OAS Node #1 @BAT HAUS: Whatever It Maybe ∞ [Internal Review]

Page 10 of Jeff Sugg's portfolio. Click image to download the PDF of Jeff's portfolio.

Whatever It Maybe ∞
Jeff Sugg at OASN1@BH (August 22, 2012)
By Paul McLean

Jeff Sugg parked his street-painted punk van directly in front of Bat Haus about an hour before his Occupational Art School Node 1 presentation was slated to begin. After a quick smoke, Jeff - master theatrical projectionist, designer, artist, visionary and enabler of visionaries [+] -  commenced to unload the gear he would be using during "Digitizing Theater" into the Bat Haus space. For tonight's program, OASN1 co-organizer Chris Moylan had supplied a digital projector, which Jeff would use to share his slideshow, movies and to create a real-time vignette, an immaterial hand-operated & projected reference table for Sugg's favorite inspirational picture texts. Sugg's influences? Sviboda, Bucky Fuller, Da Vinci...

I provided an overhead projector. The overhead throws a representation of Peter Cooper by Shane Kennedy in the rear of the screening area. The Cooper is our OASN1@BH mascot. Alice Cooper's "School's Out" is the OAS theme song, though I haven't shared that bit of intel with anyone yet, except for you, dear reader.

Tonight (that night), we're in for a treat.

∞

Click to read more ...

[OAS NODE #1]: [TONIGHT!][Jeff Sugg: "Digitizing Theater"]

Jeff SuggOccupational Art School Node 1 at Bat Haus is honored to present Jeff Sugg: artist, theatrical projectionist, designer [+] on the topic of "Digitizing Theater," Wednesday, August 22 from 7-9PM. Tonight's discussion is the first OASN1@BH class session in our Fall 2012 course. 

[JEFF SUGG'S BIO]:

Jeff Sugg is a New York based artist, designer, and technical advisor. He is a co-founding member of the performance group, Accinosco, with Cynthia Hopkins and Jim Findlay and has co-designed their two critically acclaimed pieces, Accidental Nostalgia and Must Don't Whip 'Um. Other theater designs include: 33 Variations (projections: Arena Stage, La Jolla Playhouse), The Slugbearers of Kayrol Island (co-set & projections: The Vineyard Theater),¡El Conquistador! (lights: New York Theater Workshop), The Thomashefsky Project & Let Them Eat Cake/Of Thee I Sing (projections: San Francisco Symphony), Trece Días (sets & projections: San Francisco Mime Troupe) He has also worked as designer for multiple works with theater companies including: The Colllapsable Giraffe, Pig Iron Theater Company, DASS Dance, Transmission Projects. Music design: Natalie Cole (lights), and Natalie Merchant (lights).

In addition to his work as a designer, Mr. Sugg is regarded as a premiere technical consultant and system designer. Some credits include: The Wooster Group (technical artist), Laurie Anderson (video system design), Richard Foreman (video system design), Mikel Rouse (video system design), GAle GAtes et al. (effects designer/engineer), and The Baseball Music Project (video system design). Mr. Sugg has also taught Media and Technology at Swarthmore College. He has led several workshop/intensive courses in media technology at the University of Illinois (Urbana-Champaign), Rude Mechanicals Theater Company, and others.

For his work on Must Don’t Whip ‘Um, Mr. Sugg received a 2007 Bessie Award and was nominated for a 2007 Hewes Design Award. He was also nominated for a 2007 Hewes Design Award for his work on ¡El Conquistador!.

For his work on The Slug Bearers of Kayrol Island, he received a 2008 Henry Hewes Award, 2008 Obie, and a 2008 Lucille Lortel Award.

A Jeff's-eye view of the stage.

