AS A MOMENTARY SPATIAL EXPERIENCE Amy K. Marku
1*, Dinah S. Priambodo
21,2Universitas Indonesia, Indonesia
ABSTRACT
Stage design is a temporary space built specifically for performing arts. Although it is created for temporary use and not permanent, the atmosphere, which is created and narrated by a stage designer, is built to determine the audiences of how they should perceive or feel. There is a space shared certain audiences who enjoy the very precise moment, confirming that all of them has shared the same spatial experience at the same time.
Case study for this paper is a musical stage: Ariah the Musical, a musical drama to celebrate Jakarta 486th Anniversary (2014). This musical drama performed on a massive stage, using Monumen Nasional (Monas) as a background.
This paper suggests that the narrative builds through a system of interiority which has created a momentary spatial experience. There is an engagement between the temporality of time, sensorial and social-spatial experience in a stage design. This stage serves its purpose not only as a temporary space for performance but also to exhibit Monumen Nasional to the audiences. The idea needs to be explored through an analytical design approach to articulate the idea.
Keywords: scenography, performance art, spatial experience, art in public space, Ariah the Musical
INTRODUCTION
This research starts with the Authors interest in performing arts. In this specific branch of art, artists perform in a stage, which is a space that is designed for the performance. Stage Design, or also known as a scenography, gave audience definitive information about the time and place from the narration of the play.
As audiences, when we are watching a performance we share the same perception of the stage. Baudrillard (1996) has linked material, form and space as elements that hold a big role in affecting the atmosphere. The three aspects linked to each other become a cultural system of signs and construct spatial experience. We no longer talk about spatiality behinda closed doors or in a four-dimensional space, but spatiality in a broader context. Spatiality now is understood by the relational condition in between one human being to another.
The interior is understood outside of its historical frame as an applied, disjunctive, and randomly accumulative space of inhabitation (Baudrillard, 1996, p. 37). When people are gathering around in the same place it creates the sense of relatedness to each other, even without a particular interaction, they all belong to the place at that very precise moment.
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Douglas (2011) describe the potential of another form of relatedness when people gather to see a public art.
The public art has challenged traditional sociality that might normatively gather us around identity-based categories of belonging such as being of a nationality, ethnicity, language, religion, class, gendered role, and so on (Douglas, 2011, p. 45).
Moreover, it also the same when we watched a performance. We gathered not because of our nationality, ethnicity, or gender, but for the performance itself. This temporary event creates a sense of relatedness through each other, and create a different sense of time and place, separated from the time and place context narration of the play. Audiences feel connected to each other because they are enjoying the performance together.
From this point of view, authors feel this sense of relatedness is not being brought by the narration or storyline from the play, but from other forms. There is another narration which guides the audiences from the beginning, starting from when the gate open, queueing tickets, finding seat position and watching the performance at the stage design. It is incorporated as a dynamic relation between audiences and the performances. Location of the performance is as important as the stage design itself, followed by the elements of design such as materiality, lighting, form, texture, and sound. There could be a multi-narrated story behind the scenography, because of the overflowing relationship happened in the environment.
This paper tries to discover another „narration behind scenography by using “Ariah the Musical” as a Case Study. To explore the idea this paper begins with a brief overview of the terms of scenography in the history and its relevance to interiority and space. Followed by a discussion about how the spatiality is narrated through site location, flowing continuously from site to the elements of design applied in “Ariah the Musical”
scenography.
METHODOLOGY
The objective of this research is to discuss how spatiality is constructed one by one, through some systematical arrangements in a scenography or a stage design. Spatiality in Scenography is closely related to the idea of time and space, authors will then explore some theoretical ideas in The System of Objects by Baudrillard along with other references about Scene Design by Radivoje Dinulovi and Narrative in Scene Design by Joe M. Rohde, along with other references from Aronson and from Joslin Mckinney who describe the Future and the Development of Scenography. To understand the spatiality in scenography, especially in a site context situation, authors believe that theory from Fiona Wilkie about Space in a Site-Specific Performance and the Typologies in Scenic Space by Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones also relatable to the idea.
