Master in Urban Scenography

Academic structure
Besides theoretical lectures, this Master’s Program includes the following formats and activities:

An instrumental scenographic project based on a script selected and delivered to small groups of 5 students at the end of the first term. An executive scenographic project on a topic of the student’s choice to be handed in with a business plan at the end of the second term. These two projects will be presented to a jury of examiners and supervisors at the end of each term.

A 4-week professional internship in a company working in the field of scenography and creativity. A group presentation at the Scenography Festival in Basel and a visit to the Prague Quadrennial. Two seminars (one per term) at the Central School of Speech and Drama at the University of London (CSSD, England) and the Faculty of Fine Arts at Brno University of Technology (VUT, Czech Republic).

At the beginning of the program, students will attend a 12-hour practical course (over one weekend) at the ESARQ_UIC in Barcelona on instrumental techniques and materials for the scenographic representation of space and time.

Participation in a special scenographic event such as a competition held on the premises of Camp Nou, the stadium of F.C. Barcelona, or similar.

Description of the Master’s project assignment and the corresponding thesis, which can be either instrumental or executive. The main subject of the project should be aspects of production, stage direction, design, organization and presentation. The project should include the discussion of conceptual, dramaturgical, production-oriented and technical issues within the framework of the student’s Master’s project and each will have a different focus, depending on requirements: theoretical and conceptual issues, problems of narrative structure or dramaturgy, aspects of aesthetics and the design of the urban spaces, methods, technologies or techniques in detail.



1st Term (October 2010-February 2011)

Methods 1 (4 weeks):

What is Scenography? Presentation/Representation
Why Scenography? Expanded scenography
How Scenography? Audience
El Liceu in Barcelona Social Frameworks
Sources 1 (4 weeks)

What Texts? Textuality and Intertextuality
What Authors? Identities
What Cities? Imaginaries
National Theatre in Prague Traditions
Means 1 (4 weeks):

Paper and Matter Representation 1
Wood and Wool Presentation 2
Scene and Screen Representation 3
Real and Virtual Presentation 4
Meanings 1-2 (4 weeks):

Why the Body? Phenomenology
Why the Spirit? Transcendence
Why Movement? Dialectics
Project Presentation Research
2nd Term (February-July 2011)

Meanings 1-2 (4 weeks):

Why Machinery? Structuralism
Why Reality? Realism
Digital realities? Postmodernism
Mimesis or Metamorphosis? Physical Theatricality
Means 2 (4 weeks):

Do you feel? Acoustics
Do you listen to? Lighting
Do you see “well”? Synthesizing
Olympic London Non-representational
Sources 2 (4 weeks):

Gordon Craig and London Screens
Adolphe Appia and Zurich Exhibiting
Josef Svoboda and Prague Scenography
Peter Brook and Barcelona Architecture and Light
Methods 2 (4 weeks):

Designing Scenography Conception
Managing Scenography Production
Marketing Scenography Communication
Final Project Presentation Busines Plan




Methodology and evaluation
This course provides professional designers and university graduates with a creative platform to expand and develop their individual design language and theoretical position in the areas of architecture, exhibition design, urban intervention, (media) art and theatre using a transdisciplinary scenographic approach.

Based on historical and contemporary practice and theory, this course connects historical and contemporary design practices and theories and reapplies them directly to the design of scenographic urban spaces. This also applies to public spaces for commercial and institutional communication, as well as temporary atmospheres for brand staging and corporate appearance.

Students in the Master’s Program in Scenography and Contemporary Cities learn how to combine expertise with multidisciplinary interests, theoretical knowledge with artistic intuition, performance and moderating with management and organizational skills. They learn to understand that the effectiveness of planning and implementation is subject to an artistic/creative drive and a social sense of responsibility.

Teaching and learning focus on the design and staging of real and virtual spaces and environments. Students will conceptualize exhibition spaces for performance and design, and bring them to contemporary life as a potential narrative context. They will stage and dramatize performances on very different stages and create an atmosphere for the communicative and emotional effect of their stories and messages found in the core of contemporary urban life.



Work Dynamics
This Master’s program is structured on a multilevel educational project based on the close relationship between different topics and scopes that are structurally linked together, and through a research methodology that goes from general to specific, from open to closed spaces, and from material reality to nonmaterial virtual reality. We provide instruction that delivers the necessary skills for the conception, design and realization of spaces between the boundaries of architecture, theatre and urban planning.

From the critical reading of social space to the physical transformation of the territory, theatre will be used as a poetic instrument of knowledge, with participation and the re-elaboration of subject matter involving the city and its inhabitants. Scenography is perceived as an instrument for intervening in reality, revealing inner content and displaying representative characters.

With the help of experts working in their own fields, this Master’s program is made up of theoretical disciplines and practical experiences to be performed on site, ranging from the city to intimate indoor spaces. Through a continuous re-elaboration process, students will be able to build performance experiences as they compile data, memories and ideas from their shared relationship with the urban territory.

Students will define their ability to analyse urban reality as they improve their knowledge of and expertise with stage design, by producing a storyboard, managing lighting, and building sets. Some of the disciplines studied will be experimental sectors in multimedia, digital scenography and urban ecology.

Workshop and Stage

The Master’s program combines theory with fundamental application structured around different experiences in professional fields: an intervention in an urban settlement in Rome in association with the municipal government, the local population and public-private associations.

As a further step in their development, students will also be asked to design and build a public experience that values and provides evidence of what is hidden, what come protected through daily practice and what is still not space. The final event of the Master’s program (the diploma thesis) will be “putting it all together”, i.e. the experiences in the territory, through the production of a show performed in a theatre space, while taking advantage of the skills acquired in the field of the set construction and multimedia and virtual technology.



European Context, Global Outlook

From the ESARQ_UIC we invite you to experience scenography in Europe and the world. For any international student, Europe has a lot to offer: the most prestigious, top ranked education anywhere in the world, eclectic cities and beautiful natural parks and mountains, artistic, cultural, political and athletic events, and a very multicultural population.

European universities may differ from those in your own country in several ways. For one thing, classes are generally small. there may be as few as ten to twenty students in a class; an education in the Europe gives you the personal attention you need in order to succeed.

While in class, students are encouraged and expected to contribute to the discussion and seminars. Professors meet with students in their offices or even share coffee or meals with them. The close relationship between students and faculty serves to motivate students and fosters a personal approach to the curriculum.

You will notice different perspectives on instruction. In Europe students are trained to observe and analyze a problem, than solve it. You will be expected to listen to your classmates and challenge their points of view. The goal is pragmatic, so that you will gain confidence and the ability to organize and present an argument.

While studying in Europe you will be exposed to some of the most up-to-date developments in technology. Europe is the leader in many areas of technology, innovation. You may be fortunate enough to meet, and even study, with the leading scholars in scenography.

Being well-grounded in Europe, from the ESARQ_UIC we believe that international collaboration in scenography is also a key to progress in an increasingly interconnected and volatile world where the pace of change is growing every year. More than ever, universities and colleges we do have a role to play in bringing a global perspective to the field of scenography. A further significant challenge for institutions today is keeping track of the shifting expectations and aspirations of prospective international students and monitoring worldwide trends in stage design, performance and cities.