[PROPOSITIONS]:

1. If drama is the lens through which humanity views itself, how will we see ourselves when that vision is mediated via networked computer arrays? Will theater inevitably become mechanized? 
2. How can or will acting, directing, scripting, blocking, audience interactivity and experience, etc., be affected by new media's intervention in the dramatic sphere?
3. Is there an emergent theater appearing or promised, driven, by the intervention of digital tools and techniques?
4. What does this phenomenon, the digital theater, mean for the economics of theatrical production?
5. How is movement on stage, and the dramatic imagination, adapting to 01 conditions?

One of the shows Jeff worked on.We'll be continuing a discussion started earlier this summer when OAS Co-organizer Paul McLean visited Jeff at St. James Theater to view a tech rehearsal for Bring It On - The Musical, while Jeff was working. We'll be talking about how the computer has shaped new theater practices and hierarchies.

OAS Node #1 @BAT HAUS [News & Updates]

The pre-launch festivities at Occupational Art School Node #1 at Bat Haus in Bushwick on Thursday, August 9 felt "historic," according to OwA co-organizer Chris Moylan, one of the attendees. The performative presentation by Bold Jez had the air of an incantation. Jez made a point of acknowledging in subtle ways all those who have already sling-shot into other worlds (we all thought of Alex Carvalho)[+], and their presence was present in the beautiful array of artifacts from the anarchives in various states of display and array in the excellent Bat Haus co-work space. For example, when pointing to the big Magic Mountain canvas installed just inside the front door, and the MoMA banner draped in the center of the main room, Jez invited everyone who had worked on these "living documents," to use the 60 Wall term, to identify themselves and recount the experience of participating in the actions of emergent creativity that produced the banners. The sense of intimate community was palpable, almost tribal, amongst the original Arts & Culture crew/revGamers/Magic Mountaineers/Novads. [+] One of the evening's highlights - there were many - involved #theShamanGeneral otherwise known as #theColonizedIndigenous reading his now-monumental ana-poem (link to the original performance at Liberty Square will be added here) from the Etherpad he had just built, as an anarchivist vehicle for documenting his life in time. Noting that the tool enabled novadic participation as communercise. The magnificent Direct Action Flaneurs anchored the program to the street, & built a fine, sturdy bridge between the World, USA, NYC BK/Bushwick - L stop Jefferson & our interior architecture (dimensional & the Bat Haus'). The neighborhood folded into our event, ran over it, typed it, and cheered it. It was a joyful dance!

Friday, Jez & I met for debriefing. We covered a lot of territory. One of the most fruitful turns is the clarification of our program practicum at OASN1@BH, which will develop directly from the example provided by #theShamanGeneral otherwise known as #theColonizedIndigenous. From here throughout the residency Phase 1 (end of October), we will cite an event that's happened, then in some manner translate it for OASN1, then add (N+1) a teaching/learning component to the transmission.

Tonight [Saturday], we follow #TITMOTA 1 with the second iteration of #TITMOTA.

Now, some news about the next two OASN1@BH events.

∞

Eric Leiser, "Aleph 2"

Friday, August 17 (9/17/2011 + 11 months), we will officially launch OASN1@BH with an evening "On Hologalactic." Eric Leiser will host a discussion about his recent show at All Things Project at Neighborhood Church of Greenwich Village, and his upcoming trip to Hiroshima, Japan, for the Hiroshima International Animation Film Festival. We'll be sharing more details between now & Friday. Here's Eric's impressive bio:

Eric Leiser is an award-winning artist, filmmaker, animator, puppeteer, writer, holographer and curator working in the LA, New York and London area. He has created 3 animated/live action feature films and 25 shorts as well as works that integrate painting, animation, puppetry, holography, sound and live performance/installation. Leiser is interested in how animation transforms perception when it is combined with live action space creating a fantastical/spiritually surrealistic quality.  

