• Core Motvation & Arising Methods

            Having considered a broad scope of questions about the practice, it is important to consider my motivations.  This consideration leads to realisation of the outcomes I desire within my works.  And, true to the circularity of my practice as noted in Research to Practice, Practice to Research ; the methods developed by considering my motivations also inform the motivations themselves  - the practice is a dance like this.

It is most appealing to me to consider the Scenographic practice as an integrated, contemporary practice - it is an exciting practice as it offers opportunity to co-employ my disciplines, to execute experiments, and to evaluate outcomes and effects of my works within a space, by engaging with my spectators.  I enjoy the potentiality of the space; that the space facilitates the co-existence of my interests.  
            By my research, I understand that to create Scenographically, I must always think through the space.  The space is the environment and time that something happens, and this environment can be any space that I choose. With this, I must also think about how the experience is received by the spectator – I must consider their senses.  This takes me to consider the immateriality of experience, as seen in Showcase : Immaterial Investigation:  DarkLight

 

• Urgency

I turn to my immediate surroundings for inspiration, and I can’t help to notice how our society is hectic, full, distracted – as we carry small computers in our pockets, we are inundated with information, marketing, and data.  As recently described by art historian and critic, Isobel Harbison: 

 ‘Just as the 1970s brought about a sense of discomfort and paranoia with the proximity of disturbing media imagery filtering into the domestic environments, this decade brings with it a number of startling world events that permeate the psyches through images held even closer on smartphone screens’(Performing Image, 2019)

I notice in society that we are distracted and detached from our surroundings, placed elsewhere - is it just coincidence that depersonalisation and anxiety prevail and increase in our lives?  By gaining instantaneous insights to issues beyond the range of our immediate physical experience through screens and notifications, we are displaced, distracted - I wonder if this is exhausting or depleting our awareness to the present moment.  And, in noticing this distractedness, I simultaneously notice what is happening around that: the periphery:  the things that we don't pay attention to, that aren't deemed important.  I realize that this periphery is a vital aspect of my research question: in this time where we are overworked and overloaded with information in our daily life, are we missing anything as we sell our attention to our screens? 

 
            It is obvious that I am concerned that as our lives speed up, we need time to connect off-screen, to our selves, to each other – and I believe in the importance and value of sensitivity and awareness in the present moment.  I come to believe in the Scenographic work as a facilitation of this sensitivity and awareness, a chance to slow down. 

 

• Sample

With this periphery, an important arising method in my practice is that of documentation.  I refer to this documentation as an act to sample things that catch my attention in the world around me, for future reference or simply to give weight and importance to that which I find interesting.  To 'sample' something is to capture it, render it still in time, and keep it to share with others.  This is an important part of my Scenographic toolkit and has evolved to become a collection of Audio Journals.

 

By giving attention to spaces, and to the environments I pass through in my everyday, I uncover what stories lie previously unheard, and discover what I can innovate with within a space, to share with the spectator.   Herein, I notice that the act of framing is hugely important as a scenographer – I essentially create as though I am a lens through which the spectator has an experience.
            

 
• Core    
            Inherently, what is important to me in creating Scenographically is that the works deliver a sense of awareness to the spectator – whether they explicitly realize it or not!  Through experimentation, I realize that sensitivity can be encouraged to the spectator, by appointing weight to the present moment.  With this, it is further my aim to empower and encourage the spectator through spatial experience – to move, to discover, to explore.  I believe in the Scenographic work as a medium to transition us to the present moment, to a fuller sense of self, to be sensitive to the here-now space.



            Perhaps it seems contradictory to then employ technology in my practice – however, despite noticing that technology has developed to distract us from the present moment, I enjoy employing technology in my scenographies as an extension to the possibilities of the sensitive spatial experience – rather than to serve as a means of detachment.