Dr Joslin McKinney
Associate Professor in Scenography
PhD, MA, PGCE, BA (Hons)

Storyboard, dress-rehearsal photos and audience drawings for Homesick (2005), a performance which investigated audience experience of and response to scenography. Photos: Paul Davies


Biography

Building on 10 years experience as a professional theatre designer, Joslin’s practice-based PhD (2008) investigated the way audiences receive and respond to scenography. She was a
co-investigator in the AHRC/EPSRC funded Emergent Objects, an interdisciplinary research project investigating the interface between human subjects and technological objects. She was co-convenor of TaPRA’s Scenography working group and a regular contributor to the International Federation for Theatre Research (Scenography working group). Publications include The Cambridge Introduction to Scenography (Cambridge University Press, 2009) and the forthcoming ‘Research Methods in Scenography’ in Research Methods in Theatre Studies, eds. Kershaw and Nicholson (Edinburgh University Press, due 2010).

Research Interests

• Research methods for scenography
• The phenomenology of scenography in performance
• The spectator’s experience of scenography and the ‘scenographic exchange’
• ‘Immersive’ theatre and the experience of active spectatorship
• Constructions (machines, devices, artefacts and settings) as part of the processes of making, presenting, witnessing and participating in performance.
• Human/technology interface; applying knowledge about scenography in contexts beyond the stage; interdisciplinary approaches
  
  

Research Group

Performance Technologies

Current Teaching

Elements of Scenography

Performance Design Process (module leader)

Design Presentation (module leader)

Image-Based Performance

Strategies for Research

Contemporary Issues in the Cultural Industries

Dissertation  (module leader)

Current Roles

• Lecturer in Scenography (set and costume)

• Programme Manager for BA Performance Design
  
  
  
  

Supervised MA and PhD students

Katie Beswick
David Shearing

Publications

Books:

McKinney, J and P. Butterworth (2009) The Cambridge Introduction to Scenography, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

Chapters in books:

McKinney and H.Iball (in press), ‘Research Methods in Scenography’ for Research Methods in Theatre and Performance, eds. Helen Nicholson and Baz Kershaw, Edinburgh University Press

McKinney, J, A. Bayliss, S.Popat and M.Wallis (2010) ‘Emergent Objects: Performance and Interdisciplinary Design at the Human/Technological Interface’ in T. Inns (ed), Designing for the 21st Century, Volume 2: Interdisciplinary Methods and Findings, Gower, pp.116 -131

Joslin McKinney, (2009) ‘The Scenographic Exchange’, in eds. Ludivine Fuschini, Simon Jones, Baz Kershaw and Angela Piccini, Practice as Research in Performance and Screen, Palgrave

McKinney, J (2008) ‘Homesick: the scenographic exchange’, in Performance Design edited by Dorita Hannah and Olav Harslof, Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press

Bayliss, A and J, McKinney (2007), ‘Emergent Objects: Design and Performance Research Cluster’, in Designing for the 21st Century, Gower Ashgate, pp.150-165

McKinney, J (2002) ‘Scenography: Practice, Research and Pedagogy’, Theatre Design: Exploring Scenography, ed. Malcolm Griffiths, Society of British Theatre Designer's in Association with Nottingham Trent University, pp. 65 – 72

Papers in refereed journals:

Wallis, M., Popat, S., McKinney, J., Bryden, J. & Hogg, D. (2010) ‘Embodied conversations: Performance and the design of a robotic dancing partner’ Design Studies: The International Journal for Design Research in Engineering, Architecture, Products and Systems, pp.99-117

Bayliss, A, J.McKinney, S. Popat and M. Wallis (2007) ‘Emergent Objects: Designing through performance’ , in International Journal of Performing Arts and Digital Media 3(3) pp 269-279

 McKinney, J, ‘The Nature of Scenographic Communication: artist, audience and the operation of scenography’, Scenography International (on-line journal) http://www.scenography-international.com/journal.php Issue 10

McKinney, J (2005) ‘Projection and transaction: the operation of scenography’, Performance Research Vol 10 Issue 4 ‘On Techne’, pp.128-137

McKinney, J ‘The Role of Theatre Design: Towards a Bibliographical and Practical Accommodation’, Scenography International (on-line journal) http://www.scenography-international.com/journal.php Issue 2

McKinney, J (2001) ‘Stage Design as Acting Machine: Constructing Theatrical Reality’, Tradition and Innovation in Theatre Design, ed. Anna Wierzchowska, Jagellonian University, Cracow, pp.44 – 49