Eric's solo work has exhibited at  MASS MoCA,  Istanbul Modern Museum of Art,  Thessaloniki Center for Contemporary Art,   Ruben H. Fleet Space Center^[2] in San Diego, California , (V & A) Victoria and Albert Museum, The MIT Museum,(BFI) British Film Institute, Anthology Film Archives, LA Film Forum, San Francisco Film Society, Fringe Exhibitions^[4] in Los Angeles, California; Goldsmiths, University of London;^[5] School of the Arts Institute of Chicago;^[5] Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing, China, Live With Animals in New York City^[6], Bourne Hall in Hastings, East Sussex, England along with international group shows. His holograms have been featured in in such publications such as a National Geographic Magazine.

His films have screened at film festivals worldwide such as the Annecy International Film Festival, Hiroshima International Animation Film Festival, The Istanbul International Animated Film Festival, The San Francisco International Animated Film Festival, EXIS Experimental Film Festival, Seoul, Korea among others. 

 He has made 25 short films, eight of which appear in the DVD release Eclectic Shorts by Eric Leiser, and three features: Faustbook, released April 25, 2006 by Vanguard Cinema, and Imagination, released theatrically in the US and Internationally in summer 2007 and February 2008 on DVD by Vanguard Cinema.  Imagination was featured in the May 2008 issue of Animation Magazine.^[8] "Glitch in the Grid" was released theatrically in the US and Internationally on October 2011 and February 2012 on DVD through Vangaurd Cinema. 

He is the founding member of Albino Fawn Productions along with his brother and collaborator musician Jeffrey Leiser.

Eric is an alumni of CalArt's Experimental Animation program.

For updates www.albinofawn.com

National Geographic article on Eric's hologram:

http://tvblogs.nationalgeographic.com/2010/06/28/holographic-universe/

∞

On Wednesday August 22 OAS has confirmed Jeff Sugg as our first guest. We will discuss the ways Digital has altered theater, and theatrical production, its hierarchies, rehearsal patterns, selection processes [+]; as well as the possible new forms that may emerge from the phenomena in play. Here is Jeff's bio:

Jeff Sugg is a New York based artist, designer, and technical advisor. He is a co-founding member of the performance group, Accinosco, with Cynthia Hopkins and Jim Findlay and has co-designed their two critically acclaimed pieces, Accidental Nostalgia and Must Don't Whip 'Um.33 Variations (projections: Arena Stage, La Jolla Playhouse), The Slugbearers of Kayrol Island (co-set & projections: The Vineyard Theater), ¡El Conquistador!The Thomashefsky Project & Let Them Eat Cake/Of Thee I Sing (projections: San Francisco Symphony), Trece Días (sets & projections: San Francisco Mime Troupe) He has also worked as designer for multiple works with theater companies including: The Colllapsable Giraffe, Pig Iron Theater Company, DASS Dance, Transmission Projects. Music design: Natalie Cole (lights), and Natalie Merchant (lights). Other theater designs include: (lights: New York Theater Workshop) [+]

In addition to his work as a designer, Mr. Sugg is regarded as a premiere technical consultant and system designer. Some credits include: The Wooster Group (technical artist), Laurie Anderson (video system design), Richard Foreman (video system design), Mikel Rouse (video system design), GAle GAtes et al. (effects designer/engineer), and The Baseball Music Project (video system design). Mr. Sugg has also taught Media and Technology at Swarthmore College. He has led several workshop/intensive courses in media technology at the University of Illinois (Urbana-Champaign), Rude Mechanicals Theater Company, and others.

For his work on Must Don’t Whip ‘Um, Mr. Sugg received a 2007 Bessie Award and was nominated for a 2007 Hewes Design Award. He was also nominated for a 2007 Hewes Design Award for his work on ¡El Conquistador!.

For his work on The Slug Bearers of Kayrol Island, he received a 2008 Henry Hewes Award, 2008 Obie, and a 2008 Lucille Lortel Award. [+]

Must Don't Whip 'Um [Jeff Sugg: co-Set, Video, & Production Design]Next week the Occupational Art School Node #1 will launch its new website, post our sign-up forms and terms, and build out our social media array a bit. A lot to do! Let us know if you have any questions.