From Candle Light to Contemporary Lighting Systems

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ABSTRACT From Candle Light to Contemporary Lighting Systems: How Lighting Technology Shapes Scenographic Practices From Candle Light to In this article, I discuss the in!uence of stage lighting on the processes of scenic design and the functioning of performance space. "ere has been a huge advance Contemporary Lighting Systems: in lighting technology with regard to their accessibility, usability, luminosity and costs during the past decades. Light can no longer be thought of as a necessity How Lighting Technology that can just be added to the performance. It has become one of its basic visual elements, directing and focusing the spectators gaze. "e rhythm of changing lighting cues create a visual dramaturgy, which has turned visual design from Shapes Scenographic Practices solid constructrions to a score of temporal events. Today you seldom see a performance without any use of projections or digital videos. LAURA GRÖNDAHL I begin with a quick historical survey on the adaptation of electric light in order to exemplify the artistic signi#cance of technological innovations. I move on to Choreographer and Her Lighting Designer,1 a but we cannot see a light-beam unless it is re!ected a more philosophical conversation about the metaphorical connotations of light two-minute long video by Tülay Schakir, shows from some material surface, be it only a dust particle as a basic component of the visual mise-en-scène. "en I return to the practices a woman dancing on a treadmill. Another stony- in the air. "is dialectic reciprocity associates easily of contemporary theatre making and examine the contributions of the latest faced woman stands in the background and after a with the relation between human perception and projection technology. while she switches the !uorescent lights o$ with a the perceived world, which raises phenomenological I suggest that stage lighting has developed from being a technical tool making tiny gesture. A red light beam illuminates the danc- questions as to how things appear and make mean- the scenes visible into a sovereign artistic agency creating images on its own er from one side and her #gure hovers magically in ing to us. "en again, the interplay between the set terms. Today’s intermedial scenography can be seen as a parallel to the contem- the emptiness. "e same movements appear now as and light is always conditioned by existing technolo- porary experience of our spatio-visual environment in everyday life, echoing the dramatic and powerfully expressive, until the light gy, resources, stage architecture, prevailing theatrical changes that happen in our ways of perceiving and conceptualizing the world. changes back and we see the dancer just training in conventions and individual artists. "roughout the a shabby gym, again. "e lighting designer looks as history of stage lighting, philosophical and practical Keywords: scenography, lighting, theatre, technology, design, visuality. indi$erent as previously. "is short video clip was conjunctures intertwine in a most intriguing way. part of the exhibition Valovuosi (Light-year), which I will #rst give a short overview of the forma- represented the work of Finnish lighting designers tion of modern scenography in terms of lighting at the "eatre Museum in 2009. To me it crystalliz- technology and design practices, then move on to es the signi#cance of lighting in contemporary thea- some theoretical discussions and end my article tre: it makes things visible or invisible; it directs the with some tentative conclusions about the contem- focus and de#nes the mood of watching. porary digitalized stage. Besides well-known histor- "roughout history, realistic painters have ical examples I will focus on Finnish theatre – not known how to use light and shadow to create dra- only because it is the most familiar context to me, matic e$ects. Today, nobody knows this better than but also because Finland is one of the few countries a lighting designer who builds on a long tradition where lighting design has been systematically devel- of elaborate visual performances, phantasmagorias oped and o$ered at university level for almost 30 BIOGRAPHY and ghostly e$ects. It has, however, taken a surpris- years, and therefore has a signi#cant artistic status ingly long time for the artistic signi#cance of light alongside set and costume designs. Laura Gröndahl currently works as a researcher at Tampere University, focusing in theatre to be acknowledged. "e tool of making on documentary theatre. She has previously acted as a professor of stage design the stage visible has ironically remained invisible to (2006-13) and as a visiting lecturer at the Universities of Helsinki and Lapland many. In this article I try to mend the gap, perhaps THE HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN and "eatre Academy. Before taking her doctoral degree in 2004, she graduated just a little, by mapping how the development of STAGE LIGHTING: WHAT CAN YOU DO BY as a scenographer in 1985 and worked in several Finnish theatres for almost 20 lighting technology has in!uenced the scenograph- MEANS OF LIGHT? years. She has mostly been interested in the scenographic practices of theatre ic2 ways of using and thinking of the stage. Arti#cial lighting became necessary when perfor- making and how they can be connected to di$erent modes of thinking and Set and lighting designs always go hand in hand. mances moved indoors in the late sixteenth cen- conceptualizing lived experiences. "e set can be made visible only by means of light, tury. Although the scenographers of the past were [email protected]

