Course: Theatre 342: Devising Performance
Faculty: Anjalee Hutchinson
DP&S liaison: Emily Sherwood
Date: Fall 2014
In the fall of 2014, THEA342 used Scalar, an open web publishing platform from the Alliance for Networking Visual Culture, Scalar platform to record and share their research, performance explorations and ideas for mapping moments and movements. Through guided assignments, student researched various aspects of knowledge. Scalar provided a platform for students to share a range of media and texts that were then curated and remixed by other students in the class. From there, students collaborated on the development of moments and scenes that were performed throughout the semester for invited faculty, staff, and students.
The student content generated and curated on Scalar served as a starting point for a longer devised piece conceived and written by several students and faculty playwrights working together to explore the question ‘What is Knowledge?’ though performance, movement, poetry, lighting, sound, music, costume, sculpture and much much more. The project also provided an opportunity for students to compete in the Knowledge Project Tech-Design Competition. The winning concept became part of the performance piece “Knowledge Project — An Original Devised Work,” which was designed by members of the faculty and performed on Monday, April 13, 2014 at the Harvey Powers Theatre.
The platform was useful in allowing students to share a range of multimedia resources and texts that could easily be remixed and curated by each student. However, there was a significant learning curve and some frustration with the expectation of contextualization for those resources. Because of the process oriented nature of the work on Scalar, the content remains private.
Later iterations of the course have switched from Scalar to Mural.ly.