LITERATUR STUDIES A. Definition of Scenography
In a theatrical production, stage design or scenography is considered as a key role in a production of theatre play as it is often the first visual thing audiences will notice when they enter the venue. McKinney (2000) and Kennedy (1993) all state that the visual is an essential part of theatre production. What audiences see will inevitably shape their theatrical experience and suggest meanings (McKinney, 2000, p. 1).
As an illustration for the audiences, sometimes a stage design equipped with painted scenery as a background, with various properties such as furniture, and other supporting accessories. According to Jones (2001), set and the costume is a major component that determines a theatrical performance. Both set design and costume reflect the themes and mood, style, and emotions of a play, as well as indicating the historical or geographic context of the production.
Historical background from the term of scenography first introduced by Pamela Howard in her book “What is Scenography?”, But the conception of scenography was first introduced by Appia. Using lighting as a key
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element to create the ambience, Appia challenges the old conception about scenography. The sense of spatiality in scenography then become deeper, ambience no longer presented in background and properties but presented in a more abstract but powerful way. Pamela Howard in “What is Scenography?” also describe scenography as an “elegant synthesis of space, text, research, fine arts, actors, directors and viewers, which contributes to the creation of truly original works” (Howard, 2002, p. 152).
On his writing on “What is Scenography?” Eagan (2010) described the development of modern scenography started in the Central and Eastern Europe, at the communist era and later become popular in West Europe.
At that moment, The Bauhaus Movement in architecture and design and German Expressionism in painting and the theatre are both important artistic and intellectual antecedents to modern scenography.
Postmodernism concepts also gave influence to the understanding of scenography. The increasing use of the term scenography in Britain is, in part, intended to signal a practice of theatre design where visual, spatial and kinetic elements are fully integrated within the performance as a whole (Mckinney, 2000, p. 1).
Scenography is no longer a presented imagination or in Aronson's word: a simulacrum of the experiential world of the spectators. Scenography, therefore, is constructed out of the architectural stage space, rearticulate of that space, and the design and presentation of all elements of scene design (scenery, props, costumes, light, sound, video projections, special effects...) (Radivoje, 2012, p. 7)
On Scenography Expanding 2: On Artists/Authors (2010) it is mentioned that in the past decade the scenographic practice and the scene design have continually wandered off from the theatrical black box towards a hybrid area placed within the points of intersection of the theatre, architecture, exhibitions, visual arts and media. In this case, scenography is no longer act as a supporting background but what makes the experience itself. Visual Experience in the theatre can be separated from the performance or the screenplay.
It is a combination of our perception, our experience of space, altered or pondered by such things as our knowledge, memory and our state of mind (Clarke, 2012, p. 14). Because of its quality as a hybrid area, from this point of view the authors would like to propose an idea to see scenography not just as a visual background, but to see a scenography as a whole experience of watching the performance. Scenography cannot be understood as simply just a stage, but the whole experience of watching the performance is also part of scenography. We, as audiences are part of scenography itself.
As mention above, a scenography is purposely build to create an atmosphere, which is constructed by the elements of theatre staging which complements each other. These elements, not by particular elements only, construct a systematical organization, a whole organization which we called atmosphere in the interior world.
These elements play a role in our reaction on how we perceive the spatial experience when watching a specific performance.
B. Spatiality in Scenography
Wilky (2004) in “Space in Site-Specific Performance” argued that the term spatial in the theatre production is actually found in the actual act of watching the performance, which is usually separated from the performance itself. If we see scenography as a whole process of watching a performance, the activity outside the performance such as buying tickets, queueing for entry, or meeting friends, according to Wilky, is also a part of scenography. Scenography conceived as a „spatial situation , it also incorporates the fragile, dynamic, and emotional relationships of performers and audience in real space. (Dinulovi , 2012, p. 34) These activities are the activities that create meaning in a performance watching experience, create a different level of spatiality not just experienced by the audiences, but also experience by the performers, actors, and the whole production team.
