The School of Performing Arts

Design Principles

Module Tutor: Stacey-Jo Atkinson (SJA)

Module Code: THPR5009
2015-2016

The scenographer visually liberates the text and the story behind
it, by creating a world in which the eyes see what the ears do not
hear. Resonances of the text are visualised through fragments and
memories that reverberate in the spectators subconscious,
suggesting rather than illustrating the words.
Pamela Howard - What is Scenography 2002

Stage Lighting has a higher purpose than just illumination of the

action and scenery in a production. It is an art, because every
decision you make as a Lighting Designer can, and should, make
a contribution to the experience of the audience watching the
performance.
David Taylor

Design Principles
AIM(S)
To develop students' understanding and application of the principles of
visual communication and scenography.
To develop the rigour of the students conceptual analysis and creative
exploration.
To develop students' abilities to apply design aesthetics to scenographic
practice.
LEARNING OUTCOMES
In marking your work on this module you tutor expects you to:
Apply the language of the visual artist and designer with appropriate
knowledge and understanding;
Critically examine written material from the viewpoint of the designer,
responding to its artistic challenges in terms of action, atmosphere and
dramatic potential;
Access and apply visual research as a basis for design exploration and
discussion;
Analyse the role of design in the context of theatre practice;
Organise your knowledge, through library, information and other creative
resources;
Formulate a coherent set of design objectives for a given brief or location.

If you ask most people who walk in and tell you they want to be
lighting designers what kind of weather we are having whats it
like outside? Half of them wont know how to describe it, if they
remember at all, they simply dont know how to see.
Tharon Musser

MODULE OUTLINE
Week beginning September 28th
Monday 28th
Session 1: How we access the interesting parts of what our brains can do.
Class Session: What is design? Why study design?
Left and Right brain.
Poems and condensed imagery

Time: 2:00 pm to 5:00 pm

Location: PA002
Study Task: Choose a poem & an object
Write a question
Choose lyrics
Watch water boil
Tuesday 29th
Session 2: Class Session: How do we know when we are designing?
The nature of visual story telling
Time: 2:00pm to 5:00pm
Location: PA002
Study Task: Read The Last Night of the World & respond
Read Zephyr & respond
Read Understanding Comics handout & respond
Wednesday 30th - 2pm Talk with National Theatre Wales Minibus will be
provided and will leave campus at 1pm
Thursday 1st
Session 3: Class session Painting with Light
Time: 10:00 am to 1:00pm
Location: PA002
Study Task: Read Henry V prologue & choose an object
Take a picture
Choose two artists & respond
Week Beginning 5th October
Monday 5th
Session 4: Class Session: The simplicity of selection and the vocabulary of
design.
Time: 2:00 pm to 5:00 pm
Location: PA002
Study Task: Read Far Away by Caryl Churchill & respond

Answer "How can we use space and time to develop an idea?"

Tuesday 6th Possible trip to PLASA Transport will be provided
Wednesday 7th
Tutorials you must sign up for one - 30 minute tutorial there is a sign-up
sheet in Moodle. Please bring your process workbooks/portfolios.
Location: PA002
Thursday 9th
Session 5: Class Session: Steps of Design
Time: 10:00am to 1:00pm
Location: PA002
Study Task: Read Scenography handout
Choose two theatre designers & respond

Week Beginning 12th October

Monday 12th
Session 6: Class Session: What is scenography?
the seamless synthesis of space, text, research, art, actors, directors and
spectators that contributes to an original creation.
Pamela Howard - What is Scenography 2002
Time: 2:00pm 5:00pm
Location: PA002
Tuesday 13th
Session 7: Class Session: How to manipulate and orchestrate the
performance environment (Breath Project).
Time: 10:00am
We will meet to discuss project and distribute details (PA002)
There will be tutorials in groups in the afternoon - Time & Location - TBC

Location: PA002 & TBC

Wednesday 14th
Session 8: Tutorials and Breath Project distributed
Tutorial times:
10:00am - Group P
11:00am - Group Z

4:00 pm - All Meet for presentations

Location: TBC
Theatre is mainly in the performance; lovely sketches and renderings dont
mean a thing, however impressive they may be; you can draw anything you
like on a piece of paper, but whats important is the actualization. True
scenography is what happens when the curtain opens and cant be judged in
any other way.
Josef Svoboda
Week Beginning 19th October
Monday 19th
Session 9: Class Session: Practical session. Telling a visual story and
making conscious choices. Practical project details distributed
What is research? What are objectives?
Time: 1:00pm to 5:00pm
Location: H007
Tuesday 20th
Tutorials you must sign up for one - 30 minute tutorial there is a sign-up
sheet in Moodle. Please bring your process workbooks/portfolios.
Location: PA002

Thursday 23rd
Tutorials you must sign up for one - 30 minute tutorial there is a sign-up
sheet in Moodle. Please bring your process workbooks/portfolios.
Location: PA002

Week Beginning 26th October

Monday 26th
Session 13: Class Session: Tutorials
Time: 9:15 am onwards (To be booked on Moodle)
Location: H007
Tuesday 27th
H007 booked all day for experimenting
Wednesday 28th
Session 15: Class Session: Tutorials
Time: 9:15 am onwards (To be booked on Moodle)
Location: H007
Thursday 28th
H007 booked all day for experimenting
Friday 30th
Project Presentations (all to attend)
Location: H007
A schedule will be distributed to cover this day

ASSESSMENT
Coursework
Practical Projects and Process Workbook: 100%
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Please note that there are a number of additional books to those listed below
in the library that relate to lighting, scenography and design. Please be
courteous of others in the class when checking out books, as it is not possible
to have multiple copies of all books. Remember to act as a team, share
information and resources. Think about how you use research to inform your
process.
Workbooks should include a bibliography of books you found helped you.
Essential
Benedetto S.D An Introduction to theatre design, London:Routledge, 2012
Berger A.A. Seeing is Believing: An Introduction to Visual
Communication, California: Mayfield Publishing, 1989.
Howard, P. What is Scenography?, London: Routledge, 2001.
Morgan, J. & Welton, P. See What I Mean?, London: Edward Arnold, 1992.
Payne, D. The Scenographic Imagination, Carbondale:
Southern Illinois University Press, 1993.
Recommended
Arnheim, R. Visual Thinking, London: Faber, 1969.
Brohan, T. Avant-Garde Design 1880-1930, Cologne: Taschen, 1994.
Callen, A. Techniques of the Impressionists, London: New Burlington, 1987.
Dimmack, M. Art Techniques for Students, London: Macmillan, 1969.
Dupont, J. Painting in the Seventeenth Century, New York: Skira, 1957.
Gillette, J.M. Designing with Light, California: Mayfield Publishing, 1989.
Graver, D. The Aesthetics of Disturbance: Anti-Art in Avant-Garde
Drama, Ann Arbor: Universityof Michigan Press, 1995.
Hockney, D. Off the Wall: Hockney Posters, London: Pavilion, 1994.
Honnef, K. Andy Warhol: Commerce into Art, Cologne: Taschen, 1993.
Muller, J.E. Rembrandt, London: Thames & Hudson, 1968.

Newman R, & Fowler, D.M. Space, Structure and Form, London:Brown &
Benchmark, 1996.
Pool, P. Impressionism, London: Thames & Hudson, 1969.
Pye, D. The Nature and Aesthetics of Design, Bath: Herbert Press, 1978.
Taylor, B. The Art of Today, London: Everyman, 1992.
Walker, J.A. Art in the Age of Mass Media, London: Pluto, 1996.
Yenwaine, P. How to Look at Modern Art, London: Chatto & Windus, 1993.