Dissertation in the field of scenography: MA Elina Lifländer

Lifländer suggests rythmic spatiality as a conscious tool for scenographers to create spaces and situations.

MA Elina Lifländer will defend her dissertation  Rythmic Spatiality as a Means of Expression in the Expanded Scenography on Friday 18 November 2016.

Opponent: Doctor of Arts Liina Unt, Estonian Academy of Arts.
Cutos: Professor Susanna Helke, Aalto University Department of Film, Television and Scenography

The discussion will be in Finnish.

ABSTRACT

Middle ground between performance and installation art. It is a placeless place, where this scenography doctoral thesis and the three included pieces of art fall in to. This thesis has developed new kinds of working methods to be applied to the preparation of a performance, to counterbalance the stage designer’s work that has mainly focused on material and visual design. 

As a research starting point, I have found spatial rhythms. They offer a natural way of looking at intangible, interactive and structural compositions in the overall performance. With rhythm, I approach scenographic work as an action that is space-oriented and reactive to its immediate environment, as well as, a communication between a person's multiple senses and a performance space. Surveying the rhythms of the space and combining them with the theory of Philosopher Henri Lefebvre's Rhythmanalysis (2004/1992) and the related ideas of the cultural geographers have changed phase-by-phase into rhythmic spatiality – from observation to a systematic tool.

The extension of scenography takes place together with the engaging and process-like development in the field of contemporary performing arts, and can no longer be limited merely to the visual and material aspects of the performance space; instead scenography can also focus on working with the invisible, intangible and eventful matters. The new kind of scenographic method that has formed during the study process: rhythmic spatiality consists of visual, motional, interactive, aural, natural and inner-mind rhythms. Overall, it approaches a kind of sense of rhythm; spontaneous reaction and intuitive rhythmic understanding, in encountering living beings and environments. I suggest that by taking rhythmic spatiality as a conscious working tool, a scenographer can create spaces and situations, which may correspond to the needs of ever-expanding scenography in contemporary performances’ and other fields with living, interactive and different spatial starting point.

WELCOME!

The dissertation notice and the published dissertation are placed for public display at the Learning Hub Arabia (Hämeentie 135 C, 5th floor, room 570) at latest 10 days before the defence.