Concept, Material and Space
The work intends to demonstrate how interaction creates tangible and intangible spatial structure, which forms relations between individuals or among objects. The origin of red thread can be found in multiple cultures and has evolved into a modern practice incorporating different rituals and meanings. Throughout history and various philosophies, the red string has served as a symbol of protection, faith, good fortune, strength, and connection. Its significance, whether in tangible or intangible form, has made it a potent tool in many cultures. In addition to its symbolic value, the red string in this work also represents a spatial dynamic shaped by sensation and perception. Individuals interpret and respond to their environment based on their sensory experiences and personal understanding of the red string's symbolism.
Personal space is typically an intangible boundary, a space that individuals consider to be psychologically their own. Most individuals respect their personal space and become uncomfortable, angry, or anxious when it is invaded. Furthermore, there may be instances where individuals find themselves physically present in the same space or dimension, yet perceive a disconnect, leading to the question of being on the same page but failing to share a common understanding. Within this context, intriguing examples arise regarding the symbolism of invisible spatial structures.
About
Hello!
I am a scenographer with a background in interior design/ architecture and theatre set design. Most of my work includes creating immersive and interactive environments that engage the audience and challenge their perception of reality. I collaborate with the director, the actors, and the technical team to design and implement the visual and spatial elements of the production, such as props, costumes, and set pieces. I also manage the budget, the materials, and the logistics of the scenography, ensuring that the artistic vision is achieved within the constraints and the deadlines.
Projects
• Deadweight Theatre, October 2022 - Present, London Scenographer
The Manikins: A Work in Progress, an ongoing immersive theatre production
Top 50 shows of 2023: Immersive
https://www.thestage.co.uk/features/top-50-shows-of-2023-immersive
• Prague Quadrennial, June 2023, Prague Scenographer
2023 PQ selected international work: [UN]Common Design Project
A scenographic script for others to adapt and realise in the form of improvisations in costume making and site- specific performance intervention in urban spaces.
https://pq.cz/pq-2023-info/projects-2023/pq-studio/pq-studio-un-common-design-project/uncommondesign-project-overview/the-royal-central-school-of-speech-and-drama-university-of-london-2/
• KISS, June 2022, London Scenographer
A devised musical with some funky, jazzy and sexy tunes.
Skills
Auto CAD, Sketch up, Model making, Photoshop, Prop making, set dressing, art direction
Contact mininspace@gmail.com
KISS
Devised musical 2022, London
Director: Keziah Serreau
Choreographer: Annie-Lunnette Deakin-Foster
Musical Director: Fintan Kealy
Set Designer: Min-Chien Feng
Assistant Set Designer: Yimei Zhao
Costume Designer: Sasha Balmazi Owen
Assistant Costume Designer: George Martin
Lighting Designer: Luke Marino
Sound Designer: Rob Jones
Writers/Dramaturges: C. Hakan Akgül, Marcia Vidal Nolte, Megan Watson
Performed by BA (Hons) Acting Musical Theatre
Designed & produced by BA (Hons) Theatre Practice
CAST: Grace Ackary, Andre Antonio, Jessie Armer, Jordan Ashley, Morgan Demetre, Patrick Dineen, Clíona Flynn, Olivia Gaidry, Jack Huckin, Anna-Fay Jackson, William Marr, Gigi Noel-King, Felix Price, Philip Protheroe, Ellie Stones, Jenni Walker, Grace Whyte, Rhys Wild, Franco Yan
BAND: Fintan Kealy, James William-Pattison, Jonny Drake, Max Randall, Gareth Roberts
KISS is a devised gig-theatre show that invites us into a world where Love can be taken as a pill. What if we could administer a Love pill to couples in need to rekindle their relationship? What if we could treat perpetrators of hate crimes with this pill? And what if we summoned the UN to consider a Love bomb replacing the A-bomb ?
The Manikins: a work in progress
Collaborate with Jack Aldisert
The Manikins: a work in progress is a 1-1 interactive play aimed to immerse the audience through intimate interactions and dialogue. This practice is a collaboration with a director from MFA Advanced theatre practice.
