Art matters because it's the one true great connector...
For my Master’s Thesis, I have decided to focus on the use of “connectors” in history plays. In museums, connectors are anything in the room that is not the art or artifact, that is supposed to improve the visitor experience by helping them build connections between the art/artifact and their own experience of the world.
History plays are interesting because they are both art and artifact, bridging the supposed gap between that which inspires and that which informs. It also bridges the past and the present. We wouldn't do history plays if they were only about the past, we perform history plays because we see them as a way to understand the present.
What museums are doing by increasing connectors is shifting from telling the audience how to process, to allowing the audience to create its own meaning. Rather than telling the audience that there is a definite past, or a definite understanding that needs to be known, they are asking the audience to come together and be part of the process of building a communal memory and understanding of the past.
What would it mean for theatres if we brought some of this thinking to our space? What if audience members walked into a space where they were encouraged to think critically, make meaning, and build connections between the show they are about to see and the world they experience on a daily basis?
That is what I am going to explore moving forward and I am very much looking forward to it. Step one, the lobby display for Her Naked Skin. Let's get going.
History plays are interesting because they are both art and artifact, bridging the supposed gap between that which inspires and that which informs. It also bridges the past and the present. We wouldn't do history plays if they were only about the past, we perform history plays because we see them as a way to understand the present.
What museums are doing by increasing connectors is shifting from telling the audience how to process, to allowing the audience to create its own meaning. Rather than telling the audience that there is a definite past, or a definite understanding that needs to be known, they are asking the audience to come together and be part of the process of building a communal memory and understanding of the past.
What would it mean for theatres if we brought some of this thinking to our space? What if audience members walked into a space where they were encouraged to think critically, make meaning, and build connections between the show they are about to see and the world they experience on a daily basis?
That is what I am going to explore moving forward and I am very much looking forward to it. Step one, the lobby display for Her Naked Skin. Let's get going.
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