20 Nordic Theatre Studies vol. 26: no. 2 Nordic Theatre Studies vol. 26: no. 2 21 amazingly inventive, technical means seem to have "e invention of electric light had dramatic con- cussions on modern scenography throughout the thinking, communicative interaction, research and lagged behind artistic insights and endeavours until sequences to the set design. "e actors became free twentieth century. It was expressed, for example, in dramaturgical understanding that exceeds technical the present day. For example Philippe Louther- to move on stage without disappearing into shad- Edward Gordon Craig’s idea about Übermarionet- and purely aesthetic needs.13 bourgh, who worked with David Garrick in Drury ows. Painted backdrops lost their magic in bright ten,10 or in Oskar Schlemmer’s claim that the lit- Nevertheless, the artistic potentials and technical Lane, London 1771-85, and whom Scott Palmer light, and were soon replaced by three-dimensional eral “sound stage”, the actor’s “play stage” and the needs of stage lighting were only slowly recognized credits as the #rst modern scenographer,3 under- sets, genuine furniture and real objects. "e actors designer’s “visual stage” were separate dimensions in mainstream practices. For instance, traditional stood well the dramaturgical importance of light- could then seize the props, slam the doors or climb that could not be successfully combined in a perfor- theatre architecture did not provide suitable plac- ing as a key tool for creating a realistic atmosphere on the set elements. Most modern theatre theorists mance unless one ruled over the others.11 "e dis- es from which the lights could be operated during and highlighting the e$ects of painted sets. We can like Stanislavski, Meyerhold and Brecht called for crepancy between purely visual and narrative aims the show. "e switchboard was usually placed in the only imagine his frustration with candles, torches a new kind of designer who would be an architect shows in the practical function of lighting, which wings or under the stage where the electrician could and oil lamps when he and Garrick tried to dark- and a constructor rather than a painter. "e design- always balances between the instrumental task of not see the performance. "e Finnish National "e- en the auditorium, illuminate actors with overhead er should be involved with the dramatic action, an- illuminating the scenes, and the expressive poten- atre had it moved to the back of the auditorium of lights and move the scenes further back on stage in ticipating and suggesting possibilities of using the tiality of scenography. For instance, a front light, the big stage as late as 1959.14 It took even much order to create an illusory tableau.4 "e only place space and movement there, which makes scenogra- which properly illuminates the actors’ faces, often longer before lighting design was understood as a where the actors’ faces could be su%ciently lit was phy an inherent part of the particular mise-en-scène !attens the stage space, while visually impressive sovereign artistic occupation on its own terms. "e the forestage close to the footlights, and, interest- of a play. Consequently, the set designer became a sceneries may leave the performers in shadow. "is birth of a specialized, self-conscious lighting design- ingly enough, their visibility was considered as vital close partner of the director, stepping out from his is probably one reason why so many avant-garde er dates back to the 1980s in Finland, which prob- for their audibility, too.5 Moreover, the actors could studio to rehearsal rooms, discussing the contents scenographies have been made in the context of ably is the international average. However, lighting not move too close to the painted scenes without of the play and developing the holistic visual score.8 modern dance. A dancer uses his/her whole body as had become a major component of stage design ruining the visual illusion. "erefore the set was Nevertheless, previous conventions persisted in a plastic #gure, which can be lit as a dynamic part much earlier. Scott Palmer notes that lighting tech- treated as a detached background rather than a mainstream practices. As late as 1902 the Finnish of the holistic scenery, whereas the drama actors’ fa- nology started to change the production system of functional environment for action, except in some National "eatre purchased painted backdrops – so cial expression is crucial for their performance and performances already in the late 1800s: “"e in- special e$ects like !ying scenes. Together with the called type-coulisses – from the atelier Grabow in necessitates front light in order to be perfectly seen. creasing complexity of the lighting meant that the wing change machines, the lighting conditions of Stockholm, and they were used alongside of other Another important contribution of electric scenes now needed to be planned in advance and the baroque theatre determined a rigid spatial order, sets until the 1930s.9 A telling detail is that when I lighting was that it eventually made complete dark- cue sheets developed so that the lighting could be which prevailed, apart from minor changes, practi- studied scenography in Helsinki in the early 1980s, ness possible. It enabled sudden blackouts, dramat- repeated accurately in each performance.”15 cally intact from the seventeenth to the late nine- I still had to be trained in old-fashioned backdrop ic shadows, instant set changes and movie-like cuts Because of the dramaturgical function of light- teenth century. painting – although I never properly learned it. from one scene to another on stage, which created a ing cues, the whole scenography had to be thought "ings started to change slowly after the inven- "e long-lived, pictorial tradition has in!uenced suggestive visual dramaturgy. "is promoted a new, of in temporal terms and not as a purely spatio-vi- tion of gaslight, which was adapted to theatre pur- the professional identity and teaching of scenog- immersive mode of reception, which responded to sual, solid environment. It was not enough anymore poses for the #rst time ca. 1816.6 Together with the raphy far into the modernist era by constituting it the needs of the romantic-realistic bourgeois theatre. to design the architectural structures and visual limelight (1826) and carbon-arch (1846) it provid- as a primarily visual art rather than a dynamic part "e lighting focused the spectator’s