JOSEPH A. SARAFIAN AIA

Cirque du Soleil is known for engaging the audience in their performances, blurring the boundary between stage and audience. This project poses the question, “What if the audience were active participants in the show, not merely spectators?” The audience is sitting on a rig which moves within the volume of the theater, obscuring and framing various parts of the stage at different times in the show.

The remaining audience not only sees the paid performers, but sees the interaction of the moving audience members with the performers in a seamless viewing experience. Robot and Architecture are one. The final model is a fiberglass and carbon fiber composite model, actuated by servos connected to an Arduino microcontroller. Two axes of freedom are achieved, allowing the rig to move forward, backward, and vertically.

Published on PitCrit