Full text loading...
-
On the ontology and afterlife of the scenic model
- Source: Performing Ethos: International Journal of Ethics in Theatre & Performance, Volume 10, Issue Ethical Dramaturgies, Dec 2020, p. 25 - 40
-
- 12 Sep 2020
- 12 Sep 2020
- 01 Dec 2020
Abstract
For scenic designers, the building of a scenic model is not merely a component of one’s practice – it is an act of creation. Handcrafted from pieces of this and that, the model’s purpose is to imagine whole worlds in miniature that, in turn, inspire fantasies and daydreams. But when this purpose is ignored, and the model is regarded as simply a tool for communication, it is seen as having outlived its usefulness and often thrown away. On the stage our work exists only briefly and then it is gone (i.e., the bittersweet, ephemeral nature of theatre) but the model need not meet the same fate. The life of the scenic model, like any life spent in the service of art, is worthy of more consideration. We must imagine a better afterlife for it. In this article, I examine an exhibit of my own discarded scenic models titled Please Touch: Revitalizing Scenic Models through Play. Displayed in their ruined state, detached from their original duties as tools for production, I invited audiences to play with the models; to touch and examine them; and to move or rearrange them, as a way to revitalize them through engagement so that they might live again.