Ark/8 — Installation Model

Massing study for the Auda art forum at Ark/8, 115 S La Brea. Modelled at 1 unit = 1 foot.

Moving around

drag: orbit
← ↑ ↓ →: orbit, without a mouse
scroll / pinch: zoom
+ −: zoom, without a wheel
1 – 5: overviews — entrance, plan, room, wall, backdrop
6 – 9: standing in the room at eye level — door, among the suspended panels, on stage, at the column line
0: back to the entrance view
, .: fewer or more people — the same four steps as the Crowd row
[ ]: step through the placements — the same six buttons as the Work row
R: flip the stock between the west side and the east — the Stock row
S: cycle the PA through none, A, B, C — the PA row
B W F P C L G: toggle a layer on or off
?: open and close this panel

Where the work lives

The set is landscape and portrait together, so each placement is a different way of handling exactly that. A, B and C spread the large work along the wall; D and E keep all four together behind the stage. Switch from the Work row or with [ and ]; send one on its own by adding ?work=d to the link.

All five: twenty pieces each — four large (two 4′×8′ upright, two 8′×4′ on their side) and sixteen at 24×36 / 36×24, in a different mix of orientations every time. Nothing touches: the closest two frames in any placement are 3″ apart
A: align the centres. An upright anchoring each end, the two 8′×4′ stacked at the middle, the sixteen in two rows between. The eye tracks the centre line rather than the frame edges, so mixed formats sit together without any looking dropped
B: into the room. The four large stay on the wall on one bottom line at 1′5″, two upright and two on their side. The sixteen leave the wall entirely and hang on their own drops down the middle of the room — the west side becomes a run you walk rather than a wall you face
C: abandon alignment. The large pieces sit at four heights and two orientations; the sixteen fill the pockets around them. Every position placed rather than computed — which is the point. The only one of the five that takes a late addition without the wall being re-set
D: the block behind the stage. All four large works together as one 16′10″ × 8′5″ backdrop for the panel, the sixteen in two rows flanking it. The strongest of the five for photographs taken from the floor, because the stage and the largest work are one picture rather than two
E: the block, and the sixteen suspended. The same backdrop, with the sixteen off the wall and hanging in the room. The wall carries the scale, the room carries the sequence, and the work is something you walk through on the way to the stage

How the spacing was set

Not from what the run divided into — every placement is spaced to the same two numbers.

3″ between frames: tighter and a group crowds; past about 4″ the works stop talking to each other and read as separate objects rather than one hang
57″ centre line: the museum standard, applied to the centre of the grouping rather than to each frame — the part that usually gets misapplied. Individual pieces sit above and below it
the exception: anything behind the stage is a backdrop, not a viewing wall, and is raised so its bottom clears the 1′ deck and the seated panel in front of it

Where the stock stands

Two dressings, flipped from the Stock row or with R, or sent as ?stock=east. Same rails, same stock, different half of the room.

Stage: the shop as it trades — five runs down the west side, the sixth struck to clear the bar corner for service. The work and the stock share the west half, and the rails read as part of the room the show is happening in
East: the west side struck completely and the stock rebuilt on the east half. The stage end becomes one uninterrupted room — wall, work, panel — and the retail becomes something you pass on the way in from La Brea rather than something you stand in the middle of. The bar corner no longer needs clearing over there, so that sixth run comes back with stock on it

The PA

Three placements, from the PA row or with S, or as ?pa=b. Same boxes throughout — a 12″ two-way top and a single-18 sub — so the comparison is about where they go. Cable is drawn the way it gets run: orthogonal, hugging the wall and the deck edge, never diagonally across open floor, and the footages in the readout are measured off those lines rather than asserted.

A: stage corners. Two stacks just outboard of the deck — sub on the floor, pole out of it, top at 7′7″. No rigging, one trip, the least cable. But they stand 6′ off the west wall inside the width of the hang, so from anywhere but dead centre they cover the outer edge of the largest work. Drawn because it is what the room defaults to if nobody decides otherwise
B: outboard, wide. Tops on 7′7″ poles well out into the room, toed in 26° so the coverage crosses in front of the stage instead of being thrown down the wall. Nothing within 18′ of the work stands above 2′4″, so the whole hang reads clean from every seat. The cost is on the floor: two branches cross the walking route and need ramps or a taped line
C: flown, four point. Two mains and two delays hung off the exposed ceiling at 11′11″, above the tallest print in every placement — the top of the D/E block is 10′5″. Nothing on the floor but the subs, no stands to walk into, no sightline to argue about, and the far half of the room is not left to the mains alone. The most cable, and the only one that needs a rigger

DJ booth to the stage: 32′ of run. Measured off the drawn route — down the back of the DJ counter, out to the west wall, north along it behind the stage, in to a distro at the deck’s south-east corner and up. With 3′ of dressing at each end and normal slack that wants about 40′, so order a 50′ cable and coil the rest. A 25 will not reach; buying two 25s and coupling them puts a connector in the middle of the walking route, which is worse than the spare.

Total cable per option, trunk plus every branch: A 63′, B 112′, C 192′. C assumes a separate run from the distro to each of the four flown boxes; one multicore up the riser and split at the ceiling saves roughly 38′ of it. B is the one to watch on the floor — two of its branches cross the walking route.

Getting out

Storefront: the full south face, on La Brea
Fit rooms: the one opening in the north wall — the rest of that wall is solid
Lavatories: west wall, immediately right of the bar; the hallway runs west with Lav 1 and Lav 2 off it

What is drawn from what

Shell: the 65′×65′ space, column line, storefront and the two openings, from the Ark/8 floor plan
Finishes: white tiled columns and plinths, suspended garment rails, the oak counter, the fit rooms, pale polished floor and exposed ceiling — all from photographs of the room
Dressing: the room as it will be on the night: the gallery-wall side cleared, the run by the bar struck, the two runs by the stage down to their rails
Installation: the prints, the stage panel and the DJ stand — the proposal, not the building

The stage is four sections — 4′×5′ each in a 2×2, so 10′ across the room by 8′ deep at 12″. Six seated is drawn tight rather than flattered: a 3′2″ two-seater and a 5′ four-seater, toed in 10°, which once the rotation is counted fills that 10′ edge to edge with 9″ between them. That is 19″ of seat each on one sofa and 15″ on the other — shoulders touching. Two more deck sections is what buys comfortable spacing: six in a 2×3 gives 15′×8′, and 22″ each. Worth deciding before the decks are ordered.

Plan is orthographic. That view switches to a parallel projection, so walls stay parallel and you can scale off it — the 5′ floor grid is the ruler. Every other view is a normal perspective camera. Drag in the plan and you drop back into perspective, because you have stopped measuring and started looking.

Not a survey. Dimensions are scaled off a floor plan drawing, not measured on site. The column line, storefront and back-of-house openings are positioned to about a foot. Verify anything load-bearing, anything you are ordering material against, and the ceiling height before you build to it.

The bar queue is on a loop. Forty seconds: the line builds from the room, is served front first, shuffles forward and clears. It stands 2′4″ off the counter on the guest side and runs south along it, so five deep still stops short of the first garment rail and never crosses the lane. Longer than five and it starts to.