#6 CFP: Scenographic heritages, futures and sustainabilities

Här finns ett spännande Call for Papers. Scenographic Heritages, Futures and Sustainabilities. Issue 35 (June 2027). Guest Editors: Tessa Rixon, Slađana Milićević, Kathleen Bell, and Michelle Bohn. Länk, eller läs mera här nedan: https://www.critical-stages.org/ 

This special affiliated edition of Critical Stages/Scènes critiques is in partnership with the International Organisation of Scenographers, Theatre Architects and Technicians (OISTAT) Research Commission. In 2025, the Commission hosted the World Stage Design 2025 (WSD'25) Research Symposium, exploring the latest research in scenography, performance architecture and technology.This special edition offers a space to continue investigations into the WSD'25 Research Symposium central themes of scenographic heritages, futures, and sustainabilities within the fields of theatre and performance design, architecture and performance technology. The issue builds on the knowledges shared at this recent gathering, as well as other international symposia including Performance Design Futures 2022 and 2025, and related conversations including Theatre and Performance Design's special editions Staging Climate (10(3), guest editor Lawrence Walling), and Ecoscenography (7(3-4), guest edited by Tanja Beer), as well as Hybrid Futures: Theatre and Performance in the Post/Pandemic Anthropocene (International Journal of Performance Arts and Digital Media, 19(1), guest edited by Miriam Felton-Dansky et al).The themes of Scenographic Heritages, Futures, and Sustainabilities intermingle as the special edition encourages critical discussion on past practices, future pathways, and ways in which we can continue to investigate both in a time of climate crisis:

• Scenographic heritagesis an invitation to investigate and critically celebrate the legacies - tangle and intangible - from those who came before, which are now inherited or adapted into contemporary scenographies. This theme encourages the celebration of scenographic pasts and histories not as stagnant archives but living stories that can continue to shape performance design. The notion of 'heritages' is open to challenge as we question accepted narratives or dominant stories of scenographic practice, to encourage new, underexplored and underrepresented stories and examples of scenographic and performance design practice. The notion of the 'archive' may be examined here not solely as repositories of knowledge but as living entities, capable of inspiring new scenography practice while acting as catalysers "in processes of social transmission of memory and community building" (Sabiescu 2020, 497).
• Futures acts as a sister theme to Scenographic Heritages, encouraging critical consideration of new and emergent shifts in the performance design theory and practice that are shaping the future of our field. Specifically, Futures could provoke discussion on how digital technologies are shaping the next stage of performance design, architecture and technology. Given the rapid increase of Artificial Intelligence in both everyday life and the arts, as well as evolving approaches towards digital scenography (O'Dwyer 2021; Vincent 2022), we invite critical consideration of design practices, conceptual frameworks and critical case studies of performances that entangle technologies. Alternatively, Futures may provoke consideration of how scenography, performance architectures and technologies are used to envision new futures, new ways of being, and new pathways forward for both performance and societies/communities in general.
• Finally, Sustainability encourages critical examination of the field's response to the ongoing climate crisis, while recognising the term itself is polysemic and at times contentious. Within performance design, Tanja Beer's ecoscenography offers a fruitful framework, positioning performance design's ecological turn not as a risk, inconvenience or constraint, but as an opportunity (2021, 149). We encourage articles that celebrate the opportunities an ecoscenographic approach offers to performance design and architecture. Alternatively, 'sustainability' may go beyond an environmental focus on design practice. Contributions may seek to address questions of sustainability of performance design careers, of physical and mental well-being, of practice of all forms, including education and more, as well as other understandings of sustainability listed under the UN's 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) relevant to the special edition's focus on scenography.

We wish to support a wide-ranging discussion on these three themes, and therefore invite submissions of papers that may investigate:

• future theatre design heritages;
• scenographic materials, past and future;
• performance technologies, both past, present and future;
• keeping and curating performance design knowledges;
• digital archives and the preservation of design heritage, and the survival of digital knowledges and archives;
• engaging the archive in contemporary scenographic practice;
• Artificial Intelligence and the impact on performance design practice, research, education, ethics, careers and more;
• digital scenographies and questions of technology, both on and off stage;
• ecoscenography;
• climate change and its impact on local, national and global performance design practice, research and education;
• the sustainability of performance design careers, including the notions of sustainability of physical and mental well-being;
• sustainability of design practice/research/education in general, either within the academy/institutions or professional 'industry'.

The OISTAT Research Commission is a global community of scholars with diverse research interests, dedicated to supporting and advancing research innovation in the performance design and technology fields. As such, this special edition invites papers that provoke discussion on, or propose new knowledge through specific case studies, on the state, shape and role of research within scenography, theatre architecture and performance technologies.Length of submission: 6000 words max. Alternative forms of submission (visual essay, etc.) will be considered. Please provide information and a justification of chosen form to the editors on your Abstract submission.All submissions will be peer reviewed.Selected ReferencesBeer, Tanja. "Ecoscenography: Editorial." Theatre and Performance Design, vol. 7, no. 3–4, 2021, pp.149–51.Sabiescu, Amalia G. "Living Archives and The Social Transmission of Memory." Curator, vol. 63, no. 4, 2020, pp. 497-510.O'Dwyer, Néill. Digital Scenography: 30 Years of Experimentation and Innovation in Performance and Interactive Media. Bloomsbury Methuen Drama 2021.Vincent, Caitlin. Digital Scenography in Opera in the Twenty-First Century. Routledge 2022TimelinePlease send abstracts outlining your proposed submission (300 words), as well as a 50-word biography for all collaborating authors, to the Guest Editors by: 31 March 2026.

• Abstracts – 31 March 2026
• First drafts due – 30 November 2026
• Peer review feedback released – end January 2027
• Final submissions due – 31 March 2027*
• Publication – June 2027

*please note the narrow timeframe.Please email abstracts and any further correspondence: Dr Tessa Rixon tessa.rixon@qut.edu.au and Dr Slađana Milićević isskrass@gmail.com.

We are open to articles in English and French

Submission Guidelines
Style Sheet for Critical Stages

Guest Editors' Bios

Dr Tessa Rixon is a practitioner-researcher in digital scenography & Australian performance design. As Senior Lecturer in Scenography at Queensland University of Technology, Tessa's research specialises in digital scenographies, ecoscenographic practice and pedagogy, and showcasing Australian performance design practice. Tessa currently serves as the Chair of the OISTAT Research Commission.

Dr Slađana Milićević is an Assistant Professor and Head of the Chair of Arts at the Sub-Department of Art and Design at the Faculty of Technical Sciences, University of Novi Sad. Her field of professional interest is focused on an interdisciplinary area of architecture, theatre, and visual arts, but with a focus on space theory, architectural theory, and phenomenology of scene design.

Kathleen Bell (DMA) is a highly qualified voice educator, currently serving as the Lead Tutor of Research and Singing. She holds a BM and MM in Vocal Performance, along with a Doctor of Musical Arts (DMA) in Voice Pedagogy, reflecting her extensive academic background in voice science and vocal pedagogy.Michelle Bohn is a scenographer and costume designer with over 20 years of international experience across stage and screen. She holds an M.F.A. in Costume Design & Technology from the University of Missouri - Kansas City and a B.F.A. in Design for the Theatre from Concordia University in Montréal, Québec.

More: Critical Stages/Scènes critiques is available online to the reader without financial, legal or technical barriers. Ιt is a biannual (June/December), peer-reviewed journal fully committed to the Open Access Initiative. It offers a platform for debate and exploration of a wide range of theatre and performance art manifestations from all over the world.