Theatre Design & Technology - Fall 2007 - 62

For those of us who were not fa- PHOTO BY RICHARD FINKELSTEIN
miliar with the social and political contexts out of which a particular country's
designs emerged-and for those of us
who were hampered by a lack of foreign
language skills-stand-alone digital or
video pavilions were a boon because of
their representational ability to document
the experience of the original performance and to convey something truthful
about the theatrical process. For PQ jury
members, who were speciﬁcally given the
onerous task of recognizing and honoring those exhibits that best expressed
their theme, videos and digital media
were useful mainly as a supportive document. According to Zimmerman, the prize
that went to South Africa's medEia was
helped, in no small part, by the existence
of a video recording.
Kudlicˇka, who was cited "for his use of techMoreover, if the two gold medal prizes for
nology to create images of astonishing effect,"
best use of technology that went to Taiwan and
instantly impressed the jury members. ZimmerBoris Kudlicˇka of Slovakia gave us any indicaman said, "It was a strong contender possibly
tion, PQ jury members were more beguiled by
for the Golden Triga and for best set design."
hybrid environments in which video recordings Kudlicˇka eventually nabbed the technology prize
or high-tech equipment were artfully embedded because the Slovakia exhibit-which consisted
within a constructed or metaphorical space.
of gorgeous set models for operas (images of
a ﬂock of ﬂoating black birds,
PHOTO BY RICHARD FINKELSTEIN
a wall of rain, and the upsidedown silhouette of Venice) with
discreetly placed headphones
through which visitors could listen to the musical scores-was
a model of grace, beauty, coherence and clarity.
The technology prize that
went to the Taiwan pavilion,
which was praised for "its facility
with and profound understanding of the possibilities of both
modern and ancient technologies," was given in recognition
of the principle that highly developed technology need not be
strictly electronic or digital to be
considered new or innovative.
"As a structure and experience,
the Taiwan pavilion was great,"
Zimmerman recalled. "The work
was very strong and very heavy in
its use of technology. The pavilion itself was made of bamboo
woven using a technique that
used ancient technology, with

iceland

hungary

videos embedded within this structure."
At the PQ, the term "technology" was employed rather broadly. It was a catch-all category that including lighting and sound, since the
PQ does not hand out any ofﬁcial prize in those
disciplines.
Because of the ubiquity of computers,
ﬁlms, television, video and other forms of new
technology in our contemporary lives, it was
instructive to compare the varying degrees to
which national pavilions did or did not employs various forms of digital codes and electronic impulses. Among many old timers, the
prevailing assumption (a wrong-headed one, I
believe) was that new technology served only to
marginalize the theatre. Many did not want to
be bothered with technology at all, preferring
instead the tangibility of actual design artifacts.
According to Boris Kudlicˇka, the challenge for
theatre designers who seek to employ videos
and digital codes is "create a new space" that
would reﬂect "the materials and technology in
different ﬁelds." "I follow contemporary architecture, graphic design, the furniture industry,
but also the contemporary world and its needs
and expectations," he said. "Nowadays we live
in a high-tech era, and it has to appear in the
theatre as well. It helps us to ﬁnd new ways of
theatre metaphysics."
One of the unexamined advantages of hybrid pavilions is that new technology can both
address and sidestep the conundrum of each
country offering national showcases when so
many designers are actually quite international
in their working methods and professional exTHEATRE

F

A

L

L

2007

DESIGN

&

TECHNOLOGY

61
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Theatre Design & Technology - Fall 2007
