Stage Design at the Crossroads of Different Operational Cultures. Mapping the History of Scenography Education in Finland

Authors

  • Laura Gröndahl University of Tampere

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.7146/nts.v27i2.24253

Keywords:

scenography, stage design, University of Industrial Arts, Helsinki, theatre education, theatre professions

Abstract

The article maps the development of scenography education in Finland from the early 1970s to the 2000s. Unlike all other disciplines of theatre making, the study program has been located at the University of Industrial Arts, which highlights the double character of scenography as both a visual and a performative art. The hegemonic comprehension of the subject has oscillated between independent design and participation in a collective process. The key question that penetrates the curriculum throughout the decades is how to successfully construct a solid, material space for a temporary, more or less unpredictable theatrical event. The scenographic methods that have been taught vary from the disciplined rational pre-planning and conceptual analysis of the 1970s, to the subjective individualism at the turn of the 1980s and 1990s, and finally to the interactive, self-regulating processes in the 2000s. The different approaches are largely connected to individual teachers, but they can be further contextualized by looking at the more general cultural tendencies in art, theatre and society; as well as to the material conditions, changing university policies and respective organizational reformations.

Author Biography

Laura Gröndahl, University of Tampere

Laura Gröndahl is a scenographer and theatre researcher, who is currently working on a research project on documentary theatre at Tampere University. Since taking her doctoral degree 2004 she has published several articles and acted regularly as a visiting lecturer at the Theatre Academy, and at the Universities of Lapland, Tampere and Helsinki, where she also holds the title of docent in thea- tre studies. She studied scenography in 1980-85, worked as a full-time practicing designer 1983-2002, and was the professor of Stage Design in 2006-13 at the University of Industrial Arts, Helsinki (from 2010 at the Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture).

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Published

2015-08-30

How to Cite

Gröndahl, L. (2015). Stage Design at the Crossroads of Different Operational Cultures. Mapping the History of Scenography Education in Finland. Nordic Theatre Studies, 27(2), 86–102. https://doi.org/10.7146/nts.v27i2.24253

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