Scenographic contraptions: Performance, Co-creation, Error, E-cognition

The ‘scenographic contraption’ forms an original praxis for creating, experiencing and contextualizing contemporary performance design and practice (Penna 2013; 2017).This multi-component output on the ‘contraption’ develops insights on the disruption of the audiences’ expectations using ‘error’ (PENNA 2017; 2024) to explain how – and to what extent – a scenographer can design and harness the uncertainty provoked in audiences when invited to participate or interact with design-led performance work. Findings include the decentring of individualist experience (the self) and the emergence of conversation, collaboration, and co-creation (ibid 2017;2023;2024). It includes a workshop and exhibition commissioned by The Society of British Theatre Designers as part of the National Exhibition of Performance Design 2019-2023; a double-blind peer-reviewed international journal article part of a Special Issue on the Prague Quadrennial of Performance Design and Space 2023; conference papers and practice presentations at key national and international theatre and performance conferences and interdisciplinary cognitive humanities conference. Embedded within theories of E-cognition the practice-based methodologies, methods and theoretical frameworks used in this work question the top-down hierarchies of theatre and performance production and the stability of authorities such as the ‘designer’ or the ‘director’ or even ‘the audience’ and instead initiate methods and frameworks of inclusive and conversational environments where one learns from one another. Novel ways of creating and experiencing expanded scenographic practices (McKinney and Palmer, 2017) are proposed for the creation of platforms that generate a sense of togetherness by shifting people's perceptions of themselves in relation to their material and social environment. The work contextualises further the ‘peculiarities’ (Hann, 2018: 16) of contemporary scenography responding to the question of ‘how do scenographies make us?’ (Lotker and Gough 2013: 3). It also contributes to cognitive studies in performance using E-cognition as a framework for making and analysing the multi-faceted nature of performance.