Sparks fly at the opening ceremony of the annual USITT National Conference, held this year in the fabulous Salt Palace in the shadow of the Wasatch Mountains. Salt Lake City welcomes the Conference and its commerce with a candle in the window, if you will - a sign in the window of pubs and restaurants bearing the organization’s insignia. Friendliness abounds among the locals and the attendees alike, and why not with St. Patrick’s day just around the corner?
The Conference's keynote speaker and the bounciest man in the northern hemisphere, Tupac Martir was pressed for time by a lengthy opening ceremony, but his designs and ideas filled the room with an ambiance all their own just the same. With a pep in his step fit for the yellow brick road, the bouncing designer seemed fit to burst with ideas, yet when he spoke to the heart of his latest project, his feet stood still and the room went silent. “The most terrible thing that could happen to a human being”, he relates, “happened to me. I realized I was going to die.” And with only a moment for his audience to absorb the brilliance of his muse, he hopped back into his presentation, capping with an introduction to his latest project: a fifty year manifestation of the human Self.
The aptly dubbed Unique dissects Martir’s thoughts on what it means to be “me” through exploring a series of notes taken from his 5am journal entries that have since been distilled down into their essence, which take shape as a series of sketches against accompanying quotes. In practice, the images he draws resemble a modern version of cave paintings. When cut from sculpture, the lines reach out with a mother’s touch to brush the instinctual core of our desires - and our despair.
In speaking on his journaling process, Martir says that he would write down “everything that came into [his] head, and some of the things [he] found were very nice and very grand and others were quite - frightening, really”.
It takes a great amount of courage to thrust oneself into the sight of their heart's reflection in the search for Truth, but still Martir has undertaken the Sisyphean task of seeking out the heart of the human soul by exploring his own uncharted muck and mire. With each installment over the next fifty years, he and his team will compose a full installment of music, sculpture, and lighting; every piece in harmony with the next until the project’s completion.
The USITT National Conference runs from Wednesday, March 16 through Saturday, the 19th and will feature displays of new technologies, award ceremonies, speaker series with distinguished artists, and a vast array of sessions available for attendees to learn about their craft from the experts.
