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Lively Arts 300

The term “lively arts” is often attributed to American writer and poet James Thurber. It was popularized in the mid-20th century as a way to describe various forms of performing arts, such as theater, dance, music, and other creative expressions.

Curtain for the Lviv Theatre of Opera and Ballet

 

“What art is, in reality, is this missing link,  not the links which exist.

It’s not what you see that is art; art is the gap”

— Marcel Duchamp

 

Today we refresh our understanding of the literature that guides the safety and sustainability goals of lively art events in educational settlements.  Consortia have evolved quickly in recent years, leading and lagging changes in the content creation and delivery domain.  With this evolution a professional discipline has emerged that requires training and certification in the electrotechnologies that contribute to “event safety”; among them:

 

ASHRAE International

Standard 62.1: This standard establishes minimum ventilation rates and indoor air quality requirements for commercial buildings, including theaters and auditoriums.

Standard 55: This standard specifies thermal comfort conditions for occupants in indoor environments, which can have an impact on air quality.

Audio Engineering Society

Audio Visual and Experience Association

Entertainment Services and Technology Association

Event Safety Alliance

International Code Council

International Building Code: Section 303.2 Assembly Group A-1

Illumination Engineering Society

RP-16-17 Lighting for Theatrical Productions: This standard provides guidance on the design and implementation of lighting systems for theatrical productions. It includes information on the use of color, light direction, and light intensity to create different moods and effects.

RP-30-15 Recommended Practice for the Design of Theatres and Auditoriums: This standard provides guidance on the design of theaters and auditoriums, including lighting systems. It covers topics such as seating layout, stage design, and acoustics, as well as lighting design considerations.

DG-24-19 Design Guide for Color and Illumination: This guide provides information on the use of color in lighting design, including color temperature, color rendering, and color mixing. It is relevant to theater lighting design as well as other applications.

National Center for Spectator Sports Safety and Security

National Fire Protection Association

Life Safety Code

National Electrical Code

Articles 518-540: Arenas, Lecture Halls & Theaters

Society of Motion Picture Technology Engineers

Professional Lighting and Sound Association

Dance and Athletic Floor Product Standards: ASTM F2118, EN 14904, DIN 18032-2

Incumbent standards-setting organizations such as ASHRAE, ASTM, ICC, IEEE, NFPA have also discovered, integrated and promulgated event safety and sustainability concepts into their catalog of best practice titles; many already incorporated by reference into public safety law.   We explore relevant research on crowd management and spectator safety.

Planning and Managing Security for Major Special Events

 

“Art is anything you can get away with” — Marshall McLuhan

 

More

International Code Council (N.B. Changes to its Code Development Process) 

International Building Code: Entertainment Occupancies

Section 410: Stages, Platforms and Technical Production Areas

National Electrical Code: Articles 518 – 540 

Code-Making Panel 15 (NEC-P15): Public Input Report 10/1/2020

Code-Making Panel 15 (NEC-P15): Public Comment Report  11/18/2021

ASHRAE 62.1 Ventilation for Acceptable Indoor Air Quality

Princeton University: Set Design & Construction

Building the Virtual Stage: A System for Enabling Mixed Reality Theatre

University of California: Special Effects Safety and Loss Prevention

University of San Francisco Special Effects Safety

Dance Floors v. Sports Floors

Today in History

Theater Safety

“ I think that the theater is the initial glamorizer of thought; where it can be told – without too much disguise but without too much directness either – the secrets, and thereby its antipathies and sympathies – the secrets and the knowledge of the human heart…

…I think that makes the art of the theater as important as the doctor or the psychologist or the Minister…

…I think it’s vitally important that the world knows itself and I think the theater is one of the most immediate means of expression towards that end…”

– Sir Lawrence Olivier

Set design model by Marcel Jambon for an 1895 Paris production of Giuseppe Verdi’s Otello

Demand for live events in college towns — what is now called”entertainment content” — is gathering pace; owed somewhat to an older demographic that prefers expanded social interaction to the online entertainment offerings that the younger demographic prefers*.  We see an expansion of the market in the construction of architecturally astonishing buildings; though the circumstances of pandemic has changed everything.

Today our interest lies in the complex safety and sustainability characteristics of the physical infrastructure — with particular interest in the fire protection, environmental air and electrotechnologies required to make them safe and sustainable.   This facility class is far more complicated technologically and operates at significantly higher risk than, say, classrooms or office space.

The Entertainment Services and Technology Association is one of the first names in trade associations that support the ‘business of show business’ through networking, safe practices, education, and representation.  We follow the standards making activity of its technical committees and monitor public commenting opportunities.  ESTA releases markups of its consensus products for public comment at a fairly brisk pace on its standards development landing page:

ESTA Public Review Drafts

Consultation on several titles run through September 16th.

