Special Call for Papers 2025
Title of the monograph: “Spatial categories in digital scenographic installations”
Guest editors: Raquel Sardá, Vicente Alemany, Daniel Barba, Fernando Zaparaín, Jorge Ramos.
Research Project “DIGITALSTAGE. Spatial analysis of digital scenographic installations of the 21st century” (2022-2025), ref. PID2021-123974NB-I00, of the State Research Plan. A multidisciplinary and transversal analysis is proposed of the new spatiality that has been generated, since the 80s, and especially during the 21st century, in various scenographic installations (artistic, cultural, scenic or audiovisual), due to the disruptive incorporation of digital software: video mapping, stage robots, sound environment, augmented reality, 3D modelling and projection, 360º vision, holograms... This innovative multimedia management has provided possibilities for expression and plastic configurations that were previously unthinkable. The stage becomes as illusionistic and immersive as in Italian theatre, while, paradoxically, it is more interactive. Digital technological resources prolong the scenographic renovation proposed throughout the 20th century, from Appia and Craig to Wilson or Lepage, who expanded the text with the object, the spectator, the light or the image. This led to the testing of new models of theatre, such as the Festspielhaus Hellerau (1911) by Tessenow and Dalcroze, the Endless Theatre (1924) by Kiesler, the Total Theatre (1926) by Gropius or the “espace indicible” (1948), the “boîte à miracles” and the Philips Pavilion (1958) by Le Corbusier. Then came the post-avant-garde movements of the sixties, with the hybrid format of artistic installations, and the prominence of light (Flavin, Turrel, Eliasson) and video (Nam June Paik, Bill Viola). In Italian theatre, multimedia appeared by Nono, Kaslik and Svovoda (Venice 1961), Puecher (Pavia 1967) and Carmelo Bene (Milan 1974). In the 80s, the “Electronic Arts Festival” (Rennes, 1988) or the total spectacles of “La Fura dels Baus” and its “Binary Manifesto” were decisive. In the 21st century, software has already allowed for a dizzying real-time interaction (The Sphere, 2023).
Although the following proposals are some of the themes we would like to reflect on, the editors also invite open proposals related to the general theme of the journal Digital:
Scenography and interactivity: From traditional theatricality to multisensory immersion
- Analysis of how video mapping, augmented reality and holograms have transformed the relationship between the spectator and the scene.
- The role of interactivity in scenographic spaces and audience participation.
Technology and stage space: Room models and new paradigms of staging.
- Comparison between traditional theatrical spaces and innovations in stage architecture driven by digital technology.
- Case studies of spaces such as The Sphere (2023) and their impact on the theatrical and audiovisual experience.
From theatre to installation: Hybridisation of visual, performing and digital arts in the 21st century
- Continuities and ruptures in the evolution of scenography from the avant-garde to the present.
- The impact of digital software on the creation of artistic, performative and audiovisual installations.
Artificial intelligence and scenography: Algorithms as scene designers
- Applications of AI in the creation of stage environments in real-time.
- The automation of lighting, sound and image generation in contemporary scenography.
Phenomenology of the image and the stage: Perception, illusionism and expanded reality
- Exploration of how new digital devices reconfigure the sensory perception of the spectator.
- Relationships between the illusionist tradition of theatre and the virtualisation of contemporary stages.
Bodies and presence in the digital age: Performativity in virtual and mixed environments
- Analysis of the presence of the actor/interpreter in stages mediated by technology.
- Reflection on the virtual body, posthumanism and stage identity in the digital age.
RESEARCH TEAM
The issue of the journal will be part of the National Research Project “DIGITALSTAGE. Spatial analysis of digital scenographic installations of the 21st century” (2022-2025), ref. PID2021-123974NB-I00, https://www.espaciar.net/digitalstage-2225, developed by the ESPACIAR Recognized Research Group, https://www.espaciar.net/, which studies spatial categories in architecture and other disciplines. Previously, they completed the National R&D&I Plan project PGC2018-095359-B-I00 (2019-21) on space in artistic installations, https://www.espaciar.net/investigacion-1, and another, HAR2011-25413 (2008-11), on spatial analysis in Oteiza and Chillida.
SUBMISSION DEADLINES
Submission deadline: April 30, 2025 (no extended deadline).
ARTICLES
Articles must follow an IMRyD academic format: introduction, methodology, results, and discussion or conclusions, followed by bibliographical references. They must also comply with APA 7.
SUBMISSION OF PROPOSALS
Submissions must be made through the submissions section, preferably in Word (or TXT) format following the Preferencias Journal's Template for this special number 27th and the rest of its standards.
