Chapter in new publication Activating the Inanimat

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The dynamic exchange of perspectives that constituted the 2nd Global Conference of Performance: Visual Aspects of Performance Practice demonstrated that the foundational concept of the project is a vibrant platform for sharing and extending ideas within all aspects of scenographic practice in performance. This volume is a compilation of papers that formed the basic structure of that conference. The first four chapters present a developing schema of visual languages within theatre. From Beckett, Ibsen, Svoboda to Wilson, they navigate the symbolic and visual prioritizing of postdramatic scenographic forms. Part 2 reconsiders the predetermined divisions that deflate experiential encounters with the inanimate. Dance, puppetry and slapstick provide examples of interaction between performers and their environment. Part 3 addresses various renderings of design processes, exploring the role of drawing, fabric and body in creating a narrative. Part 4 negotiates the sensitive interface between public and performance while looking at the Burning Man Festival, flash mobs and opera media casting. The final chapters represent a global collective of process strategies that confront the production and methodologies of meaning. They engage with cultural presumptions and subjectivities in post Cultural Revolution China, Spanish flamenco, American Indian (post)colonial resistances and the traditions of Australian Aboriginal artists.

Table of Contents
Introduction Celia Morgan
Part 1 Archetypes and Experimentation in Theatrical Visual Languages: From the Dramatic to the Post-Dramatic
Symbolic Language and the Mythical Middle Ground Celia Morgan
Looking at Postdmodern Performances of Canonical Plays Bilha Blum
The Full and the Void in the Theatre of Robert Wilson Marcelo de Andrade Pereira
The Power of Images in Performance: Josef Svoboda’s Scenography for Intolleranza 1960 at Boston Opera Company Barbora Příhodová
Part 2 Materiality and Meaning: Visual Agency of the Inanimate
Loïe Fuller and her Legacy: The Visual and the Virtual Liora Malka Yellin
Little Cinderella, Big Cinderella: Scenography as Performance Filipa Malva
Visionary Voice / Silent Clown Andrew Cope
Bioscenography: Towards the Scenography of Non-Representation Parjad Sharifi
Part 3 Embodied Meaning: The Performative Costume, Its Origins and Destinations
From Verbal to Visual: Shakespeare’s Imagery of Clothes as Metaphor, Symbol and Concept for Costume Design Pnina Black Porter
Emotion and Memory: Clothing the Body as Performance Jessica Bugg
Dance Costumes on Display: Reflections and Practice Sofia Pantouvaki
Addressing the Absent: Drawing and Scenography Kate Burnett
Part 4 Intervention and Interaction: Performance, the Public and the Technological Interface
The Explanatory Frame Myer Taub
Burning Man: Scenography for the Masses Virginia L. Vogel
Performance Art as Intervention in Everyday Life: Participation, the Public Sphere and the Production of Meaning Alexandra Antoniadou
Where is the Performance? What has Become of It? Myfanwyn Ryan
Old Arts in New Media: Qualified Onotologies of ‘Live’ in the Age of Media Casting Adele Anderson
Part 5 Interpretation and Methodologies: The Construction of Subjectivity in a Performative Cultural Discourse
‘Seed of the Image’: Image Metaphor as a Strategy of Creative Process and Ideological Resistance Chee-Keng Lee
Making from Scratch: A Transdisciplinary Research into the Historical and Social Production of Subjectivity Haya Cohen
Dancing Clowns and Desert Dunes: Challenging Traditional Imagery in Flamenco-Fusion Idit Suslik
Distance in Time and Space: Fictional Medieval Constructs of the Indian Other in the Colonial Imaginary Sarah Bonnie

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About the Editors
Celia Morgan is an artist whose varied practice inhabits the interstices between painting, drawing, theatre, performance, philosophy and writing. She has exhibited and performed in New Zealand, Australia, England, USA, and Spain. She has a Bachelor and Masters degree in Fine Arts and is currently a PhD candidate at the University of Sydney, Australia. Her research interests include conceptions of unknowing, the ineffable and absolute nothingness, inspired directly by the Kyoto School of philosophy amongst others.
Filipa Malva is a scenographer. She is a PhD candidate at the University of Coimbra, Portugal. While she is interested in all aspects of scenography, currently her research and writing is devoted to scenography in the context of children’s and young audiences shows. She has a degree in Architecture and an MA in Performance Space and IT Modelling from the University of Kent, and works as a set and costume designer, illustrator and scenic artist with multiple theatre companies across Portugal.