Scenography

Recent scholarship has expanded upon the concept of populism as performance to include a focus on how it employs digital technologies. 1 However, a relatively unexplored dimension is the consideration of the relationship between political and 'artistic' or theatrical performances of populism. If the latter appropriate right-wing populist discourse to potentially parody how it frames its nationalist rhetoric as an 'appeal to "the people,"' how do the relationships between performers and spectator-participants differ from those forged through the public manifestations of populist politics? 2 How have artists who engage with populism employed technology to increase the reach and interactivity of their performances, and how does this seek to undermine, and/or generate a troubling 'belief' in,

In this paper, we set out to develop new ways to identify and document local cultural elements in sites that are undergoing transformation. By drawing on the insights of cultural studies, screenwriting, scenography and service design, we build a multidisciplinary design framework for mapping culture that pays attention to the ways in which intangible cultural resources of a place could be brought into interaction with its users. As our empirical case, we focus on the Abattoir, a set of derelict but attractive slaughterhouse buildings that are in the process of being converted into commercial and civic premises. All in all, the paper suggests that this kind of multidisciplinary design framework can be used to improve the audience reception and engagement of cultural mapping activities. From the perspective of service design, it is possible to analyse how the audience experiences the results of mapping, and whether this experience could be improved. Screenwriting and scenography, for their part, can be used to express the mapping results in an impressive narrative and site-specific form, supported by affective, visual and spatial elements.

Mixed reality (MR) technology is currently growing in popularity for applications in the cultural heritage domain. Furthermore, with the ability to be viewed with six degrees of freedom, volumetric video (VV) is presently being explored as a viable approach to content creation within this area. When combined, MR technology and VV present both practitioners and audiences with innovative approaches to the creation and consumption of both tangible and intangible representations of cultural significance. While there are some existing quantitative studies appraising these new technologies, the precise effects of MR in a cultural heritage context have yet to be fully explored. Here we show the results of a systematic evaluation of MR technology as applied in a cultural heritage context, where subject matter expert interviews were conducted to identify how virtual reality and augmented reality technologies are influencing the creative practices of domain experts and audience engagements with modern dramatic literature. Gathered from high-level stakeholders within the cultural heritage domain, our results highlighted the problems, concerns, and desires of users who must consider this technology in practice. We found that MR and VV content were considered by many to be disruptive technologies for the future of film, theater, and performance practice from the perspectives of both practitioners and audiences. We anticipate that these results will help future MR and VV projects to create meaningful content that is sympathetic to the needs and requirements of creators and audiences.

Resumen: La vida del quinto duque de Portland es la historia de una obsesión por el camuflaje y la ocultación, lo que lo llevó a inventar con ingenio una serie de espacios y artilugios para crear en su casa un escenario digno para un juego de invisibilidad y engaño: un coche de caballos especialmente ideado para desplazarse sin ser visto, trampillas, dobles puertas, sistemas de comunicación con el personal, pasadizos y corredores ocultos bajo el suelo, atajos secretos, entre otros. Este artículo da cuenta de la ciudad doble que el Duque diseñó y construyó en Welbeck Estate para vivir su vida entorno a la idea de la ocultación, mientras reflexiona sobre la forma en la cual el tiempo y el espacio se pliegan y repliegan sobre sí mismos en función de las necesidades y de las cualidades creativas de una persona.
Palabras claves: espacio oculto, invisibilidad, escenografía, Welbeck Estate, John William Cavendish-Scott-Bentinck
Abstract: The life of the fifth Duke of Portland is the story of an obsession with camouflage and concealment, which led him to ingeniously invent a series of spaces and gadgets to create in his home a worthy setting for a game of invisibility and deception: a horse carriage specially designed to move without being seen, trapdoors, double doors, communication systems with personnel, corridors hidden under the floor, secret shortcuts, among others. This article gives an account of the double city the Duke designed and built in Welbeck Estate to live his life around the idea of concealment, while reflecting on the way in which time and space fold over themselves in function of the needs and creative qualities of a person.
Keywords: hidden space, invisibility, scenography, Welbeck Estate, John William Cavendish-Scott-Bentinck.
Resumo: A vida do quinto duque de Portland é a história de uma obsessão por camuflagem e ocultação, que o levou a inventar com engenho uma série de espaços e dispositivos para criar em sua casa um cenário digno para um jogo de invisibilidade e engano: carruagem puxada a cavalos especialmente concebida para se deslocar sem ser vista, alçapões, portas duplas, sistemas de comunicação com pessoal, corredores escondidos debaixo do chão, atalhos secretos, entre outros. Este artigo dá conta da cidade dupla que o Duque projetou e construiu em Welbeck Estate para viver sua vida em torno da idéia de ocultação, ao refletir sobre a maneira pela qual o tempo e o espaço se dobram em função das necessidades e qualidades criativas de uma pessoa.
Palavras-chaves: espaço oculto, invisibilidade, cenografia, Welbeck Estate, John William Cavendish-Scott-Bentinck.
Résumé: La vie du cinquième duc de Portland raconte une obsession du camouflage et de la dissimulation, ce qui l’a amené à inventer avec ingéniosité une série d’espaces et de gadgets pour créer chez lui un scénario digne d’un jeu d’invisibilité et de tromperie: une calèche spécialement conçue pour se déplacer sans être vue, des trappes, des doubles portes, des systèmes de communication avec le personnel, des couloirs dissimulés sous le sol, des raccourcis secrets, entre autres. Cet article rend compte de la double ville que le Duc a conçue et construite à Welbeck Estate afin de vivre sa vie autour de l’idée de dissimulation, tout en réfléchissant à la manière dont le temps et l’espace se plient et se replient sur eux-mêmes en fonction des besoins et des qualités créatrices d’une personne.
Mots-clé: espace caché, invisibilité, scénographie, Welbeck Estate, John William Cavendish-Scott-Bentinck.

This article announces the creation of a new section in STP dedicated to the dissemination of Practice-as-Research (PaR) projects. The authors argue the need for a sustainable archive for PaR outcomes, which embraces a range of media formats and curatorial strategies.

In 2014, Secret Cinema Presents … Back to the Future …, tensions emerged within a section of the audience who were not invested in the rules of engagement of the secret cinema brand. The secret location of the screening, the requirement to surrender mobile devices on entry to the venue, and subsequently to adhere to the explicit instruction to Tell No One confused, and frustrated some, many of whom were core fans of the Back to the Future franchise. In 2015, in the Secret Cinema Presents … Star Wars: Empire Strikes Back, both the pre-event and main event experiences were imbued with themes drawn directly from the film and from the wider Star Wars storyworld – that of secrecy and rebellion. In this article we argue that the widespread acceptance and compliance with Secret Cinema's rules of engagement within this particular experience can be attributed to the evolution of the specific formula such that the chosen film affords a specific mode of engagement. The motifs of rebellion and secrecy central to the film fitted perfectly with the Secret Cinema rubric, and thus this ethos was supported and celebrated by audience members across the multiple online and offline spaces. We pay specific attention to experience design and scenographic strategies in these spaces – with a particular focus on narrative spatialisation – and explore how these configurations shaped the audience behaviour. We argue that Secret Cinema deploy an increasingly well tooled formula through which to both guide and develop audience literacies relevant to these novel experiences. There at least three literacies being called upon here to negotiate this form – the ludic literacy of navigating interactive environments, narrative comprehension of complex multi-stranded storyworlds and a meta cinematic awareness of film's construction.