How we sense the place and its a matter as our memory gathered over the course of time, and our body with its surrounding reacts upon them. Bergson (1990) stated that memory of experience is what triggers us for our action or reaction in the present moment. Each person constructs their spatiality based on their
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experience or memory. They create their own perception and at the same time, engaging their spatial experience to each other.
The characteristic of spatiality in a scenography is described in a moment of right now. Audiences believe they had shared the same experience, although they don t know each other. Space and Time here become the parameter. On Space, Time and Play in Multimedia Environments Translated by John Ashforth, Eisenbeis (2007) stated if the “Zeit-Raum” (literally “time-space” or “space in time,” “timespan”) describes the linear measure of a period, a duration, which is of importance in the registration of signals and contents, then the
“Raum-Zeit” (“space-time”) illustrates the spatial navigation or exploration of a physically defined area subject to time. Hence, the relation in between time and space in a scenography depends on visual elements combine to create an atmosphere. When all the visual elements combine, a sense of design is born, and the full impact of the theatre experience can be interpreted by the audience (Lloyld, 2001, p. 2).
Moreover, to understand the full impact of the theatre experience we also need to know the audiences. What could come off as an identity which could connect all experiences, memories and historical background of the audiences? Interpretation coming from audiences are very personal based on their experiences, memories and historical background. Memories of prior personal and cultural experiences play their part in conditioning his perception of these patterns and delight is found in the intrigue generated by what remains unsaid (Malnar & Vodvarka, 2004, p. 3). This is what a stage designer should understand. Narration in a scenography coming from the articulation of the narratives from the people involved in the production; stage designer, producer, director, includes all actors, to be delivered to the audiences, but the key person who held power is the stage designer, who has the responsibility to implemented in the elements of design.
Audiences whose come to see the performance might have hidden similarities that could form a relatedness to each other. There is an identity that is collectively hidden in the cause of people sharing historical or hereditary similarities (Hall, 2000, p. 17). This is what a stage designer should find and create, a form of similarity that connects each other.
As a part of scenography, the location where the actors will perform sometimes speaks more rather than any other visual elements. Since 1960, the development in theatre practice has changed the necessity to perform inside a theatre building. The site-specific place gives a spatial and architectural meaning, performance sometimes takes place in specific location, using the site as an instrumental part of the development of the atmosphere in the performance. Here, the representational system in “Ariah the Musical” presented through a site-specific, followed by the design of the stage and other elements of design.
Diagram 1. Audiences activity in Ariah the Musical Performance Source: Author
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As the official national monument of the Republic of Indonesia, Monas already hold some emotional and fonding memories to the audiences before. Zumthor has stated that we perceived atmosphere through our emotional sensibility. (Zumthor, 2006, p. 11). Almost every Jakartans, if not Indonesian, has visited Monas before, through a family picnic, school visit, or they simply just passing it every day in their daily life. Monas has already been there; Monas is familiar to them. Because the familiarity of Monas, audiences already have some expectation towards the performance referring to the memory or experience they had before. Here, site an important part of narrating and create a sense of place. Moreover, audience interaction is present through this symbolic form. Spatial experience build from the previous memory audiences had about Monas.
It will not achieve its purpose if this performance being held in another place, for example, in a regular theatre space.
SPACE OF INDEPENDENCY AS A NARRATIVE
This description begins by identifying narratives related to the context of space and time, and memories of the past. “Ariah the Musical” becomes the illustration to explore the narration behind scenography. As a musical performance to commemorate the 486th anniversary of Jakarta (2014), this musical performance considered relevant to be used as a case study.
Ariah the Musical storyline based on the folklore story in Tambun Area in 1869 of a girl named Mariah, a poor woman who refused to be married against oppression in the Dutch colonial period. Ariah s character coming off as a strong-willed, she was willing to learn martial arts to defend herself and her dignity and finally fight until death, as she said she better be dead rather than alive by oppression.
