet it was still evenly filled. Other than the fill that is created from the other hanging fixtures, there still wasn't any other light on the dinner table. From the bottom photo you can tell that there is a hot spot around the plate but the spread is still even. The fixture has elegance and it serves it's purpose as a even source with slight texture. It would defiantly be interesting to recreate this look with theatrical lights, and gobo textures. Even though the photo isn't grand or complicated, it still has simplicity and elegance.

Week 1: Clubbing

I went to a clubbing event last Thursday, and I had a great time hanging out and dancing with my friends. When I got there my attention was immediately drawn to the lights- lighting plays such an important role in the clubbing aesthetic/atmosphere, and these were no exception. Vibrant lights flashed above the dance floor in neon colors like blue, purple, and red, and more often than not they were synced with the music the DJ was playing, further adding to the clubbing mood. Though the lights were bright, they still allowed a relative privacy and anonymity on the dance floor, unlike the harsh work lights one often sees at these venues before or after the clubbing hours. Due to the colors and the way the lights were flashing, facial features were often more concealed than revealed, and it was hard to see anyone clearly. All in all, the lights and music combined to form the perfect clubbing atmosphere!

Week 1: Big World

Baywood is were my heart lies. This is just in front of the Inn that I worked at through undergrad. I still walk down every time I visit. This weekend I walked down to the bay and as the sun was getting swelled up by the water it left us with a warm pink moment. The warms of the colors made the cold beach breeze seem warmer. I love that in the bright back light was making everything else just a faint shadow really makes the colors even more captivating. Makes you feel small and at the same time this moment inspired me to think beyond myself, live and strive to help the big picture!

Week 1: Reverence

Sagrada Familia, Barcelona, Spain

This week, I have chosen reverence as my topic, because I believe that light in sacred spaces tells an impactful story by shaping the visual tone of an environment – close to what we strive to achieve in theatre. I took this photo on a point-and-shoot while I was traveling Europe in 2012. It is a window in the Sagrada Family Cathedral, designed by architect Antoni Gaudi in the early nineteen-hundreds. I chose this for reverence for a number of reasons, the first being my personal feelings about that sacred space, which relates to the feeling evoked when I look at this photo. I am not a religious person, but ultimately I don't think that religiousness is a requirement for respecting (or having reverence for) sacred spaces such as churches. When I walked into this cathedral five years ago, I was immediately transported into a world which existed in another dimension. It was profound to the extreme -– something I have neither felt before nor since. I maintain to this day that if there is a heaven, it looks like that place.
This feeling of total reverence had entirely to do with the relationship between light, space and architecture within the building. Gaudi was extraordinarily particular with the way light interacted with his buildings, because he believed that light was every bit as important as the space itself. Many of his buildings incorporate natural light as a primary light source, and so are filled with windows and flooded with sunlight. This space in particular is lit only with natural light. There are tinted, colorless and stained glass windows all along the high walls and arched ceilings, and light enters in such a way that the space is shaped and defined by it. A person could stand in one spot in the room for an hour and watch as the light shifts, and the space transforms with the passing of time. To me, this is the ultimate feat of design - creating a space that is intrinsically linked to the light that fills it, and so very naturally aids to telling the story of an environment. If a cathedral is a place for reverence (which I believe it is), then Gaudi has taken that concept and made it physical, visual, and visceral.

Week 1 - Disneyland

Today, my friend and I took a short trip to Disney's California Adventure. It was a pretty hot day in Anaheim and I made the mistake of forgetting my hat. As my friend and I entered this walkway, I was suddenly blinded by the sun. My initial thought was how weird that was since there were so many trees around, but when I looked up, I saw how the sun's rays were peeking through all the branches and leaves. The way that the sunlight went through the trees made it look like there were individual beams of light shining in different directions. This particular view stood out to me even more in this moment because we had just come from watching the Frozen show at the Hyperion Theater, which had a lot of beautiful lighting effects and compositions. So, it was interesting to me to compare lighting that someone had to think about and design to another beautiful "composition" that just naturally occurred outside.