"We called it the Hop Garage because we wanted it to be seen as a flexible, you-can-do-all-kinds-of-stuff-in-it garage," Hopkins Center Director Jeffrey James said. "The spaces that are hard to find here are spaces where you can do multi-disciplinary stuff where there's a blank slate that doesn't suggest a certain way of doing things."
Campus planning and facilities and the Office of the Provost were responsible for overseeing renovations, which included some demolition, electrical work and work on the windows.
"I think one could say the physical spaces have a lot of exposed mechanics such as the ventilation and rigging and I think that provides an aesthetic that's closer to a warehouse or a found space that you might find in a big city," music professor Spencer Topel said. Topel's Advanced Sound Design class is held in the Hop Garage this term. The center room, which is the largest of the three, features a sprung floor suitable to dancing. One of the side rooms has a piano. Though the walls are not entirely sound-proof, James said the committee evaluating proposals was able to schedule the rooms such that noise from simultaneous events will not be an issue.
A variety of programming will be held in the Hop Garage spaces this term, including a showcase by a visiting jewelry artist and an exhibit from music artist-in-residence Tristan Perich. Several student arts organizations have also requested to use the space for rehearsals, including a capella groups, this fall's main stage theater production "Big Love" and the Northern Lights Circus Club, James said. The Hop was able to accommodate all proposals submitted.
Other student-initiated projects will be displayed in the Hop Garage this term as well. Walker Fisher '14 will use one of the rooms for an interpretation and abstraction of Plato's Allegory of the Cave. Walker plans to use "light movement and sound to create meaning and form," and will integrate a combination of dance, projection, animation and sculpture in his project, he said.
"I'm super grateful to have this space because without it my project wouldn't have a landscape to form on," Fisher said. "I think it's abstractly provocative architecture in there, exposed piping, weirdly black and white off-gray tone, skylights, weird curved ceilings. It's fun to transform a place of storage into a place of illusion and magic."
Fisher, who will have access to the space for several days before his showcase on Nov. 15 and 16, will keep his set-up process open and visible to the public. There will not be blacked out windows, and anyone is welcome to come in and give feedback.
"I think that resonates with the whole mission of the Hop Garage," Fisher said. "It's a completely creative safe space to be able to share with others."
The proposal deadline was intended to allow people with specific dates in mind to reserve rooms in advance, and students may still request to use the space, James said.
"What I hope can be achieved is inclusion," Topel said. "It's that [the spaces] can be configured based on people's imaginations rather than external constraint. I want these spaces to feel as free as possible and really promote experimental interdisciplinary work."