Rohde (2010) stated that places with personality offer a strong connection to visitors because as a human being we tend to look for visual comfort. It means, the place itself should give comfort and familiar feeling.
The less anxiety it creates, the easier the place to be invested with new meanings. The more familiar the place are, the more audiences feel that they are in a natural environment. Narration must explain itself, not be explained by text, and narrative depends on visual cueing. These narratives come in the form of representation, construct identity and define how certain things are presented, taught, or learned (Hall, 2000, p. 17).
In Ariah the Musical, the performance is located in Monas, audience’s memories and experience regarding Monas is used to shape their perception. As a 132-meter tower, located in the center of Merdeka Square with a 14.5 ton Bronze covered with Gold Foil as its top, Monas was established to commemorate the struggle of the people of Indonesia to win over Indonesia Independency from the Dutch Colonial Government (see figure 1) It was built on August 17, 1961, and opened to the public on July 12, 1975.
Figure 2. Monumen Nasional (MONAS), familiar as an icon of Jakarta.
Source: Disparbud DKI Jakarta
As an icon of Jakarta, Monas has already possessed the quality of narrative space; it has particular meaning to every person in Jakarta. Monas and its story already connected to audience’s personal experience. When
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Monas became the location for Ariah the Musical performance, audiences expand their experience about Monas, adding new memories and perception.
As mentioned before, Monas is located in Merdeka Square, previously Lapangan Ikada. Lapangan Ikada has been known as a historical place where Sukarno, the 1st President of Indonesia gave his first speech in front of thousands of people after Indonesia Independence was declared. “Lapangan Ikada” and “Monas”
symbolize the fight of independence in Indonesia and during that time, it has raised the patriotic spirit in the Indonesian people. This previous knowledge will create a familiarity of the place with the audiences, but then curiosity will also arise. What could be done in a place that is already familiar to them? What could possibly be different? These questions are the questions audiences had in mind when they enter Monas' gate.
Monas has already been known as a tower of independence, this information is what the stage designer realize. Ariah storyline tells a tale of a woman that defends her independence in the Dutch Colonial period.
Then the identity of Monas as a symbol of Indonesia independence reinforced with the story of Ariah itself.
Independence became the narration, since the beginning, followed by other elements in the design of the stage itself. Design result is created by the needs of the atmosphere. So, function in design is closely related to material, form and space in the needs of building atmosphere (Baudillard, 1996, p. 37).
Figure 3. People arrived in Monas to watch Ariah The Musical
Source: http://dotadengankomputerkitabicara.blogspot.co.id/2013/07/ariah-drama-musikal- betawi-di- monas.html
To craft narrative space, one has to think a bit more of a filmmaker, in technical attempts to create the illusion of space, an extension of the panorama (Rohde, 2010, p. 4). In our study case, when audiences arrived at the venue, first and foremost they will see from afar is Monas (see figure 2). There are several activities they have to do before they could enter and find their seat. Going inside, audiences are first directed to follow a circular path and see other audiences gathered before they see the entire stage where the performance will be conducted. A linear and straight path will give a direct information about the place, but if the path is not linear, audiences will find visual signals through other wayfinding elements along the way. This then will deepen the level of curiosity and raised a sense of expectation about what they will see at the end of the path until finally audiences found their seat and sat down facing the stage.
Ariah the Musical stage is located in front of Monas, using Monas as a background. Far from the context of space and time contained in the storyline, Ariah the Musical stage is a modern stage setting, with massive scale stage. In Ariah stage, elements of design are articulated in the scale of the stage, shape, texture, and lighting. The stage was configured to three parts with different heights in each part. (see figure 3 and figure 4) The first stage is around 3 M with 15-degree slope, the second one is 7 M with 20-degree slope, and the third one which is being the tallest one is 10 M with 35-degree slope, as we can see at the picture below (see figure 4).