The deep, sometimes wild, subjectivities of practice…

Abstract

In recent decades, there has been considerable interdisciplinary debate around the theories of scenography, but less so around the practices of scenography. This article revisits scenography to reposition it as a contemporary design discipline, with a reminder that its history is embedded in the traditions of art theory and philosophy. Using Isabelle Stengers’ ‘Introductory notes on an ecology of practices’ as an opportunity to rethink the practice of scenography, a project is revisited, under the rubric ‘design fiction’. This project ‘Burying the Narrative’ is presented as a source of conceptual and theoretical encounter as several objects are buried under the ground. This was a tactic to deliberately disassociate scenography from traditional conventions and methodologies. Design practice is considered an integral part of the ecosystem of theatre and performance, and certainly in the early stages of a project, clever manoeuvres give rise to creative speculations.