complete atten- atmospheres; you had to think of it as a dynamic ed the #rst advanced toolkit for lighting the stage, of a performance. Although the pictorial sceneries tion on the onstage #ction, and allured him/her to event. enabling new operations: the light-beams could be were largely critized by modern theatre makers, forget the actual environment of the theatre and the Ville Toikka, the present lighting designer at focused, directed, shaped and coloured better than they paradoxically had a$orded a certain artistic au- fellow audience-members. "e scenographer could the Finnish National "eatre, puts it beautifully: ever before. Luminosity increased signi#cantly, tonomy to the set designer as a painter. Since the start thinking of the stage as if it were a three-dimen- “Lights have the same function as the camera has in which made it possible to focus on aesthetic issues type-coulisses had not been tied to particular plays, sional painting, an illusory window to another real- #lms: they focus and create the rhythm and atmo- besides sheer visibility.7 "e electric light, which the painters could cultivate their skills and talent ity; or as a mouldable substance in which the vision sphere. "e lights move things along and are thus rapidly became common for #re safety reasons, more or less independently of the dramaturgical de- could be sculpted by means of light. "e scenog- part of the storytelling. Lights can open the stage up completed this development in the late nineteenth mands of the text, or the wishes of individual actors rapher Robert Edmond Jones wrote aptly in 1941: or decrease the size of the image and make people century and beyond. Spotlights could be placed and directors. When the importance of scenography “We reveal the drama. We use light as we use words, look at di$erent parts of the stage; you can decide more freely in di$erent positions on stage when in the performance grew, the designer lost some of to elucidate ideas and emotions. Light becomes a what it is that people will focus on and most of all there was no open !ame. Light could be used as this sovereignty, because s/he had to adapt to the tool, an instrument of expression, like a paintbrush, what will go unnoticed. It is the job of the light- a dramaturgical tool once individual light sources holistic mise-en-scène. or a sculptor’s chisel, or a phrase of music.”12 Ac- ing designer to create a visual dramaturgy for the could be regulated and controlled precisely by one "e integration of stage design and direction cording to the longtime professor of lighting design, play.”16 man operating with a switchboard from one central generated a persistant schism between actor-centred Markku Uimonen lighting is a process that requires position. and visual theatre that seems to have penetrated dis-

22 Nordic Theatre Studies vol. 26: no. 2 Nordic Theatre Studies vol. 26: no. 2 23 STAGE SPACE AND LIGHTING AS A Light is de#nitely an important component of chine consists of two interdependent components: screen or canvas on which the picture appears; or PHILOSOPHICAL PERFORMANCE MACHINE the “performance machine” but how does it contrib- the physical, tangible set and the immaterial light, a stone, in which the sculpture is carved. In other Edward Gordon Craig and Adolphe Appia were ute to the examination of “the inner mechanics of which makes the set alive. "e visual designer bal- words, it would be a kind of a platform, where probably the #rst and most famous theatre thinkers the place of performance”?19 Philosophically speak- ances between these aspects, which generates a ten- visual forms and meanings appear – not completely who fully understood the artistic potential of stage ing, light has generally had a strongly metaphorical sion that might be compared to discussions about unlike the Platonic idea of space as chōra: a recep- lighting. "ey both made roughly the same conclu- role in the history of Western culture. In most re- the relation between the perceiving human mind tacle that has no character of its own, but can serve sions in the early 1900s: the stage must consist of ligions it is a sign of holiness or divinity. One only and the material world. as a matrix for any sensible qualities.23 In his philo- simple, abstract elements, whose looks can be varied has to think of words like ‘enlightenment’ or phras- It is both a tempting and doubtful enterprise to sophical history of place, Edward S. Casey suggests by means of light. Rejecting naturalistic sceneries, es like ‘I see’, meaning ‘I understand’, to realize how interpret historical and present scenic conventions that the Platonic chōra represents one of the two which represented the particular milieus of single closely light and vision are linked to knowledge, as incarnations of philosophical comprehensions. di$erent ways of regarding place that have prevailed plays, they strived for a kind of universalized stage, reason and truth in our thought. Still, the epistemic We can easily #nd examples where the old-time in Western philosophy since antiquity and are still capable of hosting any single performance. Accord- role of sight is ambivalent. On the one hand it is theatrical space seems to duplicate current beliefs operative at the level of common sense thinking.24 ing to Christopher Baugh, the essential question for considered as the primary human sense, receiving about the structure of the universe, society and the "e other comprehension of space, which Casey Appia and Craig was the creation of scenery that reliable information from ones surroundings; on the place of human beings there. "e medieval stage calls proto-phenomenological, can be traced back to “looks like nothing but itself”.17 In other words, other hand the eye can be easily deceived, and Plato was a microcosm consisting of earth, heaven and Aristotle emphasizing the inherent power of physi- the set was not supposed to refer to any particu- himself doomed the visible appearances as phony hell. "e mechanical scenic machinery of the ba- cal and perceivable places.25 If you follow the second