ARCHIPELAGO I DESIGN STUDIO MELBOURNE SCHOOL OF DESIGN UNIVERSITY OF MELBOURNE
ARCHITECTURE DESIGN THESIS
JAYDEN KENNY
SPECIAL THANKS TO OUR CRITICS, GUESTS AND SUPPORTS
PROF. PHILLIP GOAD DR. KAREN BURNS
CHAIR. DONALD BATES PROF. ALAN PERT
DENNIS PRIOR BYRON KINNAIRD KIM JANG YUN JOHAN HERMIJANTO MICHAEL ONG THOMAS STANISTREET
KATIE CHECKEN CLARA FRIEDHOFF PATRICK HEGARTY ADILAH IKRAM SHAH JAYDEN KENNY STEPHANIE KITINGAN JANNETTE LE MARC MICUTA JACK PU
STUDIO LEADER: TOMMY JOO
ARCHIPELAGO I DESIGN STUDIO MELBOURNE SCHOOL OF DESIGN UNIVERSITY OF MELBOURNE
theatre of cruelty
JAYDEN KENNY
contents
Thesis Statement
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Theatre of Cruelty
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Artistic Precedents
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Typology Studies
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Site Analysis
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Site Development
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Auditorium Chair
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Theatre Development
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Image Credits
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Thesis Statement
St Kilda holds one of the highest crime rates of Melbourne s inner suburbia, yet it is also one of the most significant tourist zones. These conflicting sides of St Kilda culminate on the St Kilda Triangle, sandwiched between the family friendly public realm of the St Kilda foreshore and the busy Esplanade, frequented by debauched youth and the impoverished. Theatre of Cruelty is a theatre that hopes to transgress the public performance of the self. By engaging with metaphysics in performance, explored by French theatre practitioner Antonin Artaud, can architecture enrich a theatrical experience where by the audience is stripped of there superficial veneers of wealth, aesthetic disposition, race and ability. Can it disengage the notion of escapism that is prevalent in St Kilda s cultural milieu and move towards the unification of a community through the shared witnessing of the fragile human condition in each other.
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Antonin Artaud (1896 - 1948)
French playwright, poet, actor and theatre director. Author or 'Theatre and It's Double'
Theatre of cruelty
metaphysics "...there can be no spectacle without an element of cruelty as the basis of every show. In our present degenerative state, metaphysics must be made to enter the mind through the body." Theatre of Cruelty is a method of generating theatre performance that denies the audience passivity. Various theatrical conventions are used to confront the audiences body, inducing a state of fatigue or shock that subsequently puts the mind into a state of 'fight or flight' crisis.
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war
love
crime
madness
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Crisis
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reality "..theatre ought to persue a re-examination not only of all aspects of an objective, descriptive outside world, but also all aspects of an inner world, that is to say man viewed metaphysically, by every means at its disposal. We believe that only in this way will we be able to talk about imagination's rights in the theatre once more. Neither Humour, Poetry nor Imagination mean anything unless they re-examine man organically through anarchic destruction, his ideas on reality and his poetic position in reality..." Through the witnessing of other audience members and performers enduring the same state of crisis, Artaud's Theatre of Crulty hopes to push the theatrical experience beyond performance or escapism and into the realm of reality. A corporeal and transcendent experience that can be shared and witnessed on mass. It is a stripping away of difference and superficiality to achieve a truer reality then the performance of our everyday lives.
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social performance state theatre - arts centre 'La Sylphide' - The Australian Ballet 7.30 Saturday the 31st of August
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mise en scene Topicality - theatre removed from life, facts or present day activities - axieties; what is profound about them - surprising objects Music - part of the set - unbearable piercing sound/noise - ancient instruments or new invention Lighting - oscilating - diffusing light in waves - sensations of heat, cold, anger, fear - ancient instruments or new invention Costume - no modern day clothes - ancient dress 'while once fashionable, retains closeness to the tradition
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Artaud calls for staging that puts the audience in the middle of the theatre on swiveling chairs while the performance takes place 360 degrees around them. The swivel action encourages physical interaction and ownership of ones orientation and gaze. The audience is bombarded by a myriad of physically confronting sounds, lighting effects, costumes and themes in a effort to pull the audience out of a state of passivity.
