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The Body and the Mask in Ancient Theatre Space: Perceptions, Coincidences and Diversions
2 day interdisciplinary conference May 5th & 6th 2007 |
Saturday: Handa Nô Studio, Royal Holloway University, Egham
Sunday: King's College, London (Strand Campus)
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This symposium is being organised by the AHRC-funded project "The Body and Mask in Ancient Theatre Space", a research collaboration between King's Visualisation Lab at the Centre for Computing in the Humanities, King's College London and the Department of Classics and Ancient History, Durham University. The project concerns ancient masked performance - specifically in terms of spatial environments, intercultural performance and perceptual experience.
Using leading-edge 3D technologies it addresses fundamental questions concerning the conditions and actualities of the ancient theatre:
- What can be inferred of the actor's technique and use of mask and body?
- How does their semiosis relate to other performance traditions and to constants of human perception?
- How were these phenomena experienced in the various indoor and outdoor performance spaces of Greece and Rome?
- How can one productively integrate the study of practice and of the surviving iconography in this research process, and how can 3D technologies be brought to bear at their interface?
- How does perception of masks compare with that of living human faces, and how far can methodologies concerning visual perception inform an understanding of the ancient mask? How is perception of body and physical movement related to how the mask is "read”?
The work of the project includes the creation of full-sized masks for performance based upon terracotta miniature artefacts, complemented by other sources of material evidence, and the use of 3D motion-capture to record movements of performers and placing performers in virtually-realised ancient theatre spaces. In addition the research team is collaborating with artists from Asian mask theatre traditions whose insights into the use of masks we hope will illuminate performative aspects of lost Western traditions. The first collaboration has been with the renowned Japanese Nô performer, Matsui Akira who will attend and present a workshop/performance at the conference.
The conference will provide an opportunity for members of the team to present some of the underlying research questions as well as initial results and insights. The project is headed by Professor Richard Beacham Director of King's Visualisation Lab at the Centre for Computing in the Humanities. Members of the research team include Dr. Hugh Denard (KCL), Dr. Richard Williams (Durham), Dr. Margaret Coldiron (Durham) and Martin Blazeby, Drew Baker and Michael Takeo Magruder of KCL.
Presentations are invited from scholars and practitioners in fields related to the work of the project including (but not limited to) Classics, Art History, Theatre and Performance Studies, Digital Art and Media, Psychology and Perception Studies, Dance, Mask making and Scenography.
Conference organiser: Margaret Coldiron: margaret.coldiron@durham.ac.uk
