#6 Research article: "Scenographic Glitch" by Olga Nikolaeva

Abstract: The article analyses interventional protest in present-day Russia through the lens of scenography, treating it as a method for constructing and activating meaning and as a framework for understanding affective and spatial processes of resistance. It introduces the concept scenographic glitch: a temporal and spatial disruption that occurs during interventional protest and frames protest as a practice of disorientation in resistance to the narrative of the normal enforced by the political regime. Through close readings, the article demonstrates how a scenographic framework illuminates meaning-making, affective, and orienting properties of interventional protests. In doing so, it creates possibilities for understanding the act of protest as it unfolds, revealing its capacity to generate connections among individuals, ideas, values, and emotions to inspire a positive change.

Key words: scenographic glitch, interventional protest, disorientation, resistance, Russia 

Bio: Olga Nikolaeva is a specialist in feminist and political scenography and lecture in Visual Communication and Design. Her research interests lie primarily in the field of scenography and performance studies, materiality, affect, and diverse forms of visual and audio communication. Her major works focus on scenography of trauma in the works of women theatre makers. In her work she addresses artistic practices that engage with trauma, traumatic and post-traumatic experience, memory, and difficult past and its role in cultural and social sustainability. Her most recent work focuses on application of holistic scenography to study of interventional protests and exploration of potentials of scenographic glitch in both research and artistic practice.

This is a peer reviewed article. Download the full verison here: