Laura Gröndahl

Bio: Laura Gröndahl is an academic researcher from University of Tampere. The author has contributed to research in topics: Industrial arts & Stage lighting. The author has an hindex of 1, co-authored 2 publications receiving 7 citations.

From Candle Light to Contemporary Lighting Systems: How Lighting Technology Shapes Scenographic Practices

Abstract: In this article, I discuss the influence of stage lighting on the processes of scenic design and the functioning of performance space. There has been a huge advance 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 that can just be added to the performance. It has become one of its basic visual elements, directing and focusing the spectators gaze. The rhythm of changing lighting cues create a visual dramaturgy, which has turned visual design from solid constructrions to a score of temporal events. Today you seldom see a performance without any use of projections or digital videos. I begin with a quick historical survey on the adaptation of electric light in order to exemplify the artistic significance of technological innovations. I move on to a more philosophical conversation about the metaphorical connotations of light as a basic component of the visual mise-en-scene . Then I return to the practices of contemporary theatre making and examine the contributions of the latest projection technology. I suggest that stage lighting has developed from being a technical tool making the scenes visible into a sovereign artistic agency creating images on its own terms. Today’s intermedial scenography can be seen as a parallel to the contemporary experience of our spatio-visual environment in everyday life, echoing the changes that happen in our ways of perceiving and conceptualizing the world.

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

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.

The Fate of Place: A Philosophical History.

Abstract: The Fate of Place:. Philosophical History. Edward S. Casey. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997. 495 pages. 45.00 (cloth);. 19.95 (paper).

Scenographic Light: Towards an Understanding of Expressive Light in Performance

Abstract: In the expanded field of performance design research there is a growing understanding of the dynamic and affective capacities of performance materials, and how such materials may play a fundamental role in the audience experience of a given performance. Parallel to this research in scenography is a similar extension of the conception of the roles of light and dark in performance. Reconciling and extending these areas of research this PhD thesis posits the term ‘scenographic light’ to encapsulate the ability of performance light to actively inscribe dramaturgical meaning in space and time, arguing that light is capable of independently contributing to performance through its manipulation of space, time, and visuality. This doctoral research uses auto-ethnographic spectatorship as a means of identifying the unique contribution of light to performance. Employing a phenomenological framework to explore the dynamic role of light within performance, this study presents an ontology of light that is rooted in dramaturgical action. The experiential framework put forward in this research facilitates a theoretical discussion about the dramaturgical impact of light, revolving specifically around questions of how light affects other elements in performance, how it seems to perform as a material in itself, and how, in respect of these things, it can become a generative force in performance. By applying these questions to a wide range of contemporary performance practices I identify and articulate ways in which light can be considered a significant contributor to performance, working simultaneously with, but independently of, other elements in performance. The implications of this research invite an expanded view of the position of light in performance analysis, and suggest that the study of light may be productively aligned with explorations of audience engagement and affect.

The play of light: rethinking mood lighting in performance

Abstract: Emerging from a context of expanded scenography, this article examines the role of light in creating and shaping atmospheres in performance. This capacity of light is significant in relation to the...