The challenge of this production lies in constructing a space that creates illusions and switches between different scenarios in a short time, leaving participants uncertain of what is truly happening. The play incorporates two scenarios that oscillate back and forth, further adding to the confusion. The actors switch roles, intentionally causing disorientation and challenging the participants' perception. Engaging in a conversational cat and mouse game with the actors, the audience is continuously immersed in a perplexing journey where the lines between truth and illusion are intentionally blurred.
In short, The Manikins explores how audience members react and engage with the challenges of an interactive scenario, while making them feel like the main protagonist. The physical environment designed through scenography, mirrored the psychological or emotional states of the characters - further blurring the lines between reality and illusion. Throughout the play, scenography created a sense of disorientation, uncertainty, multiple viewpoints, thereby heightening the audience's engagement and cognitive involvement.
Immersive theatre 2023 - ongoing, London
Concept of the set
In order to create a space which blurs the boundaries between reality and dreams, while representing the ambiguity and highly uncontrollable/ improvised characteristic of the play, scenography plays a vital role in creating an atmosphere that simultaneously provides comfort and discomfort to both performers and audience members.
There are some requirements that are non-negotiable in this production:
• How will we switch scenes and the space in an instant to create the illusion?
• How do the participants differentiate dreams from reality when the rooms are identical?
Back to asking the participant to imagine the space through given instruction, ‘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..’ -The empty space (Brook, 2008)
Drawing upon the concepts presented in Peter Brook's ‘The Empty Space’ that theatre exists within the audience's mind, the original concept of the set for our performance revolves around the creation of two identical rooms. This design choice serves to emphasise the intriguing question of whether the audience is experiencing their imagination manifested in reality or if they are immersed in a dreamlike state of illusion. By embracing the idea that theatre is a conceptual art form, the set will aim to provoke thought and blur the boundaries between perception and imagination, encouraging the audience to engage with the ambiguity of the performance space.
Why red curtains
The final scene of ‘Twin Peaks’ takes place in what appears to be a theatre, with an audience seated in front of red curtains. The curtains then part to reveal a stage, where the show's protagonist, Agent Dale Cooper, is engaged in a strange and surreal conversation with a character known as "The Fireman". The use of the red curtains in this scene creates a sense of uncertainty about the nature of reality and the boundaries in between. It is often associated with surrealism, the subconscious, and the supernatural - and becomes symbolic of the veil between the physical world and the supernatural realm.
The ambience that the director, David Lynch, is trying to deliver in this scene is one of disorientation, surrealism, and mystery. Thus, by using the red curtains and other symbolic imagery, Lynch creates a sense of ambiguity and uncertainty that challenges the audience's perception of reality. The scene also highlights the importance of storytelling
Back to the primitive idea of red curtains, theatre curtains serve the purpose of hiding equipment, gear, rigging and technical hardware that is present from the audience's view. While it creates the sense of ambiguity and uncertainty, audience members are left wondering whether they are witnessing a dream, a supernatural event, or a performance. This ambiguity is further reinforced by the use of non-linear storytelling, improvisation and surreal imagery throughout the play.
Theatre exists to allow the unsaid to breathe and to sense a quality of existence that provides the never-ending fight a purpose. When there are no physical sets or walls present, a new kind of ambiguity arises. The vagueness of why using scenography to create ambiguity in space if one can just use actors, brings my understanding of scenography and the contradiction with other professions to the next level.
Using scenography and actors are both valuable means for creating ambiguity in different ways. Whether semantic, visual, or cognitive differences, etc. While actors can certainly contribute to ambiguity through their performances, scenography provides a different opportunity to enhance and deepen the sense of it at a theatrical level. By this, scenography allows for the creation of immersive and evocative environments that set the tone and atmosphere of the performance. Through the careful selection of props, lighting, set design, and spatial arrangement, scenography can establish a sense of ambiguity from the very moment the audience enters the space. It helps create a visual and sensory context that supports the narrative and thematic elements of the performance. Not counting the arrangement of props, the incorporation of symbolic elements, and metaphors - these visual elements all work in perfect harmony with the actors' performances to add depth and nuance to the storytelling, allowing audiences to engage in active interpretation and speculation.
