Scenographic Workshop | A Wall

constructing scenarios in the city

a wall scenopraphic workshop

Angus James Hardwick, Helene Garde Lind, Irina Solop, Nella Qvist

constructing scenarios in the city

table of contents site plans

p. 3 - 4

introduction p. 5 proposal p. 6 - 12 references p. 13 - 15

Contact Angus Hardwick angus.hardwick@gmail.com Irina Solop irina.solop@gmail.com Helene Garde Lind helene_gardelind@hotmail.com Nella Qvist nellaqvist@gmail.com

constructing scenarios in the city

1:5000

two backyards in “Latinerkvarteret�

constructing scenarios in the city

1:2500

site #6

#7

site #6 Klostergade 32H at Great Coffee site #7 Klostergade 30, at Ballet akademiet

constructing scenarios in the city

introduction: a wall

wall dividing two backyards in Klostergade

The wall is a basic architectural element that has a distinct and specific history. It’s ‘invention’ as a structural element set the column free and has since become a key spatial organiser, and even political tool. Our selected site is divided, separated, and defined by a large wall. This wall simultaneously acts as a barrier hiding all activities inside and outside from each other. This wall, and the surrounding buildings focuses our attention inwards to a café and paved courtyard that still operates as a working and busy urban place. On the other side of this wall our attention is to the entry of the Ballet academy and a parking lot. This wall hides from view the activities which occur in its immediate proximity, however looking above and past this wall, we become aware of an urban place which has many visual layers. We propose two sites for performances to occur: in front of and behind the wall. We use this wall as the key point of departure for our scenographic setting.

constructing scenarios in the city

the proposal

We propose two performances occurring one after the other on repeat. We wish to dematerialise and rematerialize this wall for both the actors and for the audience. Our proposal limits the audience to one side of the wall, the Great Coffee courtyard, but we desire two plays to occur on either side of the wall, these plays may be independent or interrelated, however they will occur in a linear sequence, one after the other. We use the metaphor of the three traditional parts of a theatre with its theatron or raked seating area for the audience; the orchestra where the actors would perform, the skene in front of which the actors would perform, and behind which would act as ‘backstage’. Our proposal comprises of three components: Behind the wall [skene] - A mirrored / iridescent sky In front of the wall [orchestra] - A 1:1 image as backdrop [theatron] - Temporary informal audience and cafĂŠ seating

constructing scenarios in the city

constructing scenarios in the city

behind the wall [skene]

A mirrored / iridescent sky This audience will experience the first play as an audio play with mirrored images of the actors located backstage. The audience will not directly see the actors as they are positioned on the opposite side of the wall. Three large sky mirrors are positioned above the wall which the actors will control with a simple rigging mechanism. To give visual queue to the sounds the audience will hear these mirrors capture an areal perspective of the actors below, making partially visible to the audience what lies immediately beyond the wall. Once the performance is complete the actors will adjust the mirrors to a near vertical position, ‘hiding’ the mirrors from the audience but revealing the top surface of the mirrors. This surface will be painted with a blue/pink iridescent paint that will capture the sky and afternoon sunlight.

constructing scenarios in the city

in front of the wall [orchestra + theatron]

A 1:1 image as backdrop The second play will occur in the foreground of this wall, directly opposite the Great Coffee café and audience seating. The ‘normal’ view of the buildings above the wall will be partially obscured by the sky mirrors. The blue/pink iridescent top surface of these mirrors will serve as a backdrop to this play. The second component will be the wall itself. A wide-angle photograph will be taken of the Ballet Academy entry façade, directly behind the wall. This photograph will be printed on canvas at 1:1 scale and assembled in front of the wall, facing the Great Coffee café. The alignment of this photograph with the actual building beyond the wall will give the audience a photographic representation of what ‘actually’ lies beyond the wall. The play, as contrast to the first play will be predominantly visual.

constructing scenarios in the city

[theatron] - Temporary informal audience and café seating Currently the Great Coffee café has five shipping pallets stacked in the courtyard which café patrons use as temporary seating. We propose to build a row of inexpensive raised seating which will be usable to both audience and café patrons. This informal mix of spectators may engage unexpected café visitors in the activities of the International Living Theatre festival. The seating will comprise of 45 pallets bound together to make the seating.

constructing scenarios in the city

model photographs

constructing scenarios in the city

actor to mirror relationship

2m

5m

6,5m

12m

mirror proportioned for one actor as a monologue or a small group crowding in dialogue

constructing scenarios in the city

references

Dollhouse 2011 Harvard GSD

Using the traditional form of a dollhouse, this interactive media installation projects a narrative of living experiences contained within a hermetic box. We were interested in how this abstract and generic form of a house and it’s inhabitants could be interfered with and adapted to changing contexts. The house ‘moves’ location and this force (seen through the living room windows) is felt by its inhabitants, a change is visible. The house and its looped narratives also explore the impact of revealing and concealing domestic activities within a designed construct.

constructing scenarios in the city

The Maids, Sydney Theatre Company

The Maids, Jean Genet’s 1947 play, presents an intimate setting with three actors (usually only two) on stage in a candid representation of servitude and social oppression. We are inspired by Andrew Upton and Benedict Andrews’ 2013 staging of this play for the Sydney Theatre Company. Andrew’s staged this version in an intimate, but lavish living-bedroom defined by three reflective glass walls with an obscured bathroom at the rear. Life-feed video cameras were positioned across the stage projecting unexpected views on a screen above. Aerial views above the bed … views inside an off-stage bathroom … backstage views through the glass walls of the stage ... views of the dressing table. These projections expose a previously hidden dimension to the acting on stage and present the (still passive) audience with another tool for engaging with the presented play.

constructing scenarios in the city

the landscape has no rear. Nicola Russi

We saw this video installation exhibited at the 2014 Venice Architecture Biennale and quickly became mesmerised by its seeming simplicity and by the spatial ambiguity it invoked. The mirrors and film captures fragments of real places, but places which we cannot see the specific connection between. The fracturing of place through mirrored and projected image presents us, as a viewer and user of a place, an invitation to reconsider our perception of the place and what future it may hold.

temporary truss structure supporting pivoting mirrors above

mirrors (above)

Anchor points

audience seating, made from pallets

plan 1:100 klostergade

N

iridescent paint

mirrored surface

audience + cafĂŠ seating

1.1 scale photograph mounted to wall section 1:100 klostergade

mirrors adusted by actors