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stage
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audience
audience
stage
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Artistic precedents
Kazuo Ohno and Tatsumi Hijikata are the founders of Japanese Butoh. Butoh is a type of dance theatre the stems from Artuard. It employs the same techniques to achieve similar goals. Butoh focuses on the physical exersion of the performers body through highly disciplined, articulated moment that is often derived from evocative poetry.
"On the verge of death one revisits the joyful moments of a lifetime. One s eyes are opened wide-gazing into the palm, seeing death, life, joy and sorrow with a sense of tranquillity. This daily studying of the soul, is this the beginning of the journey ? I sit bewildered in the playground of the dead. Here I wish to dance and dance and dance and dance, the life of the wild grass. I see the wild grass, I am the wild grass, I become one with the universe. That metamorphosis is the cosmology and studying of the soul. In the abundance of nature I see the foundation of dance. Is this because my soul wants to physically touch the truth ? Kazuo Ohno
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"When one considers the body in relation to dance, it is then that one truly realizes what suffering is: it is a part of our lives. No matter how much we search for it from the outside there is no way we can find it without delving into ourselvers.We are broken from birth. We are only corpses standing in the shadow of life. Therefore what is the point of becoming a professional dancer? If a man becomes a laborer and a woman a servant, isn't that enough in itself? That is the essense of butoh - and that is how I lead my communal life. We should live in the present. We should do what we have to do now and not keep putting it on the long finger as the majority of adults do. That is why they exhaust themseves. For children, there is only the present. They are not afraid. Fear envelops us in a fine mesh. We must remove this mesh. We should be afraid! The reason that we suffer from anxiety is that we are unable to live with our fear. Anxiety is something created by adults. The dancer, through the butoh spirit, confronts the origins of his fears: a dance which crawls towards the bowel of the earth. I do not believe this is possible with European dance." Tatsumi Hijikata
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NYID is a melbourne based theatre company that explores Artaudian ideas. They develop atmopheres which then in turn inform the physical performance. The atmophere is then shared by the audience and the performers. Linking by the same phenomenological experience NYID's work questions what new realities can be found through performance art.
A dynamic physical performance inspired by the literary works of Samuel Beckett, Cormac McCarthy and Michel Houellebecq, strangeland proposes a compelling and mesmerising landscape of the future we are hurtling towards. It is a work for our time. A unique cross-cultural collaboration between acclaimed Australian performance company not yet it's difficult and Korean performance group The Wuturi Players, strangeland features an international ensemble of some of Australia's and Korea's finest contemporary peformers and an award-winning production team. A sensory, highly physical, truly visceral work, strangeland is part performance, part installation, part prophesy. 'Strangeland' - Not Yet It's Difficult
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The process behind Spencer Tunick's work asks for intimate collaboration between strangers in a public revealing of the self. Literally stripping off all codified and sybolic paraohernalia the subjects of Tunicks work engage in a temporal moment of tanscendance. For a moment this mass public reveal is an accepted reality. A breaking down of the performance we take part in when we clothe and assert ourselves in contemporary society. Behind Spencer's work, for a moment, there exists a unified mass of exposed frail humanity.
"It never ceases to amaze me when ordinary people get into the spirit of what I'm doing. It's pivotal to my art...It never ceases to amaze me when ordinary people get into the spirit of what I'm doing. It's pivotal to my art." Spencer Tunick
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typology studies
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Historically European theatres have been engineered to facilitate illusion. The orientation of the seating towards the stage allowed audiences to immerse themselves only within the confines of a proscenium arch or 'fourth wall'. Traditional theatres provided shallow escapism while the audience could publically perform and assert their class, wealth and cultural superiority. This problematic morphology continues to engender social disparity in contemporary society.
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Court theatre Drottningholm, 1766
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'The scenic arrangements included in the continental, as in some British theatres are well illustrated by the scenes and machines of the Court Theatre at Drottningholm, Sweden. The King and Queen sat on armchairs at the front of T-shaped auditorium, flanked on either side by the royal family, while the courtiers sat on benches filling the tail of the T, on a single stepped slope. Small screened boxed in the side walls were used as retiring rooms for the royal couples.' Pg, 202
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court theatre Drottningholm, 1766
'In the roof space over the stage a centrally placed barrel or roller runs the full depth of the scenic vista, and to this are attached the lines moving the sets of horizontal borders related to each set of wings.' 'At the sides there are further, smaller shafts and drums controlling the sections of cloud scenery, which can descend to stage level in conjunction with the ascent or descent of actors...'