In summary, while actors play a crucial role in embodying and expressing ambiguity through their performances, scenography adds another layer of complexity and richness to the overall experience. It provides a visual, spatial, and symbolic framework that enhances the ambiguity within the narrative, engages the audience's senses, and deepens their interpretation of the performance. Hence, combining both scenography and performance allows for a more comprehensive exploration and expression of ambiguity in theatrical productions.
Chapter 1: Materiality and Ambiguity
This practice will demonstrate how materials are used to create ambiguity that challenges the audience's perceptions, while exploring its materiality and dynamic with bodies.
Chapter 1: Materiality and Ambiguity
This practice will demonstrate how materials are used to create ambiguity that challenges the audience's perceptions, while exploring its materiality and dynamic with bodies.
The Tangled and Unseen Butoh workshop with material
The Tangled and Unseen Butoh workshop with material
Red has always held a special significance for me, with its strong sensory and symbolic meanings and how it evokes visual stimulation. When we were tasked with selecting a material at the early stage of the course, I was immediately drawn to the red thread on my wrist which happened to be the only accessory I was wearing. As I looked deeper into its texture and characteristics, the thread transformed into red yarn as its materiality intrigued me by sparking a sense of familiarity in my culture recognition.
Red has always held a special significance for me, with its strong sensory and symbolic meanings and how it evokes visual stimulation. When we were tasked with selecting a material at the early stage of the course, I was immediately drawn to the red thread on my wrist which happened to be the only accessory I was wearing. As I looked deeper into its texture and characteristics, the thread transformed into red yarn as its materiality intrigued me by
The workshop started by introducing us to a Japanese dance form called ‘Butoh’. It was originated in Japan with a performance called Kinjiki by Tatsumi Hijikata in 1959, and was originally named ‘ankoku butoh’ or ‘dance of utter darkness’, as Hijikata tried to distinguish his new dance. In Butoh, dancers express emotions and stories through their body movements, seamlessly merging their physicality with the artistic medium.
‘It is an attempt to uncover the dance that already exists, it must emerge from within, and not be imposed from without. Butoh uses ‘reduction’ to great effect, for example, stillness and slow motion are well known to audiences of Butoh. Therefore, ultimately the test of a great Butoh dancer is their ability to transform not only their body but also the space, as their ‘spirit’ can only be accessed by the audience when manifested in the space. Drawing on the worlds of the unconscious, dreams and the irrational, butoh leaves space for the audience to bring their own thoughts and dreams to the work, offering a rich, metaphorical world to taste and to enter.’ - Sadler’s Wells, A short introduction to Butoh
The workshop started by introducing us to a Japanese dance form called ‘Butoh’. It was originated in Japan with a performance called Kinjiki by Tatsumi Hijikata in 1959, and was originally named ‘ankoku butoh’ or ‘dance of utter darkness’, as Hijikata tried to distinguish his new dance. In Butoh, dancers express emotions and stories through their body movements, seamlessly merging their physicality with the artistic medium.
‘It is an attempt to uncover the dance that already exists, it must emerge from within, and not be imposed from without. Butoh uses ‘reduction’ to great effect, for example, stillness and slow motion are well known to audiences of Butoh. Therefore, ultimately the test of a great Butoh dancer is their ability to transform not only their body but also the space, as their ‘spirit’ can only be accessed by the audience when manifested in the space. Drawing on the worlds of the unconscious, dreams and the irrational, butoh leaves space for the audience to bring their own thoughts and dreams to the work, offering a rich, metaphorical world to taste and
Similarly, during our workshop, the material we chose became a means for connecting our sensations and bodies. As we immersed ourselves in the exploration of materials we were reminded of the transformative power of dance, and the philosophy of Butoh resonated with our exploration of materials.
