DH Pixels
A DH Pixels Documentary Film

Creating Scala.

A documentary about the making of Scala, the monumental public artwork that transformed a historic wall at the University of Illinois Chicago into a story of craft, memory, architecture, and belonging.

Film Creating Scala
Directed / Filmed / Edited By Andrew Harris, DH Pixels
Executive Producer Brittany Brilliant, BuilderGrowth
The Film

When A Wall Learns To Speak.

Scala began as an artwork, but the film found something larger inside it, the tension between memory and material, between an old building and a new sense of welcome, between what a place has been and what it might still become.

Before Scala became a finished work, it was a question hanging in space. How do you bring warmth to concrete and brick? How do you carry the visual language of Caribbean neighborhoods into a university building without softening its history or sanding down its meaning?

The answer came slowly, through wood, weight, engineering, patience, and trust. More than 17,000 pounds of carved poplar had to be imagined, shaped, lifted, secured, and believed in before it could become part of the building.

Creating Scala follows that transformation. It is not only a film about installation. It is a film about what happens before permanence, when the work is still vulnerable, when the artists are still reaching, when the crew is still solving, and when the camera is close enough to see the risk.

“Working on a project this large changes the way you see the room.”
Andrew Harris, DH Pixels
Scala Production Still
Main Scala Production Still
Scala Production Detail
Scala Installation Detail
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Creating Scala

16:9 Film Placeholder

Making Of

The Making Was The Story.

The documentary follows the unseen labor behind the finished work, the shop, the wall, the lifts, the calculations, the artists, the fabricators, and the long chain of people who made the impossible feel inevitable.

Fabrication

The Shop

Navillus Woodworks, wood details, cutting, sanding, assembly, and the quiet labor behind the finished work.

Engineering

The Wall

Structural planning, suspension systems, weight, and the technical decisions that allowed Scala to live in the space.

Installation

The Lift

The moment the work leaves the shop, enters the building, and becomes part of the architecture.

The Artists

The Work Begins With Memory.

Scala is monumental in size, but its emotional force comes from the artists behind it. Edra Soto and Dan Sullivan bring different histories, materials, and disciplines into one shared language, a sculpture built from memory, labor, rhythm, and place.

Edra Soto
Artist / Cultural Memory / Architecture

Edra Soto

Puerto Rican-born artist, educator, and co-director of The Franklin outdoor project space, Edra Soto makes work that asks what architecture remembers, what institutions choose to display, and who is allowed to feel at home inside public space.

Her practice probes constructed social orders, diasporic identity, and the legacy of colonialism through architectural interventions that are both intimate and monumental. In Scala, the decorative language of working-class Caribbean homes becomes impossible to overlook, elevated into the center of a major university building.

Soto’s work has been exhibited at the Whitney Museum, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, and El Museo del Barrio. Her work is held in major collections including the Whitney and Pérez Art Museum Miami, with recent public commissions for Public Art Fund in Central Park, Chicago Botanic Garden, and O’Hare International Airport.

“Through architectural interventions, my goal is to express a sentiment of belonging.”
Edra Soto
Artist / Fabricator / Musician

Dan Sullivan

Chicago-based artist, designer, fabricator, and musician Dan Sullivan brings together decades of experience in the trades and the arts. As founder of Navillus Woodworks, he has built a practice around objects and environments that are durable, refined, and deeply considered.

His work moves between utility and poetry, between the shop floor and the stage. His custom furniture has appeared everywhere from independent restaurants to the Hulu series The Bear, while his music under the name Nad Navillus carries the same instinct for structure, rhythm, tension, and release.

In Scala, Sullivan’s material knowledge becomes part of the artwork’s spine. The film follows that rare space where craft, engineering, sound, and sculpture begin to speak the same language.

“This was years in the making.”
Dan Sullivan / Navillus Woodworks
Dan Sullivan
Director’s Reflection

Andrew Harris On Filming Scala.

Creating Scala became a year-long creative undertaking, filmed across multiple locations, interviews, production days, edits, sound work, and the slow build of a story that needed room to breathe.

Andrew Harris, DH Pixels

“Working on something of this scale was honestly hard to explain while we were in it. You are standing there with a camera, watching this enormous work come together piece by piece, and at some point you realize the sculpture is only half the story. The rest is in the pressure. The decisions. The trust. The silence before something gets lifted into place.”

“What stayed with me was seeing how much had to happen before the beauty showed up. The wood, the engineering, the fabrication, the installation, the years of thought behind it. It was tremendous to watch, not because it was big, but because every small decision mattered.”

“Seeing where Edra drew her inspiration from gave the film its emotional center. It was not just pattern. It was memory. It was home. It was a way of taking something people might overlook and placing it where nobody could miss it.”

“As a filmmaker, those are the stories you hope you get trusted with. Something visually powerful, but with a deeper pulse underneath it.”

Credits

The Hands Behind The Work.

Creating Scala was shaped by artists, fabricators, engineers, installers, musicians, producers, photographers, institutions, and crews who carried the work from idea to installation.

Fabrication

Navillus Woodworks

Dan Sullivan, Wyatt Mitchell, Remy Bordas, Caroline Robe, Jessica Vargas, Mark Nemecek, Calvin Anderson, Sabina Clodgo, Hannah Davis, Montrell Dones, Tycory Edwards, Jason Goldberg, Kate Heilenbach, Alex Heywood, Gabo Moreno, Clayton Phillips, Raymond Rodriguez, Sean Rogers

Structural Engineering

Bob Magruder, Goodfriend Magruder CMD

Installation

Methods & Materials

Delivery

Scan Deliveries

Photography

Jeremy Bittermann

Documentary Production

BuilderGrowth & DHPixels

Andrew Harris, Videographer & Editor
Brittany Brilliant, Executive Producer

Music

Dan Sullivan / Nad Navillus

Dan Sullivan, guitar
Madeleine Aguilar, synth / percussion
Rob Bochnik, baritone guitar
Andy Hall, drums
Eddie Matthews, saxophone

Special Thanks

University of Illinois Chicago

Illinois Capital Development Board, LMN Architects, Dock 6 Collective, W.E. O'Neil Construction

DH Pixels Documentary Work

Stories That Deserve More Than Coverage.

DH Pixels creates documentary films, artist films, brand stories, founder stories, and behind-the-scenes films built with a cinematic eye and an editorial backbone.

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