lar #ction or meaning but to stand for the inter- delusions. It is hard not to associate lighting e$ects roque theatre displayed the rationalist worldview by path as a scenographer, you might give primacy to nal structure and operational principle of theatre with the shadows on the wall of Plato’s cave. changing wings with the same accuracy as the godly the lived environment in its multisensory materiali- itself. "e abstract stage is thus a platform, where According to Martin Jay, the concepts of light clockwork was believed to move the universe. "e ty and end up in site-speci#c performances. the performance can emerge, or, as Baugh suggests as optical rays, called lumen, and the actual experi- physical separation of actors from the background Although Casey’s notion of space clearly re- in his phenomenal reading on 20th century sceno- ence of human sight, known as lux, were separated scenery reminds one of the Cartesian distinction minds one of the above mentioned dual character graphic technology: “"e metaphor of the scene as already in Antique philosophy. "is dual character between the thinking subject and his material sur- of light, suggested by Jay, or the Cartesian and sub- a machine – as a physical construct that theatrically has been present in later Western philosophical and roundings. jective visions by Crary, I do not believe that there locates and enables the public act of performance scienti#c discussions of light and vision.20 Exem- "e philosophical impact of modern lighting in is a straight line from these philosophical ideas to – represents one of the earliest, and has proved to plifying in practical terms the antagonism between theatre history is more complex. On the one hand, scenographic practices. Lots of di$erent factors in- be one of the most long-lived, leitmotifs of sceno- empiricism and rationalism, it echoes the modes the three-dimensionality of the stage space broke !uence the choices of !oor-level scenographic strat- graphic research and experiment during the twenti- of visual representations in arts. Jonathan Crary in the division between actors and their surroundings egies, such as: what we decide to illuminate in the eth century. "ere is a signi#cant parallel between turn distinguishes between Cartesian and subjective and placed the protagonist into a new, dynamic in- #rst place, how do we construct an illusion, how the radical scienti#c enquiry into the innermost op- visions in his study on the techniques of observation teraction with her environment. On the other hand, a scene change is carried out, etc. Obviously there eration of all matter by clearing away surface texture in visual arts and science. While the former mode of the sharp separation of a dark auditorium from the is always a limited selection of options de#ned by and detail, and the discarding of all attempts at a vision was constituted as disembodied optical laws, brightly lit stage strengthened the split between #nancial and technical circumstances, cultural and scenic illusion in order to examine the inner me- the latter paid attention to the ways in which the audience and performance. "e isolated spectator, theatre-speci#c conventions and individual knowl- chanics of the place of performance.”18 human psycho-physiological apparatus could pro- exposed to a visual narrative that takes place some- edge, skills and preferences. It is, however, possi- If the scenography is like a machine, what does duce visual experiences and illusions.21 According to where else, resembles the Cartesian subject sitting ble to think that the practical negotiations between it actually produce? One answer might be that it Crary, the subjective vision became dominant from in its chamber. Nevertheless, the spectator mentally the available scenographic options and the desired creates experiences in the spectators’ mind by facil- the 1830s and beyond, which matches the nine- fuses with the illusion and is thus most intimately outcomes embody a fundamental question, how itating the performance event. In other words, it is teenth century development of romantic-realistic united with the performance world. something concrete and material (what there actu- a communication machine that transmits percep- scenography as an illusory apparatus. "ere, light If light could be compared to the artist’s cam- ally is on stage) turns into something abstract and tions, emotions, thoughts and ideas. "e operation- became a magnetising tool of generating and con- era, paintbrush or chisel, it would be an active mental in the artistic experience of a performance al principles of the stage are not only connected to trolling the performance consciousness (the liminal agent capable of creating new visions. It could be (how it is perceived, sensed and interpreted). "e physics, as Baugh notes, but also to the operational state of mind, which enables you to immerse in the comprehended as a re!ection of otherwordly ideas; tension between set and light as ‘the leading’ visual principles of the human mind. A philosophical layer play-world without completely losing the sense of or it might as well be understood as a curious gaze component is signi#cant in itself because it triggers is thus present there, not necessarily in the sense of the here-and-now reality). that can activate the visual potentials of the set and phenomenological and epistemic contemplations sophisticated theories but as often pre-conscious "e modern light manager was a new, vital unfold its narratives and meanings like a scientif- by visualizing the dialectic between perception and modes of everyday reasoning, involved rather in agent in the twentieth-century theatre, a kind of a ic tool.22 If lighting would play an active role in the world perceived. Perhaps lighting today can be habitual practices than in precisely articulated ide- superior eye that de#ned what was seen and how. scenography, the material set would then be like a truly experienced as art on its own terms because of ologies. From a practical viewpoint, the scenography-ma-

