Performance Design

This book gathers together a group of international artists, architects, scenographers, performers, and theorists to establish Performance Design as a fluid and emerging field, which explores the speculative and projective acts of designing performance and performing design.

About the Author :
Dorita Hannah is an architect and scenographer, Associate Professor at Massey University's College of Creative Arts in New Zealand. Olav Harslof is Professor at Roskilde University's Department of Performance Design in Denmark. He has previously headed the Danish National Schools of Theatre and Dance, as well as the Rhythmic Music Conservatory and has rusted exhibitions at the Royal Danish Library.

Review :
"One hell of a book, throughout its 300 pages poking and prodding the general question of what exactly is being placed in the frame, in the mise-en-scène, in terms of both sight and sound, and to be viewed from exactly which vantage points. . . . This cornucopia of a book, in a collection which is richly and intelligently laid out and illustrated, generously throws questions at us, asking throughout why we are so rigidly fixed to cultural practices, professional or amateur, that are still defined by separations between this and that: art, theatre, music, film, literature, science, business, education, community, politics. . . . This book helped me realise further how far we've come in the range of our thinking on this score since when one of the best questions we could provide might once have been building wood and canvas sets for amateur dramatics."--John Downie "Illusions" "Peppered with detailed photographs and intriguing sketches, this uniquely tactile book is an anthology of how the established concepts of performance studies are being applied to the investigation of designed environments. With erudite theoretical accounts augmented by visual essays, it locates the question of the performative within a wider discourse on design and encounter. . . . As a whole, the collection traces, with scholarly conviction and artistic ease, how the remit of scenography has begun to wander outside the conventional boundaries of the stage. From fine art to architecture, students and scholars alike will undoubtedly benefit from its lucid arguments, visual descriptions, and the idea that the 'autonomous art object' has been surpassed by the 'dynamic principle of embodied spatio-temporal event.'"--Rachel Hann "Journal of Theatre Research International" "The volume is beautifully illustrated with powerful and evocative photographic images of completed projects as well as examples of drawing as process. . . . This thought provoking book makes an important contribution to current discourses in the expanding field of performance and scenography. It confirms the imaginative links that are being made across disciplines as well as articulating the need for informed critical analysis of these emerging practices. It provides a valuable resource to students at all levels and to practitioners working in design and performance, but its relevance extends beyond the arts into science, technology, and global politics." --Jane Collins, Wimbledon College of Art