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TEACHING THEORY AND CRITICISM OF SCENE DESIGN

T. D. DINULOVIC, S. MILICEVIC

Abstract

Term scene design relates to professional, artistic, curatorial, theoretical and ideological practices developed from the expanded meaning of scenography – as semantic category and artistic discipline. The first researches in this area in Serbia started in 1996 with the series of exhibitions and theoretical symposia dealing with the phenomenon of spectacle in the contemporary world, and resulting in scene design being defined as a joint process of conception, creation and realisation of a scene in the broadest sense of the word. Or, more precisely, as a creation of a complex synaesthetic environment, physical or metaphorical, much broader than actual theatre space, in which scene can be build or thought. Introduction of this interdisciplinary field into the education system in Serbia, first at the postgraduate level (as MA and DA programmes), and most recently at the undergraduate level (as BSc programme at the Faculty of Technical Sciences in Novi Sad), resulted in the need to establish and publish a theoretical platform through which relevant ideas and phenomena, identified in the research process, can be explained, argued, classified and systematised. Above all, there was a need to define the actual term of scene design, having in mind all of its potential meanings – within the professional theatre practice environment, artistic and curatorial practices, as well as the contemporary society. The real challenge, however, was set in the area of teaching scene design as theoretical discipline, followed by the need to critically analyse many of the artistic practices. For this purpose, the broadest theoretical discourse was developed through a series of definitions proposed by a number of scene design practitioners from various fields, placing scene design in the wide creative field – from theatre to contemporary practices in arts and culture in general. This process resulted in a wide phenomenological and debatable map, consisting of a large number of theoretical issues, but with no aspiration to be final or completely determined. In that sense, this map should be seen as the starting point for the analysis of scene design phenomena. Further challenge or even provocation started with the formal introduction of the course “Theory and criticism of scene design” at the MA programme entitled “Scene Architecture and Design“. The main question was not how to teach actual theory but to teach about theory. Initiated as an experiment, the debate challenged various aspects of the field, resulted in thorough reconsideration of many of the theoretical issues. More importantly, it made us understand that scene design as artistic discipline can be defined as eventful art, while teaching theory can be seen as event on its own.

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DOI resolver: doi.org/10.5593/SGEMSOCIAL2014/B41/S14.051

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