Hello Stranger East Midlands (phase 1) Workshop-National Exhibition of UK Performance Design 2019-2023

Exhibition


Penna, X. 2023. Hello Stranger East Midlands (phase 1) Workshop-National Exhibition of UK Performance Design 2019-2023. Derby Theatre 24 Jan 2023 - 25 Mar 2024
CreatorsPenna, X.
Description

The Hello Stranger East Midlands Workshop brought into the Main Stage of Derby Theatre a number of discarded materials (old fabrics, discarded wool, carboard tubes, plastic bottles, paper cups etc.) and invited designers and theatre practitioners from the region to co-create a dwelling using the materials on offer, while at the same time discussing the performance design landscape in the East Midlands. The conversation was curated to happen while the dwelling was being built and it was guided by a set of questions centred on a number of topics: the future of performance design; performance and spatial design in the region; design for the community; opportunities for local designers; designers' environmental responsibility; design research; and ways in which design can enhance accessibility and inclusivity.
During the workshop the conversations were recorded and I (researcher) wrote down words that stood out to me from the topics of the conversation. These words were used during the second day of the workshop to prompt written responses by the participants. The words and the responses were then placed inside a large piñata which was smashed by the group. The words and responses that fell on the floor were used by the group to create a collective manifesto on the future of performance design in the UK. For curating this two-day conversational environment, I employed my method of the ‘scenographic contraption’ (PENNA 2013; 2017; 2023) which uses error –understood here as a mismatch of expectations–, exposure of process, and inefficient aesthetics for generating playful relational actions between materials, space, and audiences. The notion of ‘contraption’ does not suggest a straightforward approach to problem solving. Rather, problem solving is achieved through a continual process of working with others in communion by inventing, reflecting, talking, opposing, playing, observing and so forth. A contraption does not guarantee a final product, and therefore a generation of different contraptions may occur along the way. The workshop was therefore designed by orchestrating various possibilities for participation and interaction. For example, what the participants were making was live-fed to a screen in the space so that each member of the group was able to have an overview of what was being built and, in turn, this affected, to an extent, what they made. A number of other such strategies were employed (for more information please refer to the related outputs below).
The design of the workshop therefore offered various entry points for participation and conversation and, simultaneously, an overview of what was being created collectively by its members. Through a series of playful participatory invitations that embraced error, exposure of process and inefficient aesthetics, the East Midlands curatorial concept understands the experience of scenography as contraption, a process that prioritises ingenuity and inventive playfulness over effectiveness, for the orchestration of meaningful conversations. It also understands thinking as a process that happens not as an individual activity but as one that takes place within socio-cultural and material situations, and that is inextricably integrated with perception and action.

Phase 1
Venue: Derby Theatre
Higher Education Partners: University of Derby with Nottingham Trent University

Contributors
Hosting institutionDerby Theatre
Keywordsscenography; conversation; cognition; participation; error; inefficient aesthetics
Date24 Jan 2023
Exhibition titleUK Festival of Performance Design, Hello Stranger East Midlands Workshop
Web address (URL)https://derbytheatre.co.uk/programme/national-exhibition-of-uk-performance-design-2023-hello-stranger-east-midlands-workshop/
FunderSociety of British Theatre Designers
Files
Image credit
Xristina Penna
Rights
All Rights Reserved
Media type
Image
File Access Level
Open
Files
Image credit
Xristina Penna
Rights
All Rights Reserved
Media type
Image
File Access Level
Open
Files
Image credit
Xristina Penna
Rights
All Rights Reserved
Media type
Image
File Access Level
Open
Files
Image credit
Xristina Penna
Rights
All Rights Reserved
Media type
Image
File Access Level
Open
Files
Image credit
Kiana D'Aniello
Rights
All Rights Reserved
Media type
Image
File Access Level
Open
Files
Image credit
Xristina Penna
Rights
All Rights Reserved
Media type
Image
File Access Level
Open
Files
Image credit
Xristina Penna
Rights
All Rights Reserved
Media type
Image
File Access Level
Open
Files
Image credit
Xristina Penna
Rights
All Rights Reserved
Media type
Image
File Access Level
Open
Files
Image credit
Xristina penna
Rights
All Rights Reserved
Media type
Image
File Access Level
Open
Files
Image credit
Xristina Penna
Rights
All Rights Reserved
Media type
Video
File Access Level
Open
Files
Image credit
Xristina Penna
Rights
All Rights Reserved
Media type
Video
File Access Level
Open
Publication process dates
Deposited27 Mar 2024
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https://repository.derby.ac.uk/item/q5415/hello-stranger-east-midlands-phase-1-workshop-national-exhibition-of-uk-performance-design-2019-2023