24 Nordic Theatre Studies vol. 26: no. 2 Nordic Theatre Studies vol. 26: no. 2 25 the presence of such discussions, which have come and simulate the scene sequences. Moving the set stant advance towards better luminosity, control- where live and projected scenes merge. I have seen to the fore because of the technical advances that design from material scale models to 3D-model- lability and !exibility. Most of the development performances where live dancers and objects amal- have given light a prominent role in practice. ling on the computer may, however, undermine the can be described as an accumulation of relatively gamate with projected images so seamlessly that I three-dimensionality of the space and lead to more small but important steps, which have turned into could not always see the di$erence. Nevertheless, pictorial sceneries, since the stage is depicted as a ge- a notable qualitative leap around the turn of the a more frequent strategy is the interplay between BACK TO THE GRASS-ROOT LEVEL OF LOCAL ometric projection instead of tangible particles. "e millennium. Modern theatre houses with neutral physical presence and immaterial re!ections, for in- SCENOGRAPHIC PRACTICES physical model is also favoured as it allows all the black box stages have been optimally designed for stance by using digital videos on stage, often shoot- As already mentioned, the position of lighting de- team-members better access to joint planning with the needs of lighting. Lens technology, lamps, #lters ing scenes with a freehand camera and then showing signers in theatre making was only slowly recog- miniature set-elements. and dimming systems have improved rapidly; better them on screen in real-time, simoultaneously with nized in the professional practices. Although I, at Another factor is that the lighting cues are rigging techniques, lighting bridges and grids have the acting. the beginning of this article, praised Finland as a bound to the live performance action and you can- increased safety and reduced time-consuming prac- A typical example was "e Year of a Rabbit, pioneering country with regard to the education of not decide on them until you know what is going to tical work.33 Computerized switchboards, which premiered on 10 October 2013 in Ryhmäteatteri, lighting designers,26 the conventional hierarchy of happen there. And that can only be properly known became common during the 1980s, helped signi#- Helsinki.36 Almost half of the scenes were played the artistic team did not change remarkably in the in live rehearsals. "is is one of the many reasons cantly the recording and changing of complex light- out of sight behind a wooden wall on stage, where mainstream theatre until the new millennium. "e why, lately, young theatre makers have put the es- ing cues. "e lighting designers Juha Westman and they were recorded and projected simultaneously on usual practice by the 1990s was that the set designer tablished production system of Finnish theatres Ville Toikka summarized the most relevant lighting three screens, all duplicating the same image. "e and director developed the visual dramaturgy, and at stake. "e prevailing tradition is that a perfor- innovations by 2005 as follows: the growth of lu- stagehand using the camera was clearly visible but the electrician just operated the lights.27 "e former mance is made according to an accurate collabora- minosity, remote controlled motorized spotlights, avoided drawing any attention to herself. Never- mostly lacked the su%cient technical expertise and tive pre-planning process, which excludes the actors digitalized visual technology, better projectors and, theless, the stagehand Viivi Kuusimäki’s vital role know-how of lighting, while the latter were hired from the creative development of the stage struc- above all, the devices have become more a$ordable, was acknowledged by mentioning her name on the and trained as technicians, lacking artistic educa- tures and visual dramaturgy. "e scenography is easily accessible and easier to use than before.34 handbill among the actors. She also came out with tion. "is was not only a matter of skills or attitudes, designed as a conceptual idea, generated before the All this means that light has become a truly them for the curtain call, which stagehands, nor- but also due to a shortage of working hours. "e rehearsals and just transplanted onto the stage. "e viable and functional part of performances in av- mally, do not do. "e real-time videoed scenes were lights were often set during the nights just before present system takes good care of the visual dram- erage productions and as Westman put it: “"ere mostly monologues. "e freehand, slightly vacillat- the last rehearsals, when everything else was more aturgy of the play-narrative, but the unpredictable are enormous amounts of light on stage nowadays! ing camera followed the actors at a close distance, or less #nished and there was no time to further eventness of the live, bodily performance is largely Sometimes I wonder, how people previously used to focusing on their faces or hands. "e framing of the adjustment. "e electrician could only rarely join forgotten. see anything at all.”35 close-ups seemed rather accidental and fragmented, the brainstorming sessions or early rehearsals and Dissatisfaction with these pre-planning practic- and sometimes the focus was lost for few seconds. could, therefore, not participate in the creative pre- es has been countered by di$erent devising meth- On the one hand, the shots looked like an amateur planning work with the set designer and director. S/ ods that are based on improvisation and non-hier- NEW TECHNOLOGY ON STAGE: WHAT HAPPENS home video, on the other hand, their style referred he28 just illuminated the ready-made performances. archical, self-regulating working processes. "ese NOW? to a documentary camera, recording random events According to this working model, lighting was are nothing new in theatre history and they have "e most intensively developed part of contempo- as they just happened. still considered as an instrumental part of