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'Beneath the stage, a cellar houses the wing chariots running on timber rails, which can be moved on and off stage as required by a large capstan.' 'Additional drums work the traps in the rear of the stage.' Pg, 203
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The festival auditorium Hellerau, 1910-12
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'The renaissance of Shakespearian stages with their permanent architectural surrounds had far-reaching effects...The Festival Auditorium...was a single hall containing both stage and auditorium, seperated only by a sunken orchestra pit. The walls and ceiling were covered with transparent fabric, behind which were lights, so that the whole room glowed...' Pg, 230
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The penthouse theatre Seattle, 1940
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'This theatre is elliptical, with a stage of the same shape, enclosed by three rows of seats. It is approached by four ramps from doors in the auditorium wall, used both by actors and audience. The auditorium is enclosed by a corridor-like foyer, off which open the dressing rooms, furniture and property stores, cloaks, kitchen, and box office. Thile the maximum intensity of light is concentrated on the actors, a degree of illumination is also allowed to spread over the audience.' Pg, 244
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Urban analysis of contemporary Melbournian theatres that engender a traditional theatre typology. There is a distinct lack of public space that is not commercialized as the theare eddifice takes up a large percentage of the site footprint and is often situated adjacent multiple streets carring heavy traffic.
LA mama theatre Carlton
public space
lygon s
t
farada y
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st
malthouse theatre South Melbourne
s st dod d
stur
t st
foyer
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Melbourne theatre company Southbank
back stage
south
blv
s st dodd
stur
t st
bank
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melbourne arts centre Southbank
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ar ild
st k 49
site analysis
an spl eE Th ad eH
ion
at St
St Kil da Br
l ote
m Tra
st kilda triangle
idge
Port phillip bay
d Kil
Jetty
St
re sho ore F a
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m Tra
Sta
n
tio
Pa The
lais
atre
The
Luna
Park
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cultural landscape
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In 2013 the suburb of St.Kilda recorded the 12th highest crime rate in Victoria.
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the palais theatre Victorian Heritage Register Capacity: 2,896 Built: 1927 Architects: Henry E White, Walter Burley Griffin
Subject to arson and neglect, The Palais Theatre hosts a vareity of populist performances from around the world.
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east facade
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north elevation
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west rear elevation
foyer interior
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site development
Audience in Crisis
spatial diagram
madness
crime
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war love
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The audience will be moved between three foyers situates at various points across the St Kilda Triangle. Denying the audience a familar space to dwell at interval and at the conclusion of the performance forces them to re-establish spatial awareness and social dynamics. It also encrouages interaction with the public who may occupy the public space that proliferates the site and the phenomenological qualities of the foreshore, Port Phillip Bay and the esplanade.
theatre of cruelty
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foyer auditorium interval foyer exit foyer rehearsal rooms
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Auditorium chair
The theatre chair allows the audience to take ownership of their orientation within the Theatre of Cruelty. It also forces them to engage their bodies physically and encourage exersion. Chance encounters between audience members may also arise as a result of the swivel action. Either physical contact, eye contact or the witnessing of other audience members reactions.
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theatre development
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image credits Portrait of Artaud - http://www.newparadiselaboratories.org/2012/05/24/antonin-artaud-an-inspired-quaver Artaud Drawing 1 & 2 - http://legermj.typepad.com/blog/2011/12/the-cruelty-that-renders-art-history-derrida-artaud-and-the-subjectile.html Photo of Kazuo Ohno - http://www.polyvore.com/cgi/thing?id=64292179 Photo of Tatsumi Hijikata - http://milanoartexpo.com/2013/06/07/danza-butoh-tatsumi-hijikata-cercando-nellombra-di-sara-pulici-milano-arte-expo/ Strangeland - http://www.notyet.com.au/ Spencer Tunick - http://www.onetag.it/blog/spencer-tunick-il-maetro-del-nudo-di-massa/belgium-spencer-tunick/
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