Strong staff and student presence at Prague festival

International theatre design exhibition, the Prague Quadrennial on Performance Design and Space, will have an even greater association with Massey University after spatial design student Ana McGowan won first prize in the theatre architecture section.

The festival, which is held every four years in the capital of the Czech Republic, features at least six staff from the College of Creative Arts as well as four spatial /performance design postgraduates and Ms McGowan.

She receives around NZ$10,000 for New Ruins, which was selected from more than 180 other entries from 44 countries as the winning entry by an international jury ahead of the Quadrennial which runs from June 16-26.

The Theatre Architecture Competition is run by OISTAT (The International Organisation for Scenographers, Theatre Architects and Technicians) with entries displayed at the festival. Competitors were asked to design a theatre space for a particular type of chosen performance within St Anne’s, an ancient deconsecrated church in Prague.

Ms McGowan opted to design a flexible structure made of scaffolding and with towers erected as the performance was happening.

“With its moveable multi-level structure the design attempts to encourage spectators themselves to be the spectacle. In considering the relationship between architecture and audience, both become an active presence contributing to the atmosphere and spatial dynamic,” she says.

Emerging from the field of interior design, spatial design is the practice of imagining, forming and building environments that consider space, time and what is referred to as ‘sensory inhabitation.’

The University has staff involved in all categories of the festival.

Spatial design lecturer Stu Foster is the curator and designer of the national student exhibition, which showcases the work of six postgraduate students, two of whom are Massey postgraduates Sarah Burrell and Ian Hammond. Selected by a jury of experts, their work will travel to Prague to represent New Zealand alongside 62 other countries. Postgraduate students Lauren Skogstad and Emma Burrell were also selected to represent New Zealand in the extreme costume exhibit for professional designers.

Other staff involved include Institute of Design for Industry and Environment lecturer Amanda Yates, Associate Professor David Cross from the School of Fine Arts and spatial design lecturer Sam Trubridge.

Professor in Spatial Design, Dorita Hannah, who has been actively involved with the Prague Quadrennial since 1995, and says the continued success at the festival enhances the reputation of both the University and the College in particular.

“Massey ran the first performance design degree and that has now been integrated into spatial design. The College is the only tertiary institution to offer spatial design as a field of study.”