the over- usually caused problems for the set designers, whose rary stage lighting is in the #eld of projector tech- "e presence of the camera could be seen as a all set design and was subordinated to traditional innovative ideas are inevitably decelerated by the nology along with digital image-processing. It does meta-theatrical gesture pointing at the mediated methods, which had been developed to shape #xed, slowness of material constructions.32 Contemporary not only mean that light can create new visions character of the performance, which also applies to material elements. "e set was – and still is – usually lighting technology o$ers much more !exible tools, in interaction with the set, but it carries in itself a the general conditions of modern life. On the most designed by means of scale models and drawings. which is one reason why devised, process-based stream of autonomous images from di$erent sourc- obvious level, there was a reference to contemporary While the material set and the spatial arrangement theatre often takes place on empty stages. A simple es. Although the projected pictures technically only reality-TV shows or to self-representations in social can be rather accurately demonstrated in a well- colour-wash can change the look of the scenery in consist of coloured lights, they can be legitimate- media. On the level of story, it could be read as a made scale model, it is hard to simulate the light some seconds, while it would take hours to paint ly compared to the tradition of painted backdrops sign for the ubiquity of the public gaze causing the e$ects there.29 You can roughly suggest the main the walls. A gobo imitating foliage can create a per- because they also present visual sceneries physical- protagonist’s alienation from his inside feelings and direction and shade of the lights, but not really fect illusion of a sunny garden in an empty space, ly disconnected from the embodied actors and are desires. On the level of reception, the video remind- experiment with di$erent options, which have to and projected waves can turn a wooden platform highly dependent on technical and artistic expertise. ed one that the stage picture is always positioned be seen one-to-one on stage.30 "e recently devel- into an open sea. However, contemporary technology allows com- and constructed. "e actual play-scene was mostly oped computerized modelling programmes a$ord Although the basic operational principles of pletely di$erent options for the performance, turn- left unseen and you could not know what ‘really’ a remarkable help.31 "ey allow the set and light- stage lighting have not signi#cantly changed since ing the whole stage into a multimedia performance happened, since only the act of #lming was directly ing designers to work on the same virtual platform the early twentieth century, there has been a con-

26 Nordic Theatre Studies vol. 26: no. 2 Nordic Theatre Studies vol. 26: no. 2 27 visible. "e mediation and communication process not need much light and projectors that can suc- became an essential part of the performance, per- cessfully re!ect images on any surface. haps its actual subject. In the literature about the cultural and his- Some ten or #fteen years ago "e Year of a Rab- torical in!uence of technology, the adaptation of bit would probably have been categorized as ex- new technical devices has often been described as perimental, but today it is rather a typical example a three-phase process: the invention, development of mainstream theatre. "e reviewers did not pay and spread.38 At the end, the technology completely much attention to the projections.37 "ose who penetrates people’s living conditions and they can- mentioned them referred to their commonness and not do without it. In this phase, technology truly discussed their adequacy in this particular context, dominates culture because it becomes such a natural mostly in positive tones (one blog-writer was crit- part of life that people cannot think of any alter- ical claiming that the videos were a substitute for natives to it.39 While this model may be too deter- the actors’ work). It seems that the reviewers and ministic as such, it might shed some light on the blog-writers took the new visual technology as an development that is now happening with advanced established part of the stage-technological rep- theatre lighting and projection technology. ertoire. In fact, projected images, even moving When a new technology enters our lives, it ones, are nothing new on stage even in a historical changes our ways of experiencing the environment perspective. "e basic optical laws guiding the re- and makes us rede#ne our habitual practices, values !ections of light have been known for ages. What and beliefs (just compare it to the di$erence in at- makes a di$erence today, is the advanced nature and titudes between teenagers and middle-aged people Lighting exercises from the Big Stage workshop arranged by the Theatre Academy, University of accessibility of high-tech lighting sources and dig- using computers and the Internet). Arnold Aronson Tampere, the University of Industrial Arts and the Tampere Workers’ Theatre in 2009. Photo: Kimmo italized image processing. While early pioneers of has noted that we do not see the everyday world Karjunen. visual stage technology like Erwin Piscator or Josef in the same way as our ancestors did in the early Svoboda created unparalled innovations and exper- 1900s, since we are used to arti#cial lighting and suggested: “"e way in which we light the stage is media, including theatre. Although some of the cur- iments in their own time, practically anybody can other visual technology in our lived environment.40 indicative of how we see light in our daily lives.”41 rent popularity of projection and video technology now purchase and use small-sized cameras that do "erefore, we can no longer light theatre as Appia Aronson refers not only to the lighting of our every- can be simply explained by the thrill of a new toy, day environment but to the in!uence of all media I believe they have