Spring Show 2021: MAKING A SCENE

SCI-Arc Spring Show 2021 presents Making A Scene, a film and installation directed and curated by SCI-Arc faculty Natou Fall (M.Arch 1 ’19) and Zeina Koreitem. Experienced virtually, this year’s Spring Show exhibition will be staged simultaneously as experimental narrative film and archival stream highlighting extraordinary student work from the past year—screened live for viewers all around the world on May 22, 2021 at 6pm. Koreitem and Fall will moderate the event, joined by special guests Hernán Díaz Alonso, Mira Henry, David Eskenazi, Jeremy Hartley, Andrew Zago, and John Cooper.

The official exhibition text reads:

Bit by bit, the past
Recovers the present
Through
An imaginary mise-en-scène
Of a visual experience
Which ever convenes
Many gazes

– Jean Luc Godard, (Hélas Pour Moi, 1993)

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Mise-en-scène is a French expression that can be translated as both a verb and a noun. As a verb, it is the “act of staging,” the action of “putting onto the stage.” As a noun, it is the setting itself, the milieu of production, which facilitates the making of a framed image.

The expression thus contains two meanings. On the one hand, it refers to those processes that aim to produce and articulate the relationships between different layers of an image: movement, sound, foreground, background, light and color, etc. On the other hand, it refers to the total effects of those relationships in space and time. To “make a scene” is then both to frame an image and to embody it; to produce a screen, so that scenes can be seen.

960 E 3rd is a second home for the student body. Given the challenges of the last year, the story we wanted to tell mirrors the spectrum of intense and even sometimes contradictory emotions and sensibilities that, in turn animated the past academic year: uncertainty, emptiness, nostalgia, screen immersion, and hope.

The film brings us back into the building by visualizing the sounds and textures of SCI-Arc. Visuals of the film are accompanied by an ambient soundscape composed of sounds most familiar to many who have spent time at SCI-Arc. Screen installations play student work from the 2020-2021 academic year which are displayed across different scenes. Other scenes are paired with audio and video content of events led and run by students.

Archival Streams

Student work is curated into video reels, showing close-ups and textures of the work. The back of house and the logistics of MAKING A SCENE are revealed in viewable google drive folders, organized by scenes.

SCENE 01

LIBRARY NORTH

Student work, as well as events from the past academic year have been curated into animated reels. To dive deeper into the organizational structure of the film and back of house of the show, a plethora of folders and documents are available in the "Archival Stream".

SCENE 02

LIBRARY SOUTH

Student work, as well as events from the past academic year have been curated into animated reels. To dive deeper into the organizational structure of the film and back of house of the show, a plethora of folders and documents are available in the "Archival Stream".

SCENE 03

CORRIDOR

Student work, as well as events from the past academic year have been curated into animated reels. To dive deeper into the organizational structure of the film and back of house of the show, a plethora of folders and documents are available in the "Archival Stream".

SCENE 04

STUDIO

Student work, as well as events from the past academic year have been curated into animated reels. To dive deeper into the organizational structure of the film and back of house of the show, a plethora of folders and documents are available in the "Archival Stream".

SCENE 05

SPANISH STEPS

Student work, as well as events from the past academic year have been curated into animated reels. To dive deeper into the organizational structure of the film and back of house of the show, a plethora of folders and documents are available in the "Archival Stream".

SCENE 06

GALLERY NORTH

Student work, as well as events from the past academic year have been curated into animated reels. To dive deeper into the organizational structure of the film and back of house of the show, a plethora of folders and documents are available in the "Archival Stream".

SCENE 07

GALLERY SOUTH

Student work, as well as events from the past academic year have been curated into animated reels. To dive deeper into the organizational structure of the film and back of house of the show, a plethora of folders and documents are available in the "Archival Stream".

SCENE 08

THESIS PIT ENTRY

Student work, as well as events from the past academic year have been curated into animated reels. To dive deeper into the organizational structure of the film and back of house of the show, a plethora of folders and documents are available in the "Archival Stream".

SCENE 09

THESIS PIT INTERIOR

Student work, as well as events from the past academic year have been curated into animated reels. To dive deeper into the organizational structure of the film and back of house of the show, a plethora of folders and documents are available in the "Archival Stream".

SCENE 10

SPRAY BOOTH

Student work, as well as events from the past academic year have been curated into animated reels. To dive deeper into the organizational structure of the film and back of house of the show, a plethora of folders and documents are available in the "Archival Stream".