Theatre Design & Technology - Feb 1967 - 32

"It is my main intention to make all these elements equal
in energy and visibility," Deborah Hay had said. But there
lay the danger, for the tempi and rhythms were monotonous and shapeless, and the duration was excessive. Still,
this was the first piece of the series to show some serious promise for future realizations.
Robert Rauschenberg's "Open Score", engineered by
Jim McGee, was in two parts with no apparent connection. Part one was a tennis match in which the rackets
were wired for sound--each hit causing a tone, the same
tone for both rackets--and the sound controlling the lights
in the hall. Eventually all lights were turned off at which
time the game was ended. The game itself, therefore,
was the performer. When the hall was plunged in darkness, part two began: Three to five hundred performers
assembled on the stage. When was the last time we had
three hundred to five hundred persons on a New York
stage? But when they are there, milling right before our
eyes, not to be able to see them except by infra-red TV
projection! Rauschenberg was investigating the line between seeing and non-seeing. Actually, however, we
could see them--dimly silhouetted by the light from the
exit signs and the engineers' control boards. And what
they did for endless minutes was a useless exercise in
boredom.

lining the rear wall. Each car had a coaxial unbilical cord
reaching to the ceiling. Meanwhile a soundtrack blared
out nearly indistinguishable yet subliminal propaganda against the U.S. Department of Defense, the Vietnam war,
and "the gases and chemicals used for 5 years" there.
It was the Viet Happening. It was also hard on those who
didn't like war movies, for the agonizingly loud commentary was not obliterated by the diverting girlie shots; but
the acoustical threshold of pain does have some affinity
for a war film. Instead of being a sugar-coated pill, this
event was a pill-coated sugar. Evidently what was attempted was a visual and aural mosaic of images in many
directions, but a ground cloth serving as a screen for an
overhead TV projector surely should have been raked to
make its images visible.
continued on p. 36

Robert Whitman's "two holes of water 3" opened (after an overture of gunshots acoustically magnified) with
polyethylene-wrapped automobiles one-by-one circling the
floor into position to project images--some live TV of
girl ies, some war movies, some news flashes--onto screens

RECENT DEVELOPMENTS

12.3.1. The 1966 edition of the English Translations of
German Standards (DIN), comparable to the ASA, is now
available from Deutscher Normenausschuss (DNA), 1 Berlin
30, Burggrafenstrasse 4-7, West Germany. A special listing
of standards developed in the area of the theatre, but mainly in the German language, is also available, entitled Normen-Verzeichnis fur die Theatertechnik.
The catalog issued by the American Standards Association
may be obtained by writing to 10 East 40th Street, New
York, N.Y. 10016.
04.3.3. To write performance specifications for entire bu ildings might revolutionize the entire building industry. Science
News reports (Jan. 14, p. 41) that government planning is
turning to this form-follows-function approach in several
areas: the U.S. Navy, and the General Services Administration.
John Eberhard, director of the Institute of Applied Technology, a division of the National Bureau of Standards, is
the main proponent and agent in this departure from conservative custom-tailored specifications. He believes that
"buildings should be built the way airplanes and spacecraft
are today--in whatever way will best do the job, rather than
to fit a preconceived notion." Each building is described
by what it is supposed to do, rather than by its physical
measurements. The designers are asked to break new
ground. They must be masters of the latest developments
in technology and materials and devise a "system" to fill
the needs spelled out in the" contract definitions."

GARY W. GAISER

It will take three large corporations more than six months
to finish the amazingly detailed performance specifications
for the Navy's Fast Deployment Logistic ship system.
Applied to the theatre, this approach might be classified
as the "best possible integrated system" for promotion of
creativity, material purchases, production service routing,
access to equipment, rapid programming and evaluation of
progress, efficient action areas, audience needs, and audience evaluation feedback.
Standardization of many utilities and lower costs should
follow the use of this approach. However, most important
will be getting the building architect's and engineer's voice
and imagination engaged in theatre design, which, like ship
design, is one of the most backward areas in U.S. technology.
06.1.0. The Indiana University Theatre has announced a
special stage lighting show to be presented May 19. Projection and lighting techniques will be featured. Xenon and
tungsten sources, lens and direct-beam systems, and still
and moving slides or frames will be demonstrated. Color
and lighting techniques will range over the capacities of individual and large numbers of instruments, incorporating
standard low voltage and quartz-iodine sources. Emphasis
will center on such integration of instruments as performance conditions require.

[]ill[] THEATRE DESIGN AND TECHNOLOGY

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Theatre Design & Technology - Feb 1967