[Re]rendering the real: experiments in phantasmagoric intervention and scenographic reverie

Brooks, Jesse

[Re]rendering the real: experiments in phantasmagoric intervention and scenographic reverie

Thesis / Dissertation

2023

Abstract

The research centres principally on the experience of wonder; specifically, exploring strategies for engendering moments of wonder, and allied experiences of intrigue, curiosity and fascination, in both audiences and makers. This enquiry is particularly concerned with the pursuit of wonder in terms of the practice of scenography; understood broadly as the modulation of and play with experiential textures of light, space, sound and object through time. The research is thus embedded within contemporary scenographic context, imperatives and praxis. Drawing on a rigorous theoretical bedrock spanning fields of theatre, architecture and the art of illusion, findings from concomitant research undertaken over the last two years is mobilised towards deepening an enquiry into wonder from a scenographic perspective. Using the notion of ‘phantasmagoria' as an in-road into the research, I utilise performance and scenographic intervention to explore oscillations between the mundane and the extraordinary. A comprehensive analysis of the created performance, its conceptual roots and influences, as well as its position within the rhizomatic research output generated within the coursework forms part of the data that is thoroughly and reflexively analysed; opening up the possibility of noting the ways in which the experience of wonder and the practice of scenography might intersect. As such, the research aims to reflect on, react to and re-render the real.

Keywords

Theatre and Performance

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