come to stay because they o$er technology that change our habitual ways of seeing. us unrivaled tools for dealing with our changing However, in another essay he severly doubts that modes of perception and communication in every- projection technology, #lms and videos could be day life and culture. successfully combined to live performances because theatre and (other) media speak fundamentally dif- ferent languages.42 "en again, he ends the essay by TOWARDS A VIRTUAL STAGE? SOME crediting "e Wooster Group for its use of videoes, CONCLUDING REMARKS which call into question our various ways of seeing "e innovation of electric light revolutionized the and challenging the notion of theater in our times.43 artistic and technical practices of scenography one "eatre has been characterized as a hypermedium hundred years ago. Are we now witnessing a sim- that has always been able to assimilate other media ilar turn promoted by digitalization, or is it rath- into itself without annihilating their special charac- er a completion of the previous processes? What ter.44 "e video on stage may be a narrative tool, but happens to scenography as an occupation? Which it also represents a video clip being displayed in the artistic possibilities emerge and which disappear? live performance. It is an intrusion of another logic How does recent projection and video technology of representation, which makes us aware of the ex- rearrange the mutual hierarchy and interaction of istence of di$erent modes of communication. "is set, light and actors? accentuates the meta-theatrical level of reception, From the perspective of scenography, the idea of The Year of a Rabbit (2013), Ryhmäteatteri, directed by Esa Leskinen. Photo: Johannes Wilenius. examining the functioning and constitution of all light as the paintbrush of the designer seems to have

28 Nordic Theatre Studies vol. 26: no. 2 Nordic Theatre Studies vol. 26: no. 2 29 achieved its peak here. "e physical set is reduced tors have to be situated in precise places, which lim- NOTES AND REFERENCES pp. 103-10. to an almost indistinguishable platform for shifting its the spatial design of the performance. "is fur- 1 Tülay Schakir, “Choreographer and Her Lighting De- 17 Baugh. op. cit., p. 46. imagies, mediated through screens that open like ther in!uences the actors’ movements and the use of signer”, Nomadi productions, a video in Valovuosi, 18 Ibid., pp. 46-7. wormholes to any places outside the stage space. the set. If the videos play a major role, it easily leads variaatiota valosta, DVD-publication of the exhibition 19 Ibid. "e light does not illuminate something that exists to a pictoriality not completely unlike the painted of light design at the "eatre Museum in 2004, Tarja 20 Martin Jay, Downcast Eyes. "e Denigration of Vision in in the space, but it creates new visions by borrowing backdrops: the spatial composition is rigid, and Ervasti, ed., Helsinki 2009. the Twentieth-Century French "ought, University of Cal- and recycling digitalized images from any sources. the visual scenery separated from the actors’ space. 2 I use the word ‘scenography’ to mean the whole visual ifornia Press, Berkeley, Los Angeles and London 1993, Light has thus gained a new level of autonomy. However, contemporary performances often delib- and spatial framework of a performance. It includes the pp. 29, 150. "inking in postmodern terms, this may imply an erately play with this distinction by accentuating set, lights, costumes, masks, hairdos and sometimes even 21 Jonathan Crary, Techniques of an Observer. On Vision and understanding that there is no essential or material the di$erence of bodily performers and the virtual sounds. In this paper I focus only on the two #rst as- Modernity in the Nineteenth Century, "e MIT Press, substance to make visible on stage: there is no solid screen. "is elevates the gap between lived experi- pects: set and light. (Heta Reitala, Suomalaista skenogra- Cambridge, Massachusetts and London 1990; see also world to be lit and revealed; only re!ections and ut- ence and mediated representations to the focus of #aa: lähtökohtia tallennukseen, tutkimukseen ja historiaan, ibid. terances that produce the world we live in. "e tool, interest. "e stage can be described as dualistic, but Taideteollisen korkeakoulun julkaisusarja, Helsinki 22 See Jay, op. cit. which once was used for instrumental, purposes has there emerges a kind of liminal interspace between 1986). 23 Edward S. Casey, "e Fate of Place. A Philosophical Histo- become a performance of its own, a scene machine the material bodies and immaterial images, which 3 Scott Palmer, Light, Palgrave Macmillan, Hampshire and ry, University of California Press, Berkeley, Los Angeles, that endlessly produces and reproduces images and generates a phenomenological idea of encountering New York 2013, p. 63 London 1998, pp. 32-3. meanings. between inside and outside. Instead of a separation, 4 Ibid., p. 61 and Christopher Baugh, "eatre, Performance 24 Ibid., p. 57. Visual design in theatre now enjoys a freedom, there is rather a dialogue. and Technology. "e Development of Scenography in the 25 Ibid., pp. 50-71. similar to cinema, which can move the performance "e actors can perform both as bodily beings on Twentieth Century, Palgrave Macmillan, Hampshire and 26 University-level courses in lighting design were estab- to any place on the earth in a fraction of a second. stage and as virtual duplications on screen. On the New York 2005, pp. 14-15. lished at the "eatre Academy in 1986, including BA-, "e real-time camera can be brought to any part practical level this solves the already discussed di- 5 Ibid. MA- and doctoral degrees. of the theatre building and its surroundings; it can lemma of lighting: visually impressive scenes often 6 Baugh, op. cit., p. 173. 