The Model as Performance investigates the history and development of the scale model from the Renaissance to the present from a scenographic perspective and a performative paradigm that explores what the model can do and how it is used in theatre and architecture. It provides a comprehensive historical context and theoretical framework for theatre scholars, scenographers, artists and architects interested in the model's reality-producing capacity and its recent emergence in contemporary art practice and exhibition. For the undergraduate student, it provides a historical survey of the model, and to the postgraduate student, it opens up a new methodological approach.
Introducing a typology of the scale model beyond the iterative and the representative model, the authors identify the autonomous model as a provocative construction between past and present, idea and reality that challenges and redefines the relationship between object, viewer and environment. Case studies include Brunelleschi's dome models and Bel Geddes'
Futurama, Mies van der Rohe's mock ups and Zumthor's atmospheric models, Anna Viebrock's life size boxes and Herzog & de Meuron's miniature styrofoam exhibits.
Benedetto, Stephen A. Di: - Stephen A. Di Benedetto is Professor and Chair of the Department of Theatre Michigan State University, USA. He is Associate Editor (Drama) for ASAP/ Journal and Associate Editor for Scene . His books include The Provocation of the Senses in Contemporary Theatre (2010) and An Introduction to Theatre Design (2012).
Brejzek, Thea: - Thea Brejzek (PhD, Mphil) is Professor for Spatial Theory at the University of Technology Sydney, Australia, and an internationally recognised expert in scenography. In 2011, she was the founding Curator for Theory at the Prague Quadrennial for Performance Design and Space (PQ). Recently, she has been a Visiting Professor at Bartlett School of Architecture, UK, and has been appointed to the international scientific advisory board of the Bauhaus, Dessau.
McKinney, Joslin: - Joslin McKinney is Associate Professor in Scenography, Deputy Head of School and Programme Manager for the postgraduate course in Performance Design in the School of Performance & Cultural Industries at the University of Leeds, UK.
Palmer, Scott: - Scott Palmer is Associate Professor in Performance Design and Director of Student Education in the School of Performance & Cultural Industries, University of Leeds, UK. He is the co-editor with Joslin McKinney of Scenography Expanded: An Introduction to Contemporary Performance Design and with Katherine Graham and Kelli Zezulka of Contemporary Performance Lighting: Experience, Creativity and Meaning.
Wallen, Lawrence: - Lawrence Wallen (PhD, MArch, BArch) is Professor and Head of School of Design at the University of Technology Sydney, Australia. From 2001-12 he was Professor of Scenography at the Zurich University of the Arts. A trained visual artist and architect, his research and practice is concerned with representation of space, spatial narative and postcolonial readings of landscape.