We approach our exploration of materials with the interplay between the inner and outer worlds, such as following the choreographer’s instruction and meanwhile constructing a tangible form of the material, seeking to create a space that transcends boundaries and invites personal interpretation. As I explored the materiality of red yarn, it began to take on new meanings. Red, in general, is often associated with passion, intensity, and vitality. It represents a range of emotions, from love and desire to anger and power. The texture of the red yarn further added depth to my exploration, evoking notions of warmth, comfort, and intimacy.
Dynamic between Materials and Individuals
Throughout the engagement with the red yarn, there is a deeper connection between our bodies and the sensations evoked following it. It became a tool for expressing individual experiences and connecting with others on an emotional level. Beginning by manipulating the red yarn, I slowly unravelled and weaved it through my fingers, wrapped it around bodies, overlapped on other materials, or left trails across the whole space. A mess of red yarn had even been tangled around my wrists, becoming an extension of my limbs, as if my movements were tied to its presence.
During moments of stillness, the red yarn hangs in the air, forming patterns and suspensions. The stillness of the body is reflected in the suspended yarn, creating a feeling of tension and deep reflection. Time seemed to slow down while the red yarn became a medium and body as a container, outwardly the red yarn and myself shared a contemplative moment. However, with a sudden instruction from the choreographer, a burst of energy from the inner part breaks free from the stillness, the red yarn then comes alive with dynamic movement. It dances and twirls around the bodies, tracing their quick motions with a vivid trail. The yarn becomes an expression of emotions, conveying a mix of chaos, passion, and liberation, which creates tension in the room by engaging with others' movement and material. Overall, the contrast of the materiality and movement in the practice has been highlighted. As well, the definition of ‘red yarn’ evolved and was able to transform into a shared language of sensations, in ways it blurs boundaries between the physical and the metaphorical.
In Barbara Chase-Riboud’s sculpture work, sculptural technique and materiality is characterised by the interplay between folds of cast bronze or aluminum and coils of wool and silk which are knotted, braided, looped, and woven. ‘By combining materials with different qualities such as hard and soft, light against heavy, and tactile versus rigid, Chase-Riboud’s works lend an aesthetic consideration to the sculptural base through the use of fiber ‘skirts,’ speaking to the artist’s interest in crafting forms that unify opposing forces. The wool in the art pieces is very soft but it is an element that supports the overall structure. Thus, items that are supposed to be soft are presented with another kind of strengthens ,Illusion has formed throughout the external.’ -The serpentine gallery, Barbara Chase-Riboud: Infinite Folds
The artist challenges traditional expectations and introduces a sense of illusion or unexpected strength, creating confusion for spectators, and offering new perspectives toward materials that we are familiar with. Similarly, in the Butoh workshop, the focus is on the materiality of the red yarn and its interaction with the human body and the surrounding space. Both Barbara's work and the Butoh workshop share common traits in exploration of materials and interplay with contrasting elements or movements.
Overall, the workshop became a transformative experience, where the understanding of red expanded beyond its visual appeal. It’s my first recognition of how the body can become a platform, connecting with various materials, other individuals and space. It became an embodiment of emotions, memories, and connections. Through the exploration, it not only deepened our understanding of the materiality of red, but also unearthed personal narratives and discovered new ways to express ourselves through the interplay of sensation, body, and material. Additionally, the confusion and doubts about the material itself and the contrast against its materiality, reveal the uncertainty and the ambiguity of how the viewers perceive materials.
Challenges
There were moments that constantly provoked me to question both the workshop itself,and the underlying theoretical concepts that accompanied it.
• How can one effectively communicate ideas and emotions through movement, utilising
• What is the significance of the space itself in relation to one’s body movements? How
• Does the symbolism of the red yarn remain in the exploration? Has it been transformed
• At what point in the workshop did one actively engage with the space and allow the red yarn to guide movements, creating dynamic relationships between bodies, materials,
• How does this interaction with the space and the utilisation of the yarn contribute to the exploration of ambiguity? In what ways does it challenge conventional boundaries and
