We had a fabulous time in Paris! We were there for 8 days so we were able to see a lot!! I can sum up the trip like this: I ate at least one French baguette and one Nutella crepe a day, we climbed up every tower in the city (Notre Dam, Arc De Triumph, Pantheon, Eiffel Tower, Sac Le Carre), and saw a ton of art (Palace of Versailles, Pompidou, Orsay Museum, Orangerie Museum, Rodin Museum, Louve).
One of my favorite sights was walking through the catacombs, which are underground passageways that go all throughout the city. As you walk through, you enter a section of the catacombs were bones were kept because France ran out of places to bury people during the Black Plague. I have some great photos of us standing next to human skulls and femurs =)
Another sight I really enjoyed was going up the Eiffel Tower one night (something I’ve always wanted to do). We stayed up there long enough to see the lights on the tower flicker at midnight. It was amazing, the trip was amazing!
Head on over to Becky Huot’s flickr to see photos from the trip.
Posted in: Blog, Personal
Its been awhile since I posted anything so this post will be an update on my work as well as life…
The start of 2009 has been busy, but its a good busy. January I was the video designer for Impressions of Pelleas, an opera performed by The Curtis Institute of Music. Right after finishing Pelleas, I did a project for Aaron Levy, one of the Board of Directors for Slought Foundation. I designed an interactive presentation and map for one of their exhibitions, Into the Open, Positioning Practice. The Interactive Map is on the Exhibition’s website. Right after finishing the project for Slought, I worked in NYC for 2 weeks as a projection assistant for Columbia University’s Young Company’s rendition of Romeo & Juliet. We designed imagery as well as incorporated 3 live cameras. Recently, I was in NYC filling in for the associate projection designer for the new Broadway show Rock of Ages. The show is really fun and features hit music from the 80s.
As for life, I feel really good about all the work I’ve been doing so far this year. Next month Mark and I will be going to Paris for nine days! We are both really excited especially because neither of us have ever been there. I will be sure to post about that trip when we get back.
P.S. Buckley and turtle say hi!
Posted in: Blog, Personal, Work
After years of begging Mark for a dog we FINALLY got one this weekend. We had started seriously looking last month. We decided we wanted to get a dachshund (aka wiener dog) and wanted to rescue a dog rather then go through a breeder. I had come across the Dachshund Rescue of North America’s website and decided to apply.
The application process was pretty lengthy. First we had to fill out an application, which asked for 3 references as well as different types of scenario questions. Once the application was approved a home visit was conducted. After all that we were approved to adopt Smokey, a one year old healthy, energetic boy who came from a great family but was surrendered to the DRNA because his human mom was allergic to him.
We’ve renamed him Buckley (after Buckley Field – the first place Mark and I met). He is the most perfect dog (and of course adorable). He is already potty trained, hardly ever barks, loves to play as well as snuggle!
Going through the DRNA was the best decision we could have made. Everyone is so nice and more then willing to answer any questions we had. It is obvious that they have the dogs’ best interest in mind. They are a great resource and I would highly recommend going through their organization if you are considering adopting a doxie.
Posted in: Blog, Personal
For the past couple months I’ve been contacting theater designers like a fiend trying to find possible work. Last month I contacted Philadelphia-based scenic and projection designer, Matt Saunders. He told me he was the scenic designer for an upcoming project at The Curtis Institute of Music and asked if I would be the video designer for the show!
It is an English opera called “Impressions of Pelléas” and contains four scenes that include projection. It will only run for about a week (Feb 10 – 15). You can buy tickets online through the Curtis site.
Posted in: Blog, Work
This weekend, Mark and I ventured to Vancouver, Canada. My thesis was accepted as a paper presentation in the one day SAME Workshop (Semantic Ambient Media Experience) a part of the ACM Multimedia Conference. The workshop was set up a little differently as the focus wasn’t on presentations of the papers, but more so discussion of ambient media – I found it to be a pretty interesting day. Once the workshop was over, Mark and I spent the rest of the weekend exploring Vancouver. Check out the pics on flickr!
Posted in: Blog, Personal, Thesis
During the Fringe Festival, I volunteered at the How Philly Moves photo shoot run by photographer and friend JJ Tiziou. While I was there, I participated in the shoot – awesome photo JJ!
Posted in: Blog, Philly
This weekend, Information Overload was back for a second showing at Drexel University’s Mandell Theater for the 2008 Philly Fringe Festival. Philadelphia Inquirer’s Merilyn Jackson wrote a review about the piece for Monday, September 9, 2008 paper saying:
Lauren Mandilian choreographed “Information Overload” to first-rate music by John Avarese and Matthew Baker. She also created splendid animation with letters falling like rain down the screen and architecturally dissecting lines. Five dancers did their turns nicely until a fatal error message appeared on the screen. In this dance there were no errors.
Posted in: Blog, Philly, Thesis
Information Overload will be performed at Drexel University’s Mandell Theater for the 2008 Philly Fringe Festival! I will be partnering with Indigenous Pitch in the show we’ve name Manic Swell. Witness the perfect storm of Hip/Hop Theater, Motion Capture Animation, Multimedia Dance and Aerial Stuntwork. You can purchase tickets for Manic Swell on the Fringe website.
p.s. I am also designing visuals for one of the pieces in SHARP Dance Company’s Fringe performance. You can also purchase tickets for Four on 2 on the Fringe website.
Posted in: Blog, Philly, Thesis
I just got back from the 2008 SIGGRAPH conference in Los Angeles, California. I attended this year’s conference as a Posters Contributor, presenting my thesis, Information Overload. I love my poster design- I used images from the performance to create something beautiful. I figured the other posters would be more technical looking so I wanted to design something that was ascetically pleasing to the eye and would stand out from the other posters. I think my plan succeeded because I got a lot of good feedback from conference attendees about my poster and work.
My favorite presenter at the conference was hands down Artistic Director for U23D, Catherine Owens. Her talk was not so much technical as it was artistic. She talked about what inspires her work, then showed some of her work, and concluded the presentation with U23D. It really allowed the audience to see where she was coming from when she was working on U23D. Overall her talk was really refreshing to hear at a SIGGRAPH conference just because of the fact that it wasn’t so ‘techy’.
Posted in: Blog, Thesis
You’ll never believe what happened to me this week-
It all started when one of my professors put me in contact with a friend of his from high school, Jodi Kaplan. Jodi, received her M.F.A in Film from Columbia and owns a dance booking company. I met with her last week and she asked me if I was interested in editing footage for dance photographer, Lois Greenfield! The footage was for an upcoming project called “Projected,” a dance performance that will project Lois’s images on dancers and fabric. The short film would be on display in a theater lobby in China during the time that the Olympics were going on. Naturally, I said yes- this would be a great opportunity for me! Since I would be going between my internship and this project, Jodi arranged for me to stay in a hostel for the week.
During the week I worked side by side with Lois in her studio editing the footage. She is an extremely nice woman and was a pleasure to work with. I worked really hard on the project and I’m so proud of the final piece. Lois and Jodi were impressed with my work and asked me to work on the project with them in the fall as they create the performance!
Posted in: Blog, Work