Popular Culture Review Vol. 10, No. 2, August 1999 | Page 45

Monsters of Grace

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Simultaneously, the process of creating the visual environment for the
opera was both labor and equipment intensive.
Monsters o f Grace breaks barriers in technical innovation and pro
duction for digital stereoscopic film. Each scene is animated,
modeled and lit . . . using the full spectrum of AliasAVaveffont
software: Maya, Alias, TAV, Explore, Dynamation, Kinemation
and Composer running on 02 graphics workstations . . . [this]
specialized ... hardware can perform perspective and shade poly
gons in real time, essential for rapid creation of 3-D environment,
[... creating] images for over two hours of 70mm film .. . Every
scene created... for Monsters o f Grace has a team of at least three
people working on it. Once the art department finalizes the story
boards originally designed by Robert Wilson, a modeler is assigned
to ‘build’ the elements of the scene using the computer software
tools most suited for the task. The completed models are then
handed over to an animator who choreographs and executes the
desired action within the scene again within the parameters of com
puter technology. The final member of the team must light the
scene just as though it were a traditionally staged scene, with the
added challenge of creating the depth, colors and textures which
would occur naturally in the real world. Depending upon the com
plexity of the scene, the entire process can take anywhere from
four to 12 weeks. Ultimately plans call for Monsters o f Grace to
exist in purely digital form as a CD-ROM, DVD, three-dimen
sional enhanced website or VR installation. {MOG website)
In short, a complete synthetic, virtual landscape is created through the use of con
temporary computer technology, one in which all is fabricated, real and tangible
but still not derived from nature.
All of this technology would be of no purpose if the completed work was
lacking in a human aspect, however, and this is where Monsters o f Grace succeeds
as a combined live performance/simulated action performance piece. Indeed, I am
deeply suspicious of the announced plans for the work to exist ultimately “in purely
digital form as a CD-ROM, DVD, three dimensional enhanced website or VR
installation {MOG website),” precisely because it is this mixture of human agency
and digital technology that makes the resultant work so compelling. Remove the
members of the musical ensemble from the performance of the work, and you
would have only the “record” of their voices and instruments, accompanied by the
visuals Wilson has designed. It is the contributions of the ensemble members.