Daniel Arcé

A visual treatment drawn from the films

Debra McCall wanted a new website for the films of her 1982 reconstruction of Oskar Schlemmer’s Bauhaus Dances. She supplied the films. My work was to develop their web presentation and build a site she could manage independently.

The visual direction came from the Hoop Dance sequence. White rings form changing geometric arrangements around the dancer against a dark stage. I used those rings as the basis for the site’s visual treatment and interaction language, connecting the surrounding design to a specific passage in the films.

A subtle ring-based interaction carries that idea into the interface. The motion refers back to the filmed performance while leaving the films as the main material to watch. The same film sequence therefore informed both the graphic treatment and the motion I implemented.

A custom WordPress theme for the films

I built the site as a custom WordPress theme using Underscores as the starting point. The theme combined PHP with JavaScript and CSS animation. WordPress provided the content-management interface, while the custom theme let me implement the film-derived design.

That separation mattered for the handover. The visual treatment could be specific to this project without requiring the client to return to the code for routine content management. The client could manage the content through WordPress while the theme controlled its presentation.

Self-hosted video

I implemented self-hosted video so the presentation did not depend on third-party embeds. I also added caching to support delivery of the media-heavy site.

The result was a WordPress site built around McCall’s supplied films, with their presentation and supporting content under the site’s own management.