Four Shadowers: Light and the Creative Process

Overall Idea:

Two torchbearers shine flashlights onto a whiteboard. Volunteers from the audience then come forward and cast shadows onto the boards, allowing the tracers to trace the outlines of the shadows. This process continues for a period of time, and at the end, a collaborative piece made from the overlaying of the various outlines is the final result.

Early documentation/planning sheets:

(Planned) Room Layout:

The original plan was to have the whiteboards in the center of the room, as shown below. However, due to how impractical it would have been to move the tables and boards, especially considering how the special guests were seated in the tables we'd have to move, we decided to have the boards located in the right side of the room.

Wearable 1: Flashlight Bands

The torchbearers are meant to be a light source rather than simply hold a light source, so we had to find some way to incorporate the flashlights into the torchbearers' outfits. Thus, we went with wristbands that hold the flashlights for them, allowing them to easily shut off the light momentarily by blocking it with their hand, as shown below. Each torchbearer wore one of these on each arm.

Wearable 2: LED Blindfolds

The outfits chosen for the presentation were quite deliberate. The tracers wore stage-crew-esque black outfits, since they are just meant to be the mechanical process by which the shadows are recorded. The torchbearers, however, are meant to be light sources, rather than people. Thus, the two torchbearers (Jan and Erik) wore all white, as well as a white blindf0ld that incorporated sewable LEDs over where the eyes should be. This serves to hide the torchbearers' individual personalities and cements the notion that they are just light sources.