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Texas Applied Arts | The University of Texas at Austin

Entertainment production by rigorous collaboration.

Archives for September 2017

, Filed Under: progress report, Raptor 2017

What can’t you use masking tape for?

Christina here and what a week! If anyone had any doubts that we could get this done, all they had to do was come see our prototypes after just one week.

Week One Structure Prototype

Let’s start with the structure team. We have a harness built on a backpacking frame with attached wooden dowels ribbed over the back to fill out the body of the raptor. Attached at the base is a four foot tail that consists of a wooden dowel with plastic hoops attached. The tail is able to wonderfully wagging back and forth subtly but, because of its length and the angle of the tail, our ‘actor’ had a hard time not hitting people and objects as they walked around. The next stage for both body and tail will be adjusting the size and shape of the structures . The tail team will also be trying to use a slinky snake model for their next prototype to see if they can get more movement out of a shorter tail.Continue Reading What can’t you use masking tape for?

, Filed Under: class resources, featured, guest artists, Raptor 2017

“It is all about telling stories” – Guest Artist Joe Rial

The Enron Raptor Class is delighted to welcome guest artist Joe Rial via Skype. When sharing the concept of this class with my colleagues at the USITT BOD meeting last August, my friend and colleague Tammy Honesty reached out and said, “I know the perfect person for you. Joe can build anything out of foam and tape. He teaches at Cobalt Studios. You have to see his work!” Tammy was right. Joe is a marvel at making all sorts of creatures out commonly found objects like Styrofoam take out boxes, newspaper, dryer venting tubes, plastic laundry baskets, and masking tape to build his creations.

6′ long foam and masking tape headdress.

 

Joe Rial began teaching and making theatre and art in the 80s on Kauai. He credits the limited resources of island life with the development of his creative instincts to build from whatever he found around him. He became a self-proclaimed “modern-day hunter-gatherer skills and a MacGyver’s eye for combining materials. Harvesting resources from the environment that include industrial as well as jungle material”

Laundry baskets used to create spine and vertebrae structure.

His bio shares: “Mr. Joe” found a niche shaping cardboard and rubbish, and using tape as a universal binder to make scenery and fantastical puppets, props, costumes and environments. “Once you realize you can make anything you can think of, the real task is to think of something good”. He has taught from pre-school to college, (not in that order), and now lives in the Redwoods working with adults with special needs and dementia patients. Joe continues to teach summer scene painting at Cobalt Studios and takes commissions for props, puppets and workshops.

“Ka” Created out of foam, masking tape, cardboard, and dryer venting.

 

“It is all about telling stories. By understanding and using the “fingerprints” of your materials, and the alchemy of paint and putty, finished objects will tell their own tale.” – Joe Rial

Our class of makers are in the first throws of rapid prototyping each element of these prehistoric creatures. This week I’ve seen video of them creating small scale leg prototypes on their fingers to test the theory of how the legs could work, to strapping pool noodles to their legs at full costume scale with tape and tie line to examine the shape and stride of this creature. They are building moveable finger joints out of bogus paper and tape, employing coffee lids and packing material into their prototypes. “Mr. Joe” is arriving just on time to share his building practices and help these students bring these creatures to life to “tell their own tale.”

 

, Filed Under: featured, progress report, Raptor 2017

In the Beginning, There Was…?

What would hook someone if they were considering joining this class? Is it the prospect of learning 3D printing, the allure of puppetry, or the thought that they would be a part of ground breaking technology? When one thinks of taking a raptor class, what does one think of? Claws? Teeth? Electronics?

Well, I would bet money that few would think of exercises in organization. Even I will admit that my first thoughts did not go to hierarchical structures, flat organization, nor mind maps. Yet, where else can one really begin when working on a project of this scale? As A.A. Milne said, “Organizing is what you do before you do something, so that when you do it, it is not all mixed up”. And so, an unexpected beginning to a raptor class was formed. We students would set out to develop what is, in my opinion, the most difficult yet crucial portion of the class.

Will we work through flat organization? Will we work by division of body or mechanics? Will there be team leads? All these questions and more needed to be answered before we could get to the teeth and the claws. Answers to questions like these would form the foundation on which everything would be built and lay the basis of all actions to come. If there are cracks here, if there is confusion, the project could and will come tumbling down around us.Continue Reading In the Beginning, There Was…?

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