Output details
34 - Art and Design: History, Practice and Theory
University of the Arts, London
6 Degrees Below the Horizon
6 Degrees Below the Horizon, a transmedial performance, explores the impact of transmedial scenography on dramaturgy within the field of post-dramatic theatre. Set in an imagined European seaport in the early 20th century, this theatre piece is a magical realist exploration of the importance of the Mediterranean to the psyche of the New Europe. Through a radical use of digital projection technologies, the piece explores and stages the heterotopic landscape of the port and its vagrant cultures.
It has been performed in middle-scale (250-450 seat) theatres throughout the UK; at the National Theatre of Greece; and in Cyprus at the Cyprus Theatre Organisation. The work was originally funded by the British Council as a collaboration with the National Theatre of Greece and The Cyprus Theatre. It has subsequently been funded by Arts Council England to support both development and domestic touring (£173,000 for this work and Output 4).
Brooks’ work with the performance company imitating the dog (comprising Brooks (Director), Quick (Lancaster University) and Simon Wainwright) is particularly concerned with exploring the aesthetics of transmedial theatre performance, and the dramaturgical implications of incorporating digital material into the live event. The piece experiments with incorporating pictorial framing within a scenographic context, with particular reference to cinematic and photographic aesthetics. One particular focus of the work is how the photographic/stilled pictorial image operates as a memory act: imbued with the dynamic of forgetting as much as the activity of remembering.
The work has been reviewed in the national press, and the text of the performance, with an accompanying critical article by French academic Jean Berton, has been published by the University of Lancaster. The work was co-authored with Quick: all writing and directorial responsibilities are shared. The work was also co-authored during its realisation with actors, technicians and designers.
