The third episode of the Netflix series Abstract is about Es Devlin, who is a set designer for theater plays and musical stadium shows. From the very beginning, there is a sense of just genuine curiosity that has followed Devlin from a very early age. She is tearing paper and sketching all over blank paper in the early minutes, to describe her process.

There are five “ingredients” that she uses to create her work, and those are space, light, darkness, scale, and time. These kind of slip over into the general design guidelines, like space and scale, but then also she uses time which is a very unique ingredient. This aspect of her design is how the piece will be received through the timeline of the event. For example, she uses the spinning and slidable walls to create a fresh background for all of the different scenes in a specific play. To this she said, “in the end, everything’s going to exist in someone’s memory.” That is an interesting idea to carry into a piece, but I think that is why her stage displays are so well received. She said she became aware of the camera on the cellphone taking hold, and modified her experiences to be seen by every angle at anytime.

Every stage display or experience is so unique, engaging, and entertaining. These do not just come from first idea, but rather from her sketching many ideas, creating mock-up models, and revising ideas to make the final better. Devlin sketches endlessly, and a lot of her process is sketching or crafting. A lot of thought goes into all of her work and that is very obvious. There are wonderfully complex ideas that seem almost impossible to bring into the real life from just sketches, but they are possible and that gives credence to even the craziest ideas can hold some merit so do not be afraid to go there. For example, she uses a sky view of a city placed on its side to give the audience a sense of being in the sky. This is a change of the viewer’s experience without doing much, but she had the idea to make a model city and flip it on the side.

I have always been drawn to the hand made, subversive, diy methods of creating and expressing, and Devlin is right in that vein. She just thinkings of ideas and then just makes them. She does not make excuses or strike down an idea, but goes to a workshop with help and makes things and experiments. Her parents have a house full of random and interesting stuff that they all gathered from junk items that were repurposed for decor. Devlin certainly gained part of her process from growing up in that situation, and there is a scene where she is crafting with her children. She seems genuine and fueled by finding and investigation and creating.