But a walking shadow: designing, performing and learning on the virtual stage

Abstract

For hundreds of years, the remediation of reality has been built into all technologies of representation. Although taken as a whole, the available information enables a qualitative assessment of the history of multimedia and their influences on different fields of knowledge, there are still some areas that require more focused research attention. For example, the relationship between media evolution and new developments in scenographic practice is currently under investigation. This article explores the issue of immediacy as a condition of modern theatre in the context of digital reality. It discusses the opportunities and challenges that recent technologies present to contemporary practitioners and theatre design educators, creating a lot of scope to break with conventions. Here, we present two case studies that look into technology‐mediated learning about scenography through the employment of novel computer visualization techniques. The first case study is concerned with new ways of researching and learning about theatre through creative exploration of design artefacts. The second case study investigates the role of the immersive virtual world Second Life in effective teaching of scenography, and in creating and experiencing theatrical performances.

Keywords:

• scenography
• education
• 3D reconstructions
• new media technologies
• virtual learning environments
• Second Life