Scenographics

Written By Rachel Hann
Featured Publication
Beyond Scenography
Beyond Scenography

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My research on ‘scenographics’ first emerged as part of my monograph, Beyond Scenography. This project investigated the Anglophone appropriation of the term ‘scenography’ and how this now relates to the expanded practices of theatre and performance. The book argued for a critical distinction between ‘scenography’ and ‘scenographic’: where a scenographic perspective can operate beyond the institutional and ideological contexts of theatre. Case studies include scenographic architecture, installation art, protest art, and parades. Since the book’s publication in 2019, I have sought to apply and expand the concept of scenographics to a variety of contexts such as justice, costume, sports wear, and gender.

Publications

Featured
Transgendering-assemblages: Sin Wai Kin’s trans techniques and acts of boybanding
Articles, Scenographics, Costume, transness, Nonbinary, Open access
Transgendering-assemblages: Sin Wai Kin’s trans techniques and acts of boybanding
Articles, Scenographics, Costume, transness, Nonbinary, Open access

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.

Articles, Scenographics, Costume, transness, Nonbinary, Open access
Pluriversal scenographics and staging world feelings: climate crisis in SUPERFLEX’s ‘It Is Not The End Of The World’
Articles, Scenographics, Atmospherics, Open access
Pluriversal scenographics and staging world feelings: climate crisis in SUPERFLEX’s ‘It Is Not The End Of The World’
Articles, Scenographics, Atmospherics, Open access

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.

Articles, Scenographics, Atmospherics, Open access
Costume Scenographics
Articles, Scenographics, Costume
Costume Scenographics
Articles, Scenographics, Costume

What do costumes do? I ask this question with two positions in mind. First, I am interested in how costumes produce a sense of atmosphere, occasion, or event. Second, I propose that costuming as a socio-material technology orientates feelings of world.

Articles, Scenographics, Costume
Gender-Assemblages: The Scenographics of Sin Wai Kin</a>
Articles, Scenographics, transness, Nonbinary, Costume
Gender-Assemblages: The Scenographics of Sin Wai Kin
Articles, Scenographics, transness, Nonbinary, Costume

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.

Articles, Scenographics, transness, Nonbinary, Costume
On Atmospherics: Staging Stormzy and nonbinary thinking
Articles, Atmospherics, Scenography, Scenographics, Nonbinary, Open access
On Atmospherics: Staging Stormzy and nonbinary thinking
Articles, Atmospherics, Scenography, Scenographics, Nonbinary, Open access

Taking the UK Grime artist Stormzy’s performance at Glastonbury 2019 as a case study, this article investigates the tactics, technologies and processes revealed through the act of staging atmospheres.

Articles, Atmospherics, Scenography, Scenographics, Nonbinary, Open access
Painting Scenographics</a>
Articles, Scenography, Scenographics
Painting Scenographics
Articles, Scenography, 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.”

Articles, Scenography, Scenographics
Notes on Beyond Scenography
short form, Scenography, Scenographics, Open access
Notes on Beyond Scenography
short form, Scenography, Scenographics, Open access

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.

short form, Scenography, Scenographics, Open access
Justice Scenographics: Preparing for civilization change in a time of ‘Anywheres’ and ‘Somewheres’
short form, Scenographics, Open access, climate crisis
Justice Scenographics: Preparing for civilization change in a time of ‘Anywheres’ and ‘Somewheres’
short form, Scenographics, Open access, climate crisis

For the Design Studio for Social Intervention, I consider ‘justice scenographics’ to offer a model for speculating renewed human-world relations based on a climate ceiling model of economics.

short form, Scenographics, Open access, climate crisis
Beyond Scenography
Books, Scenography, Scenographics, Costume
Beyond Scenography
Books, Scenography, Scenographics, Costume

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.

Books, Scenography, Scenographics, Costume

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