Output details
34 - Art and Design: History, Practice and Theory
University of Derby
'Lighting-a part of a changing aesthetics' - article
Performance – 'the stage is set or is it?'
Location: Derby Theatre, Derby
Date: 20th March 2013
Performance at Derby Theatre 20th March 2013
235 audience. (published text as article)
'The Stage is Set'
Exhibition of Lighting Design
The Stage is Set 'An exhibition of theatre lighting designs and the medium of their delivery.'
Markeaton, University of Derby
December 1st 2013 – January 30th 2014
Interview broadcast on 19th March, 2013, Broadcast BBC Radio Derby.
The article assesses the nature of lighting design as a key component of 20th century design. It sets out the history and engineering involved in many of the inventions for the stage and the developments of theory and practice across Europe.
The performance script brings together research into the nature of light as part of filmic techniques used in events and productions. The production ‘performed the research’ and demonstrated special effects, experimenting with lighting styles, to explore the use of the emblematic, and an interconnectedness of lighting design in performance from the Renaissance through to animation and live performance technologies.
The article, and performance text set to publicise the changes in approaches to visual representations by demonstrating and replicating key iconic lighting designs live for an audience in the theatre. The performance explored notions of spectacle, the impact of fine art practices, and mechanisms that have their heritage in the industrial revolution. The article and the subsequent performance based on the research, explored the celebration of ingenuity in representations for performance and the spectacle created.
The significance of the article and the performance made the history of lighting design a coherent body of knowledge and emphasised how design technologies in the 21st century have contributed to a wider access and understanding of lighting as a precursor for the use of film and animations in live performance.
The exhibition documents through photography, lighting design aesthetics alongside the engineering equipment used to create the visual effects.
(See Portfolio)
