Scenographic Knowledge and the Archive: Staged Spaces between Artistic Practice, Cultural Memory and Scientific Reflexion

• Applicant: Privatdozentin Dr. Birgit Elke Wiens
• Subject Area: Theatre and Media Studies ; Art History
• Term: from 2018 to 2020
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 411250630

This project, entitled »Scenographic Knowledge and the Archive«, is a part of the research project »Scenography: Epistemes and Aesthetic Productiveness in the Contemporary Arts« at LMU Munich, which is funded by the DFG Heisenberg Programme. This larger project adresses concepts and aesthetics of contemporary scenography. As a production and mise-en-scene of space, scenography today appears in many guises: The spectrum ranges from stage sets and theatre scenography, performance design and ›environmental scenography‹ through exhibition scenography, film and media scenography to urban environments, spatial design and staged commercial events. Starting from this observation, the conference seeks to explore scenography as an interdisciplinary arts phenomenon. In its diversity of forms, scenography emerges primarily not as a visual art but rather as a spatial art, in which media, objects and scenographic constellations do not figure as a mere backdrop or décor, rather they are actors and ›non-human agents‹ (Latour) within performative processes. It is in this way that scenographic practices shape our spatial experience and perception. This project – in addition to discussing questions of aesthetics of reception – aims to reflect on artistic aesthetics of production by looking at draft and rehearsal processes, spatial and visual concepts, scenographic tools (models, visual storyboards, computer-aided directing etc.), various forms of notation and the question of ›scenographic knowledge‹. How does scenography operate as an art form, a design practice and discourse, and what kinds of knowledge are expressed on both process and outcome? The project module »Scenographic Knowledge and the Archive«, a one-day symposium to the held in Berlin in Fall 2019, explores modes of documenting and archiving scenographic artwork, and especially focusses on ways of knowledge production (›Performing the archive‹, digitalization/digital reconstruction and simulation etc.) and on varying constellations between archive and design practice. The aim is to observe the interdisciplinarity as well as ongoing diversification of contemporary scenography, and also to raise questions on cultural heritage, genres and media specifity, knowledge transfer, local vs. global practices, internationalism and cultural exchange. Combined with case studies of ›scenographic design in action‹, the research aims to develop a theoretical framework for understanding scenography as an art practice and disourse (scenography as ›dispositif‹) and, in addition, provide tools for analysis.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants