sheltered state of becoming mixed patterns of invention polysemantic methods pupa of the exhibition

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1 danube university krems workshop exhibition development sheltered state of becoming mixed patterns of invention polysemantic methods pupa of the exhibition! a workshop with FRANK DEN OUDSTEN danube university krems exhibition development november 2017 frank den oudsten november 2017, 1

2 danube university krems workshop exhibition development a sheltered state of becoming Premise 1 refers to the terminology of the trade and the daily dilemmas of the exhibition maker. As to the development of exhibitions, the German speaking realm adapted the phrase scenography. But what actually is scenography? How is it understood? By what thought is it informed? Manifestations of scenography - as we got to know them for instance in World Expo s - tend to be big, large scale, costly, glamorous and spectacular, suggesting a trade based on exuberant technological expertise. However, as to the other dimension: the conceptual level of invention, it s still a rare thing for a curator and a scenographer to share an intense process of development that leads to powerful and relevant metaphors, which any exhibition as vehicle so desperately needs. This act of shared invention, of course, is necessarily located at the midpoint of the axis which connects (or divides) the two parties involved. Scenography as a phrase is composed of the terms scene and graphy. Scene refers to the Greek skene meaning hut, tent or temporary shelter. Graphy refers to the Greek graphein meaning writing, suggesting a text or an idea. The composite scenography therefore might be read as the effort of offering shelter to an idea. This aim is central to the professional field of exhibition development and a shared interest of both curator and scenographer. Premise 2 we may find in the first lines of the renowned book The Empty Space. In it British theatremaker Peter Brook defines the bottom line of theatre, that other format of scenography, if you like. Brook: I can take any empty space and call it a bare stage. A man walks across this empty space whilst someone else is watching him, and this is all that is needed for an act of theatre to be engaged. This is what s scenography is all about: it s about intimate engagement and confrontation as being the state in which transformative energy gets shaped and starts to flow. Therefore, no matter big or small, scenography always is a genuinely relative art, opposed to design which rather focuses on the detailing of the absolute object. So, I m intrigued by that bottom line of Peter Brook and I feel that scenography in the exhibition-context, should be taught, learned, explored and invented on a similar intimate and relative scale. I m especially intrigued by the early stages of development, when the entire exhibition finds itself in a state of becoming. I d like to call that state of incubation: the stage of nanoscenography. Rudimentary and fluid acts of exhibition-making are invented in those first all passionate brainstorms. That s what s our workshop is about: inventing the nano-scene, imagining its material shape, reading its magic and testing its consistency in a public presentation. frank den oudsten november 2017, 2

3 ! danube university krems workshop exhibition development mixed patterns of invention a jazzy assignment: homework 1) collect two of your favourite pictures. 2) collect two of your favourite words in addition. (everything, words and images, should be chosen ad libitum) 3) present your collection at the start of the workshop. time will be short: six days. perhaps too short for any design effort. therefore, it isn t about design. it is about invention. we ll try to think as wildly as we can. reaching as far as we may. intensive preparation therefore, is unavoidable and important. so, please, collect your images and your words. for some reason all of it should be fascinating on a personal level. it might be photographs you shot yourself, even selfies. it may be copied photographs from magazines. anything, as long as the visuals relate to your personal world. please bring along your pictures and words in print. digital representations on laptops will be useless. we ll work with the printed series, recombine them and ask questions. what chains of association are embedded in your private collection? research the dna of your material. invent intriguing, hybrid words to them. what s the narrative potential of it all? what metaphor may convey that potential? shape or think that metaphor that s our short workshop frank den oudsten november 2017, 3

4 danube university krems workshop exhibition development polysemantic operations a jazzy Assignment: 2 WORDS + 2 IMAGES The process is SIMPLE. Everyone collects two favorite, found words, or generates two assembled hybrid terms and thinks for themselves how the words or terms could be exhibited as WORD-IMAGE-ART. The chosen terms can be unrelated. Similarly, you collect two personally important, meaningful pictures, photographs, reproductions, which are also chosen purely intuitively and unrelated (also from the picture). The participants at the workshop should bring the two words and the two pictures (this is important for our starting position) at the beginning in print (Din A4 or A3.) The material should therefore be presented physically on paper and not stored on the laptop. With these personal collections of the participants, we are going to construct succinct NEIGHBORHOODS at the beginning of the workshop, looking for the ultimate series of pictures and the ultimate DREAM-PHRASE to generate a narrative potential for the forthcoming transformation in the studio. The metamorphosis takes place in the workshop in a process of continuous transformation and recombination. This engages in a serious poly-semantic method, only loosely implemented. The material is basically free. The scale is naturally free-flowing. The poly-semantic does not have any finite references. frank den oudsten november 2017, 4

5 danube university krems workshop exhibition development the pupa of the exhibition 128HOURS THINKSPACE > one INTERVAL PROGRAM pressure cooker DAY 1 FRIDAY INTRODUCTIONS: PERSONAL, GROUP WORKSHOP LECTURE 1 THE NOTION OF DRAMATURGY WORKSHOP: COMPILING A COLLECTION SETTING UP A MATRIX INVENTING A NARRATIVE DAY 2 SATURDAY TEAM ISSUES / QUESTIONS+ANSWERS BREAKDOWN OF MAJOR SEMANTIC ELEMENTS DEFINING THE EXHIBITION IN TERMS OF DESIGN : FIRST INVENTIONS AND VISUALIZATIONS INDIVIDUAL PRESENTATIONS OF SYNOPSES WORKING AND MENTORING INDIVIDUALLY frank den oudsten november 2017, 5

6 danube university krems workshop exhibition development DAY 3, 4, 5 SUNDAY, MONDAY, TUESDAY TEAM ISSUES / QUESTIONS+ANSWERS WORKING AND MENTORING INDIVIDUALLY WORKING AND MENTORING INDIVIDUALLY STATE OF THINGS / INDIVIDUAL PRESENTATIONS DAY 6 WEDNESDAY TEAM ISSUES / QUESTIONS+ANSWERS ETTING UP EXHIBITION IN KUNSTMEILE ADDING LIGHT + FINE TUNING LAYOUT INTERNAL ROUND OF CRITIQUE AND COMMENTARY OPENING OF EXHIBITION / APERO REFERENCES / LITERATURE Samuel Beckett, Essay on Proust, 1931 Antonin Artaud, The Theatre and its Double, 1938 James Joyce, Finnegans Wake, 1939 Claude Lévy-Strauss, The Savage Mind, 1962 Marshall McLuhan, Understanding Media, 1964 Peter Brook, The Empty Space, 1968 Roland Barthes, Camera Lucida, 1980 Marshall McLuhan, The Global Village, 1989 Brian O Doherty, Inside the White Cube, 1999 Bazon Brock, Lustmarsch durchs Theoriegelände, 2007 Frank den Oudsten, Space.Time.Narrative, Ashgate, frank den oudsten november 2017, 6