Projects

2002- 2008 Part-time PhD The Nature of the Communication Between Scenography and its Audiences.This study used a series of three scenographic performances to investigate the nature of communication between scenography and audience. Structured using iterative cycles of action and reflection, the trajectory of the three performances began by drawing on recognisably mainstream professional practice (The General’s Daughter), through a scenographic experiment aimed specifically at enfolding the audience (Homesick) to engaging and involving the audience through scenography and creating a new form of performance (Forest Floor).Although the potential impact of scenography has long been recognised in professional theatre practice, this was the first piece of practice-based research which examines the particular contribution of the scenographic and the way it works on its audiences. Scenography is inseparable from the performance event yet its particular material qualities draw on languages of the stage that appear to speak simultaneously with but separately from the textural and the gestural. This investigation focused on the visual, spatial and somatosensory dimensions of scenography and on ways of capturing and theorising the experience of viewing scenography.

2005-6, Co-Investigator,  Emergent Objects:  Design and Performance Cluster (P.I. Dr Calvin Taylor) EPSRC/AHRC funded project as part of the Designing for the 21st Century initiative.
This twelve-month project investigated the relationships between discourses and practices in design and performance. This work provided the protocols and framework for further funded research dedicated to the theorisation and development of design processes.

2006-7 Co- Investigator, Emergent Objects: Designing the human/technology interface through performance P.I. Prof Mick Wallis, EPSRC/AHRC funded project (December 2006 – December 2007) as part of the Designing for the 21st Century initiative.
In this second phase, the Emergent Objects research project draws on performance knowledge to explore and articulate the emergent nature of the interface between technological object and human that is fundamental to the development of new design thinking and practices. The project uses performance perspectives to investigate the modelling of a role of design in a technological society and asks questions about the desirable relationships between users and designed artefacts, systems or environments.

International Presentations

Embodied conversations: Performance and the design of a robotic dancing partner (presenter and co-author with Mick Wallis, Sita Popat, David Hogg and John Bryden) at the Design Research Society conference, Sheffield, UK, 16th -19th July, 2008

Iteration and exchange: involving the audience in scenographic practice-as-research OISTAT (Organisation Internationale des Scenografes, Techniciens et Architectes de Theatre), History and Theory commission conference , Helsinki, Finland, June 2008

SpiderCrab and the Emergent Object: Designing for the Twenty-first Century (co-author and presenter with Mick Wallis, Sita Popat, Alice Bayliss, David Hogg, John Bryden, Rich Walker and Matthew Godden) at dux07, design for user-experience conference, Chicago, USA, 5th - 7th, November, 2007

Legacies and possibilities: practice, research, practice-as-research, a panel presentation at the Association of Theatre in Higher Education , Chicago, USA, August 2006

The Scenographic Exchange, invited speaker for the International Performance Design Symposium, Danish Institute, Rome, Italy, Jan 2006

Teaching Scenography in a Research Environment, presented, with Scott Palmer, at the OISTAT (Organisation Internationale des Scenografes, Techniciens et Architectes de Theatre) Education Commission symposium in Nottingham,UK, Dec 2005 and at OISTAT Education Commission in Yokohama, Japan, June 2006

Homesick, a research performance and Exploring the nature of the scenographic exchange, a paper, presented at PARIP (Practice as Research in Performance) International conference, University of Leeds, UK, July 2005

The Nature of Scenographic Communication: artist, audience and the operation of scenography, presented at the IFTR (International Federation for Theatre Research) Scenography working group conference, University of Amsterdam, Netherlands, May 2005

External Activity / Professional Links

Vice Chair: Association of Courses in Theatre Design (ACTD)
External Examiner at Edge Hill University

Education and Career

Education

2002 – 2008:  University of Leeds  PhD in Theatre Performance (part –time) The Nature of Communication between Scenography and its Audiences

1997– 1999: Nottingham Trent University MA in Theatre Arts (awarded Distinction)
(part-time)

1986 – 1987: Bretton Hall College, Wakefield PGCE Art

1982 – 1985: Trent Polytechnic, Nottingham BA (Hons) 3-D Design (Theatre) (awarded 1st Class)

Career

2008 – present: Director of Learning and Teaching School of Performance and Cultural Industries University of Leeds

2001 – present: Lecturer in Scenography School of Performance and Cultural Industries University of Leeds

1996 – 2001: Lecturer in Stage Design Bretton Hall College of the University of Leeds

1994 – 2004: Freelance Theatre Designer

1990 – 1994: Education Officer, Northern Region, The Design Council, London

1987 – 1990: Teacher of Art and Design Eckington School, Eckington, Derbyshire

1985 - 1986: Designer in residence (Arts Council bursary award winner) The Crucible Theatre, Sheffield

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