Scenography and Actor-Network Theory : Analytical Approaches

Title data

Ernst, Wolf-Dieter:
Scenography and Actor-Network Theory : Analytical Approaches.
In: Wiens, Birgit (ed.): Contemporary Scenography : practices and aesthetics in German theatre, arts and design. - London : Methuen Drama , 2019 . - pp. 183-197
ISBN 978-1-350-06447-8

Project information

Abstract in another language

Situtation Rooms (2013) is an installation in augmented reality style developed by the performance group Rimini Protokoll in collaboration with the scenographer Dominic Huber, and a good example to understand the interplay of contemporary scenography, theater and interactive gameplay. The viewer actively navigates with a handheld device through a labyrintine room, or house if you may, and takes on different roles of the actors that keep the international arms trade running: producers, traders, politicians, perpetrators, and victims.
What interests us in this example is what in Actor-network theory has gained prominence as the interdependency of human and non-human actors. Scripted and machine-implemented chains of action determine the aesthetic experience of the theaterical space, which in return is questioned in its traditional outset, of course. Especially the distinction between theatre as an architectual space and a performance space collapse, as Situation Rooms is both at the same time. Where scenography ceases to present a fictional setting distinct from the notion of theatre as an apparatus, a sociological approach seems promising, which would equally encompass aesthetic, technological and social issues.