"THROUGHFARE"
BY ETHEL CAIN
LIGHTING DESIGN, PROGRAMING, DRAFTING, AND SCENIC CONCEPT/MODIFICATION
- Jack Janovsky
This design explores the tension at the center of Ethel Cain’s Throughfare, a song from her album A Preacher's Daughter. Cain’s music is incredibly intertwined with a deep and transcending narrative, similar to more theatrical work. Furthermore, her work lives inside a Southern Gothic world, filled with faith, decay, and beauty all tied together.
My evocative concept design highlights the dualities that are persistent throughout the song and album alike. Using lighting to showcase both the desolate abandoned aspects and also the transformative. The design lives in those shifting moments, where something broken starts to feel alive again.
I encourage you to listen to Cain’s song Thoroughfare or her full album A Preacher’s Daughter to better understand the conceptual foundation behind this piece. The inspiration images below offer further insight into the mood, tone, and visual world that informed my design.
PROCESS
This design was visualized in Capture SE, integrating both scenic and lighting elements. Lighting was programmed using the ETC Eos family software, while the scenic environment was built and rendered through a combination of tools and resources. Many 3D scenic elements were sourced from crowdsourced libraries such as 3D Warehouse and Sketchfab. Once imported into Capture SE, I modified, rearranged, and refined these items to to create a cohesive environment aligned with my envisioned concept. Additionally, I built a custom keyboard to control/program in EOS (shown below.)
