Publications

Transgendering-assemblages: Sin Wai Kin’s trans techniques and acts of boybanding

This article investigates the artist Sin Wai Kin’s (單慧乾) speculative approach to drag through the prism of ‘transgendering-assemblages’. Influenced by the assemblage theory of Manuel DeLanda and Jasbir Puar, I propose that transgendering-assemblages actualize the properties of transness through particular trans techniques.

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Articles, Scenographics, Atmospherics, Open access Rachel Hann Articles, Scenographics, Atmospherics, Open access Rachel Hann

Pluriversal scenographics and staging world feelings: climate crisis in SUPERFLEX’s ‘It Is Not The End Of The World’

How is a feeling of world produced through staged material cultures? This question provides the through-line to my argument for this article. In an era of climate crisis, acts of representation that enact, invite or irritate conceptual models for ‘world feelings’ are increasingly urgent.

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Articles, Scenographics, transness, Nonbinary, Costume Rachel Hann Articles, Scenographics, transness, Nonbinary, Costume Rachel Hann

Gender-Assemblages: The Scenographics of Sin Wai Kin

The concept of gender-assemblage is proposed as a critical framework to identify, critique and negotiate the more-than-human processes of gendering. Sin’s drag draws upon their non-binary identity to speculate renewed discourses, actions and expectations for gendered practices.

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Ada M. Patterson – in conversation with Rachel Hann

Interview with trans artist Ada M. Patterson (b. 1994, Bridgetown) based between Barbados, London and Rotterdam. She works with masquerade, performance, poetry, textiles and video, looking at the ways storytelling can limit, enable, complicate or abolish identity formation.

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Costume, forewords Rachel Hann Costume, forewords Rachel Hann

Sportswear Performs

Whether the fit of a hat or the flow of a dress, these costumed relations can alter an individual's performance. Athletes know this same relationship. To perform in a certain way again and again, requires a bodily preparation that is inclusive of the clothes worn.

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Staging Trans Feelings: tactical atmospherics and cisgenderism in We Dig (2019)

To talk about ‘trans performance’ is to talk about performances that enact and investigate trans as a political act of affirmation, self-determination, and the felt affects of cis regulation. This paper is a working statement on the stakes at play in arguing the vitality of trans voices and perspectives for our collective social thriving.

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Articles, Scenography, Scenographics Rachel Hann Articles, Scenography, Scenographics Rachel Hann

Painting Scenographics

Silke Otto-Knapp’s paintings could be seen to represent stage environments. But at the same time, one could argue that, as with the stage environments they evoke, her paintings enact a feeling of place that others, complicates, and reveals normative orders of place. This is my starting point for proposing “painting scenographics.”

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At the borders of scenography

Foreward for Scenography and Art History introducing how to approach scenography as a crafting of borders. I always feel that scenography works best at a border. If you arrive to this book as an art historian, border thinking is one key for unlocking its potential for art history. Indeed, I encourage you to think of scenography as the crafting of borders.

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short form, Scenography, Scenographics, Open access Rachel Hann short form, Scenography, Scenographics, Open access Rachel Hann

Notes on Beyond Scenography

Reflecting on writing Beyond Scenography, this essay in English and Portuguese documents the lecture ‘Scenographic Futures’, presented as part of the session PQ TALKS, at PQ 2019, a position statements called ‘Changing the Question’is presented to reflect if rather than asking what is scenography, now the question is what does scenography do?. How scenography affects, channels, and orientate experiences of stage, place, and world.

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Books, Scenography, Scenographics, Costume Rachel Hann Books, Scenography, Scenographics, Costume Rachel Hann

Beyond Scenography

Beyond Scenography offers a manifesto for a renewed theory of scenographic practice for the student and professional theatrical designer. With sections on installation art and gardening as well as marketing and placemaking, this book is an argument for what scenography does: how assemblages of scenographic traits orientate, situate, and shape staged events.

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Articles, Costume Rachel Hann Articles, Costume Rachel Hann

Costume Politics

Costume is subversive. It subverts the rules of a fashion system and exposes the theatricality of dress. Accordingly, the politics of costume are arguably a politics of ‘othering’: how the conscious subversion of appearance serves as an act of bodily estrangement. Yet, as evident in the Prague Quadrennial (PQ) tribes in June 2015, this othering is an active process that is undertaken equally by those engaged in the event of costuming and those who witness this act.

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