Platform Scenography has set itself the goal to explore and to develop the current perception of scenography as an independent and influential design practice of our times. Part of this exploration is trying to find ‘language’ to describe, discuss and analyse scenographic practices.

The manifest is a part of this ‘language-finding’ process. It is an attempt to explore the way of working and perceiving scenographically. Because we believe that research results and knowledge are not fixed facts, but descriptions of current states, we will regularly discus, adapt and change this manifest.

As part of the Symposium Porous Borders of the PQ in Prague we developed a post card series from this manifest. Seen here in their digital format: Collect them all and start experiencing scenography!

1.
Ask: What is scenography?

All our activities are part of a continuous and collective research on what scenography is. It is driven by the desire to better understand this performative art/design practice. We want to note, archive, deepen, describe and evolve the existing complex knowledge on what scenography is and how it works.

2.
Slow down!

Experiencing needs an open mind. It is necessary to take your time to experience space and to accept slowness.

3.
Meet without agenda.

Part of staying perceptive is to give your exchange shape, but to stay independent. Don’t start a conversation with a fixed agenda.

4.
Think through doing.

We are thinking through doing. We are searching and designing spatial experiences and active forms of reflection, by actively looking, thinking, speaking and acting. Position yourself in the space which you want to reflect on and discover it while being on location.

5.
Be attentive to the in-between.

Experience the processes between body, object, space and time. Pay attention to the functions and relations between materiality, positions and interactions of shapes, surfaces, colours, objects and processes. See the nuances, the spaces in-between, zoom in/out and find another perspective. Scenography is not a decoration, it describes processes. How are time and space arranged? What is the dramaturgy of my own and other bodies in the space?

6.
Charge space with possibilities.

Use scenography as a critical tool to visualize social, organisational, democratic, ecological (etc.) spaces of the now and of the future. Use it as a lens to look anew on already familiar processes and relations, and to reshape these. Things aren’t neutral!

7.
Be part of your surrounding.

Be aware that you are part of your physical and virtual surrounding. You are an actively thinking part, not only a ‘onlooker’ but also a creator of the spaces surrounding you. You are co-responsible for your perception of the world.

8.
Question experience as you question knowledge

Acknowledge bodily experiences as a form of knowledge, question it and try to give words to it.

9.
Share your perspectives

Share your methods, your tools for shaping performative processes with colleagues and others. How is the gaze guided, how do you position yourself and others in the environment and what does it mean to think spatially?

10.
Question scenography!

Ask again what scenography is, be ready to adapt and question your understanding of scenography!