A Coffin Cinema--construction subproject

Initiative

Vampire is an amazing creature who draws people’s attention from medieval ages. Until now, there is still a discussion about the existence of vampires. In my opinion, vampire is a creation of human’s imagination. Even if there are vampires in the world, they are possibly not as charming as described in novels and movies. In that sense, the vampires we know live in the world of films and literature.

Therefore, the most suitable building for vampires is cinema, the place where the first “visible” vampire was born. And the cinema must be 100% percent in vampire style, filling with the atmosphere of death and the power of darkness.

At first, I was trying to build an anti-Christian church which worships devil spirits, because the first vampire Dracula was cursed to be a vampire due to his betrayal of God. Perhaps it would be like the church in Bram Stoker’s Dracula. However, it is rather hard to carry out that plan because there was no scene of the church from the outside in the film. When I was puzzled by that question, Dr. Holmevik provided me an idea—to construct a building like a coffin.

Right! Coffin! Coffin is a great signifier of the undead. A building with the outline of coffin stands for the worship towards death, towards the power of darkness. So I began building a coffin cinema, which provides only vampire films.

Semiotic symbols

Various symbols were employed in this construction to demonstrate the marginalized identity of Jeen Alter, the vampire avatar, who is also the owner of this cinema.

Location

The cinema is located at a relatively remote place of Clemson University Development Island. It is at a corner of the island margin, far from other buildings. And two of its sides face the sea, which stands for the exit of vampires to escape from human society. Its marginalized location also goes with the marginalized identity of the cinema’s owner—vampire Jeen Alter. On the other hand, it helps keep the harmony among buildings on the island by placing it in the corner, because the coffin cinema has completely different style which may look too outstanding and may not fit the landscape if it is located in the crowd of other architectures.

However, the development island is too small. Once the MATRF lab was built up, I realized that the location of my cinema was not remote enough. If possible, I would like to create a forest, and hide the cinema in the middle of the giant trees. As a result, people will not able to see it easily, because vampires are world-weary vagrants.

Actually there is an alternative solution to make the cinema “invisible”—lift it to the sky. However, that does not fit the cinema at all, because it is too close to the heaven, and there is so much light vampires would be burnt. Actually, an ideal location for the cinema would be under ground, as deep as possible.

Huge size
The coffin cinema is about 5 persons tall, but the pillars and the wide steps make it look even taller than its exact height. I was trying to construct a building of vampire nobles, so it has to look magnificent, look like a building of some royal members. And the huge size helps a lot to establish that impression to people. Since it is tall, people have to raise their heads and look upwards to see the whole cinema. Moreover, people may have a sense of pressure because of the building’s height, which clues the owner of the cinema has great powers.

Huge pillar torches around
There are four tall pillar torches made of rock standing at the four points of the bottom step. And there are four piles of fire burning on the top of the pillar torches. Specifically, the four pillars are strictly arranged in order. They are in the same height, and the fires have exactly the same size and shape.

Similarly, the pillar torches are also designed to make the building look magnificent. I was inspired by ancient Greek architectures, like Parthenon which is purely formed by sets of pillars standing in order. Being in order means control and absolute authority. Therefore, again, the huge identical pillar torches clue the owner’s power and superior status.

Additionally, fire in burning on the top clues it is always night there, and the darkness is around the building.

Open cover as entrance
This cinema doesn’t have a door in walls, and the only entrance is the slot of the open cover. I was trying to make the slot as narrow as possible, because I want to make it like a trap, a prison, where it is hard to escape from. It is like once a human turns to be a vampire, there is no way back no matter how regretful he/she is. They cannot escape from the curse, the darkness forever.

On the other hand, in films and nobles, vampires can fly. And only those who can fly are able to enter the cinema. So it requires a superman power to get inside. And it also clues that the owner probably has more super powers than the ability to fly.

Red walls, red floor, red ceiling
The red color is used in the both sides of walls, floor and ceiling of the cinema. That color makes people easy to get excited or even violent. And the red color also reduces the sense of distance. In other words, the room looks smaller if it is in red. And that is why the cinema looks much smaller from the inside than the outside, which is the exact effect I want, because it is a coffin! The smaller viewers feel about the space inside, the better the coffin is.

The wide screen

I took the advantage of the coffin’s shape, and set up a wide screen by connecting three screens together. By doing that, the cinema looks like more technologically advanced, which represents the significance of vampire films, since it has received a large amount of investment.

The bleeding cross and the water jar
There is a bleeding cross and a water jar full of blood from the cross in the back of the cinema, which is a copy of the church in Bram Stoker’s Dracula. The reason why I put those in the cinema is because that is the origin of vampirism. And the purpose of that design is to remind people coming to see vampire films with the identity of vampires-- the deserters of God, the marginalized group of mainstream society, the runagates of the human world.
Additionally, I add a fire to the connection of the cross and the sword which doesn’t exist in the original film scene. That fire is the flame of Dracula’s anger and hatred towards Christianity.

Techniques learned

In the beginning, I doubted whether it was possible to construct a complicated building with a few shapes of materials like balls, half balls, cuboids, cylinders and cones. But as playing with the shapes, I got much better at form polygons by combining and overlapping several shapes together. I was able to create various things, by resizing and organizing limited template materials, modifying the texture, color, bumpiness, transparency. For instance, the hexagonal coffin cover is formed by six squares. And I was even able to create liquid effect, such as the water jar and the bleeding cross.