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Related outputs

Scenographic Contraptions: Designing Uncertainty and Orchestrating Error for the Generation of Participatory Scenography
Penna, Christina (Xristina) 2024. Scenographic Contraptions: Designing Uncertainty and Orchestrating Error for the Generation of Participatory Scenography. Theatralia: Journal of Theatre Studies. 27 (1), pp. 79-111. https://doi.org/10.5817/TY2024-1-5
Hello Stranger East Midlands (phase 2), Exhibition, UK Festival of Performance Design
Penna, X. 2023. Hello Stranger East Midlands (phase 2), Exhibition, UK Festival of Performance Design .
Holding Stories
Penna, X. 2023. Holding Stories. IFTR Accra The Stories We Tell: Myth, Mythmaking & Performance. University of Ghana, Accra, Ghana 24 - 28 Jul 2023
Scenographic Contraptions: The importance of error, exposure of process and inefficient aesthetics for orchestrating conversation
Penna, X. 2023. Scenographic Contraptions: The importance of error, exposure of process and inefficient aesthetics for orchestrating conversation.
Designing uncertainty for generating participatory scenography
Penna, X. 2022. Designing uncertainty for generating participatory scenography. Theatre and Performance Research Association 2022. University of Essex, Colchester, UK 12 - 14 Sep 2022
Invisible Journeys: practice-research informed teaching
Penna, X. 2022. Invisible Journeys: practice-research informed teaching . Learning and Teaching Conference, University of Derby.
Generating non-egocentric storytelling using a scenography from cord, fabric and trust
Penna, X. 2022. Generating non-egocentric storytelling using a scenography from cord, fabric and trust . IFTR Reykjavik Shifting Centres: In the Middle of Nowhere. University of Iceland, Reykjavik, Iceland 20 - 24 Jun 2022
DiEM Voice; To You <-> To Me; After Life: The importance of the ethics of space when staging democracy and orchestrating social spaces
Penna, X. 2021. DiEM Voice; To You <-> To Me; After Life: The importance of the ethics of space when staging democracy and orchestrating social spaces . Theatre and Performance Research Association 2021 . Liverpool Hope University (on-line)
Cognitive Ecologies in Theatre History, Training and Performance
Penna, X. and Murphy, M. 2021. Cognitive Ecologies in Theatre History, Training and Performance. IFTR Galway Theatre Ecologies: Environments, Sustainability and Politics. National University of Ireland, Galway, Ireland (On-line) 12 - 16 Jul 2021
Uncovered – performing everyday clothes
Penna, Xristina 2014. Uncovered – performing everyday clothes. Scene. https://doi.org/10.1386/scene.2.1-2.9_1
Scenographic contraptions: An embodied conversation, embodied mind, embodied design
Penna, Xristina 2015. Scenographic contraptions: An embodied conversation, embodied mind, embodied design. University of Edinburgh.
To you, to me: Generation non-eocentric habits of embodied, embedded, enactive and extended spectating.
Penna, Xristina 2019. To you, to me: Generation non-eocentric habits of embodied, embedded, enactive and extended spectating.
Attempts on post-representation
Penna, Xristina 2018. Attempts on post-representation.
Attempts on Margarita (multiple drafts): A cognitive dramaturgy generated by voice and space
Penna, Xristina 2015. Attempts on Margarita (multiple drafts): A cognitive dramaturgy generated by voice and space. AISB.
I want you to participate: Pause for thought
Penna, Xristina 2017. I want you to participate: Pause for thought. University of Leeds.
Towards a cogScenography: Cognitive science, scenographic reception and processes
Penna, Xristina 2017. Towards a cogScenography: Cognitive science, scenographic reception and processes. Thesis
Attempts on staging consciousness: Towards a cognitive scenography
Penna, Xristina 2015. Attempts on staging consciousness: Towards a cognitive scenography. International Federation for Theatre Research.
Costume project(ion)-the costume rehearses
Penna, Xristina 2015. Costume project(ion)-the costume rehearses. Critical Costume.
The predictive scenographer: Performance design as predictive affordance-o-graphy
Penna, Xristina 2018. The predictive scenographer: Performance design as predictive affordance-o-graphy.
Work space I- a scenographic workshop on consciousness: Scenographic artefact
Penna, Xristina 2015. Work space I- a scenographic workshop on consciousness: Scenographic artefact. International Federation for Theatre Research.
Work space II: attempts on Margarita
Penna, Xristina, Eyes, Ben, Graham, Katherine, Carlsberg, Jennifer, Steggals, Lucy, Bradbury, Olivia, Kapsali, Maria, Turner, Alaena and Collins, Esther 2015. Work space II: attempts on Margarita. Stage@Leeds.
Designing uncertainty for generating audiences’ participation
Penna, Xristina 2017. Designing uncertainty for generating audiences’ participation.
Applications of cognitive science in scenographic reception and processes: Scenographic contraptions
Penna, Xristina 2016. Applications of cognitive science in scenographic reception and processes: Scenographic contraptions. University of Helsinki.
Scenographic contraptions: A manifestation for a post-representational performance design method
Penna, Xristina 2017. Scenographic contraptions: A manifestation for a post-representational performance design method. Performance Studies International.
Work space III: Phishing things together (the predictive brain)
Penna, Xristina 2015. Work space III: Phishing things together (the predictive brain). Live Art Bistro.
Phishing things together: Using cognitive theory, and practice research to further our understanding of designing in a groundless contemporary performance landscape
Penna, Xristina 2017. Phishing things together: Using cognitive theory, and practice research to further our understanding of designing in a groundless contemporary performance landscape.
Staging dis-placement
Penna, X. 2019. Staging dis-placement. Theatre and Performance Research Association 2019. University of Exeter, UK 04 - 06 Sep 2019
To You <-> To Me: Generating Non-Egocentric Habits of Embodied, Embedded, Enactive and Extended Spectating
Penna, X. 2019. To You <-> To Me: Generating Non-Egocentric Habits of Embodied, Embedded, Enactive and Extended Spectating . Cognitive Futures in the Arts and Humanities 2019: Paradigms of Understanding - Sharing Cognitive Worlds. University Mainz, Mainz, Germany 19 - 23 Jun 2019