Brooklyn Public Library Grand Army Plaza - 2017
"Sound designers Bradlee Ward and Sun Hee Kil’s design for The Brooklyn Gaze has been selected to be exhibited at the Prague Quadrennial* as one of 51 designs selected to represent the ‘best of theatre design from the U.S. over the past four years’."
The Brooklyn Gaze was a series of projection mapped artworks commissioned by the Brooklyn Public Library. The first, Erasure and Revelation, transformed the facade of the library into an immersive, animated canvas and the library plaza into an inspiring environment sparking critical community dialogue on the most pressing issues of our time. The second, Lightpost, once again transformed the iconic facade of the Library, and added audiencegenerated projections to the design. Both editions of The Brooklyn Gaze featured massive animated texts by thinkers such as James Baldwin, Hannah Arendt, Martin Luther King Jr., Black Elk, W.E.B. Du Bois, and Sojourner Truth, texts that were partially erased, leaving provocative questions in their wake. The work amplified and electrified the thoughts of these diverse and essential thinkers. Immersive animations, accompanied by a sound design by Sun Hee and Brad, spurred a community dialogue on the themes of Justice, Truth, Humanity, and Love. By sharing the enduring eloquence of these great writers in public, and revealing the urgent questions hidden within their most famous writings, Erasure and Revelation activated this archive of wisdom, and Lightpost provided an opportunity for the community to publicly respond.
*Prague Quadrennial of Performance Design and Space (PQ), the largest performance design event in the world. The 14 th PQ will take place June 6-16, 2019, in Prague. The PQ is often described as the Olympics or world’s fair for performance designers. It brings together designers, directors, students, and general public, the PQ provides an unprecedented exchange of ideas that goes beyond the narrow confines of theatrical design and style.