27 Interviews with Kati Lukka (16.2. and 28.4.2005), Ville even be #xed to the bodies of moving actors. "is ex- leave the actors’ faces and gestures in shadow. "e 7 Markku Uimonen, ”Mehr Licht? Warum?” in Valovuosi, Toikka (16.2.2005) and Juha Westman (28.4.2005), in- pands the visible stage space, shows subjective view- close-up video can pick subtle facial expressions and variaatioita valosta, op. cit., p. 5. terviewer Laura Gröndahl, partly published in "eatre points and hidden, secret corners. It also breaks the the audience can see it simultaneously with the ho- 8 Joslin McKinney, Philip Butterworth, "e Cambridge People – People’s "eatre, op. cit. I have also used my own natural sense of spatial continuity, which is at odds listic visual scenery. "e same thing happens audi- Introduction to Scenography, Cambridge University Press, practical experience as a scenographer 1983-2001. with the notion of theatrical presence: the audience torily with the use of personal microphones, which Cambridge 2009; Baugh, op. cit.; Pamela Howard, What 28 "e lighting designers and electricians in Finnish the- is simultaneously aware of their #xed physical loca- can make a whisper heard on the big stage. "e ac- Is Scenography?, Routledge, London and New York 2002. atres were exclusively male until the late 1980s, when tion in the venue and the changing view from other tor’s expression is ‘divided’ into discrete parts like 9 Pentti Paavolainen, Aino Kukkonen, Näyttämöllä. Teat- #rst women, e.g. Tarja Ervasti and Emma Paaer entered places. Even if the success of such combinations is the voice or face, which can be magni#ed, dupli- terihistoriaa Suomesta, WSOY, Helsinki 2005, p. 82. the #eld. much debated and suspected, the inconsistency of cated, distorted and used freely as part of the scen- 10 Edward Gordon Craig, ”"e Actor and the Über-mari- 29 Toikka, op. cit. simultaneous di$erent spatial experiences is typical ery. "e intensity of the actor’s speech and mime onette” in "eatre and Performance Design. A Reader In 30 Ibid. to our time in general. We spend an increasing part may thus vary much more, but s/he is also released Scenography, Jane Collins, Andrew Nisbet, eds., Rout- 31 Uimonen, op. cit., p. 6. of our time in televisual spaces, which cannot be from his/her physical position on stage. "is can be ledge, London and New York, pp. 257-63. (First pub- 32 Discussions on the theme: Howard, op. cit.; Laura located in any physical place. For instance, where very problematic for the live performer if traditional lished in On the Art of the "eatre, Heinemann, London Gröndahl, ”Mitä lavastuksen tekniikka sanoo?” in am I mentally, while talking with my friend through contact to the audience and to the fellow actors is 1911, pp. 80-94. Näkyvää ja näkymätöntä. Näyttämö ja tutkimus, Laura Skype while sitting in a train, racing 200 km/h from broken. "e actor becomes rather a visual compo- 11 Oskar Schlemmer, ”Man and Art Figure” in "e "eatre Gröndahl, Anna "uring, Teemu Paavolainen, eds., one city to another? Is there not something similar nent: s/he is not only used as a #gure that can be of the Bauhaus, Walter Gropius, Arthur S. Wensinger, Suomen teatterintutkimuksen seuran vuosikirja, no. 3, to the fragmented digitalized stage? Is the combi- lit in many ways, s/he is completely dissolved into eds., Wesleyan University Press, Middletown, Connecti- Helsinki 2009, pp. 91-115; Laura Gröndahl, “Ai siitä nation of video and live performances emblematic sculptable material for scenic design. "en again, cut 1961, pp.17-46. tuli sitten tuollainen… Käytännön näkökulmia lavastu- for contemporary theatre exactly because it echoes the bodily actor can interact with his/her own re- 12 Palmer, op. cit., p. 106. sten syntyprosessiin” in ibid., pp. 149-171. our everyday experiences of mobility and spatial dis- al-time image, which generates an interesting feed- 13 Uimonen, op. cit. pp. 5-7. 33 Palmer, op. cit., pp. 197-206. continuity; being connected to distant places while back loop between two modes of performing. "e 14 Ervasti, op. cit, p. 23. 34 Westman, op. cit.; Toikka, op. cit. loosening the immediate contact to the nearest dissolved and re-assembled actors remind one, of 15 Palmer, op. cit., p. 179. 35 Westman, op. cit. neighbourhood? course, of postmodern identities, which are in a 16 Laura Gröndahl, ”"e Lighting Designer Is the Bassist 36 Jäniksen vuosi ("e Year of a Rabbit), directed by Esa Le- Projection technology puts a lot of requirements constant process of re-construction, captured in the of the Stage” in "eatre People – People’s "eatre, Kaisa skinen, Ryhmäteatteri, Helsinki 2013. on the physical stage space. "e screens and projec- rupture between presence and re-presentation. Korhonen, Katri Tanskanen, eds., LIKE, Helsinki 2006, 37 E.g. Lauri Meri, ”Ryhmäteatterin Jäniksen vuosi tarjoaa

30 Nordic Theatre Studies vol. 26: no. 2 Nordic Theatre Studies vol. 26: no. 2 31 sekä keppiä että porkkanaa” in Helsingin Sanomat, 12 October 2013; Hannu Hurme, ”Jäniksen vuosi – kome- diaa tosikkokaavalla” in Kansan Uutiset (e-version), 14 October 2013; Liisa Talvitie, ”Jäniksen vuosi on entistä ajankohtaisempi” in Apu, 11 October 2013; Jukka Vuo- rio, ”Rytinällä ulos oravanpyörästä” in Sylvi (e-version), 28 October 2013; Kimmo Jylhämö, ”Jänistyttö vapaut- taa miehen” in Voima, no. 9, 2013. 38 E.g. Näkökulmia teknologiaan, Tarmo Lemola, ed., Gaudeamus, Helsinki 2000; Karl-Erik Michelsen “Te- knologian historia - tutkimuksen unohdettu ulottuvuus“ in Historia nyt, Pekka Ahtiainen et al., eds., WSOY, Helsinki 1990, pp. 151-9; Timo Airaksinen, Tekniikan suuret kertomukset, #loso#nen raportti, Otava, Helsinki 2003; Hannu Salmi, Atoomipommilla kuuhun, tekniikan mentaalihistoriaa, Edita, Helsinki 1996. 39 Airaksinen, op. cit., p. 174. 40 Arnold Aronson, ”One Hundred Years of Stage Light- ing” in Looking into the Abyss. Essays on Scenography, "e University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor 2005, pp. 29- 43. 41 Ibid., p. 30. 42 Arnold Aronson, “Can "eater and Media Speak the Same Language” in Looking into the Abyss. Essays on Sce- nography, op. cit., 86-96. 43 Ibid., p. 94. 44 Intermediality in "eatre and Performance, Freda Chap- ple, Chiel Kattenbelt, eds., Rodopi, Amsterdam, New York 2006.

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