Transcripts of related standards:

2026 National Electrical Code Public Input Report CMP-15

2026 National Electrical Code Second Draft Report CMP-15

You may obtain an electronic copy at the link above, along with a comment form.  Send your comments to Karl Ruling, (212) 244-1505, [email protected] with an optional copy to [email protected]).  We encourage our colleagues in school districts and in colleges and universities large and small; with responsibilities for the safety and sustainability of cultural resource properties, media centers, performance venues to participate in the ESTA technical standards development program.

Glorya Kaufman School of Dance / University of Southern California

We keep the ESTA suite on the standing agenda of our Lively Arts colloquia; open to everyone.   See our CALENDAR for the next online meeting.

Since the electrotechnologies for the lively arts have evolved into complex, interoperable systems we also collaborate with the IEEE Education & Healthcare Facilities Committee on technical specifics.  That committee meets online four times per month in European and American time zones.

 

Issue: [Various]

Category: Electrical, Infotech, Lively Arts,

Colleagues: Mike Anthony, Christine Fischer, Mike Hiler, Nehad El-Sherif

ARCHIVE: ESTA


*More >>

State Capitals And College Towns: A Recipe For Success

Baby Boomers Are Retiring to College Towns

The original University of Michigan codes and standards advocacy enterprise interviewed an ESTA affiliate in 2015:


Entertainment Occupancies

What Is A Standard Drink?

 

“Rather a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy”

— Some guy

 

Many people are surprised to learn what counts as a “drink”. The amount of liquid in your glass, can, or bottle does not necessarily match up to how much alcohol is actually in your drink.  Even before the United States federal government withdrew from regulating alcohol, the conversation, and degree of agreement and  attitude, remains remarkably regionally specific:

Missouri University of Science & Technology: What is a Standard Drink?

University of South Alabama: What is a Standard Drink?

Stanford University Office of Alcohol Policy and Education

Other nations serve alcohol to students on campus in university owned facilities.

Maynooth University Student Union County Kildare


College students create the ultimate hangover cure


Arenas, Lecture Halls & Theaters

National Fire Protection Association | 2022 Revenue $82M

2026 NEC Code Panel 15 Public Input Report with Committee Response

Note in the transcript above that the four proposals submitted by Standards Michigan relate to healthcare facilities.  Code Panel 15 receives proposals for healthcare and assembly occupancy wiring safety concepts.

Marcel Jambon for an 1895 Paris production of Giuseppe Verdi’s Otello.

The standard of care for electrical system safety in dramatic art facilities in the education, and other industries, is largely established in Articles 518 through Article 540 of the National Electrical Code (NEC).   In some instances, dramatic art activity takes place in athletic arenas so we are mindful of parent standards for assembly occupancies generally; found in Chapter 3 of the International Building Code.

Free public access to the current 2023edition of the NEC is linked below:

2023 National Electrical Code

Of particular interest is the “technical power system” found in Article 640: Audio Signal Processing, Amplification, and Reproduction Equipment.

Access to the International Building Code on “related” occupancies is linked below (Chapter 3 Occupancy Classification and Use):

2021 International Building Code

Note the imperfect correlation between the NFPA and ICC occupancy definitions.  This never happens by design but is sometimes necessary.  Some risk aggregations have to be understood as terms of art; to be understood by seasoned experts in context.  Also, keep in mind that the NEC is a wiring installation safety code.

Proposals for revisions to assembly-related installations in the for 2023 is linked below:

NFPA 70 Public Input Report for 2023 Assembly Occupancies 

Second Draft Report for all articles assigned to CMP-15

The so called “song and dance” sections of the NEC have been fairly “stable” in recent cycles.  Changes to these articles in the NEC 2020 revision are incremental — i.e clarifications on grounding, wiring methods, cord wiring, illumination — and helpful for designers and inspectors.  Nothing budget busting.   Convergence of fire safety, mass notification,  environmental air and visual experiences continues as once-independent technologies continue integration.

2026 National Electrical Code Workspace

 

We collaborate with the IEEE Education & Healthcare Facilities Committee which meets 4 times monthly in Europe and the Americas.   See our CALENDAR for the next online teleconferences; open to everyone.

Issue: [Various]

Category: Sport, Electrical, Telecommunications, Fire Protection, Arts & Entertainment Facilities, Lively Art

Colleagues: Mike Anthony, Matt Dozier, Jim Harvey


LEARN MORE:

BS 7827_2011 – Code of practice for designing, specifying, maintaining and operating emergency sound systems at sports venues

Requirements for Hybrid Media Production

Digital Content Production

Archive / Places of Assembly, Lecture Halls & Theaters

Towards Crafting Beer with Artificial Intelligence

Beer was discovered accidentally as a result of grains being left in water and undergoing fermentation. The process of making beer involves converting the starches in grains (such as barley or wheat) into sugars, which are then fermented by yeast to produce alcohol.  It was often consumed as a safer alternative to water, which could be contaminated with disease-causing pathogens. 

Beer was also used in religious ceremonies and was considered a valuable commodity for trade.  Over time, beer-making techniques spread throughout the world, and different regions developed their own unique styles of beer; now supported by artificial intelligence algorithms that analyze chemical compounds to identify specific flavor and aroma profiles for more nuanced flavors.

Towards Crafting Beer with Artificial Intelligence

Marc Bravin, et al

Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts, Rotkreuz, Switzerland

 

Abstract:  The art of brewing beer has a long tradition that dates back to the very dawn of civilization. While the brewing process has been automated to a great extent, the creation of new beer recipes remains the result of creativity and human expertise with only minor support from software to validate chemical constraints. We collected a dataset of 157,000 publicly available recipes from all over the world and created a transformer-based model to support the creative process in brewing by suggesting new beer recipe templates. As a proof of concept, we crafted the IPA “Deeper” along a recipe generated by our model. Over 100 international newspapers and radio stations have reported on the first AI-crafted beer from Switzerland over the past few months. For the first time, this paper reveals the underlying pipeline architecture of eight transformer networks trained end-to-end that made this remarkable success possible.

CLICK HERE for complete paper

There are several international organizations and agreements that set standards for beer production and labeling:

Food Safety Management

Codex Alimentarius

Beer Pong Robot

— 1895 Banjo Paterson

 

Once a jolly swagman camped by a billabongUnder the shade of a Coolibah treeAnd he sang as he watched and waited till his billy boiled“You’ll come a Waltzing Matilda with me”
Waltzing Matilda, Waltzing MatildaYou’ll come a Waltzing Matilda with meAnd he sang as he stowed that jumbuck in his tucker bag“You’ll come a Waltzing Matilda with me”
….

 

MTRX5700: Experimental Robotics

Fish Fry

Indiana

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Fish Fry is the unofficial homecoming of Indiana agriculture,” said Danica Kirkpatrick, Executive Director of the Ag Alumni Association. “Not only do we have a fun, educational program, but our guests tell us each year how much they enjoy the networking and exhibit area. While you can’t help but notice the obvious Purdue Pride at the Fish Fry, you don’t have to be an alumnus to attend.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Standards Indiana

Audio Standards

“A Dance to the Music of Time” 1640 Nicolas Poussin

 

 

“The voice of the intellect is a soft one,

but it does not rest until it has gained a hearing.”

— Sigmund Freud

 

The education industry provides a large market for occupancy classes — athletic stadiums, student assembly spaces, performance theaters, large lecture halls– that depend upon effective audio systems*.   To an unexpected degree the structural engineering, specification of materials and electrical system design and operation is informed by acoustical considerations.  So does the integration of fire safety and mass notification systems into normal state enterprises so it is wise to follow and, ideally, participate in leading practice discovery and promulgation of audio standards.

The Audio Engineering Society — one of the first names in this space — has a due process platform that welcomes public participation.   All of its standards open for public comment completed their revision cycle mid-November as can be seen on its standards development landing page below:

AES Standards Development

Note that AES permits access to those revision even after the comment deadline.  You are encouraged to communicate directly with the Direct communication with the standards staff at Audio Engineering Society International Headquarters, 551 Fifth Avenue, Suite 1225, New York NY 10176,  Tel: +1 212 661 8528

We keep the AES suite on the standing agenda of our periodic Lively Arts teleconference.  See our CALENDAR for the next online meeting.

This facility class is one of most complex occupancy classes in education facilities industry so we also collaborate with experts active in the IEEE Education & Healthcare Facilities Committee. Much of the AES suite references, and borrows from, International Electrotechnical Commission system integration and interoperability standards.   The IEEE E&H committee meets online again four times monthly in European and American time zones.  The meeting dates are available on the IEEE E&H website

Media production audio visual

Issue: [19-23]

Category: Electrical, Academic,  Athletics, Fire Safety, Public Safety, #WiseCampus

Contact: Mike Anthony, Jim Harvey

*Mass notification systems are governed by NFPA 72 and, while life safety wiring is separate from other wiring, the management of these systems involve coordination between workgroups with different business objectives and training.


LEARN MORE:

Archive / Audio Engineering Society

 

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