Working with Rubbish means I get to create from rubbish, giving me full creative reigns of all the unwanted items, materials and waste from my surrounding environment. This open opportunity also comes with its restraints, as does any upcycling or salvaging design process – the designer is limited to what they can source.
Using material flow as an organising production principle, itself rooted in environmental concerns, has brought unforeseen benefits. A set designed on the principles of low impacts – reclaimation, upcycling, repurposing and low wattage – can save money, sure, but it also brings new dimensions to design and artistic insight, before the production process has even begun.
(Johnston, 2014)
This brings me to my design methodology:
Source, salvage, design, experiment, finalise, source, build, perform.
Once I have everything in place it will be a matter of using whatever I create, mistakes included; this will echo our ethos, in showing that there is always beauty behind the face value of things, there is always endless possibilities and rubbish never really is rubbish.
When using reclaimed and recycled materials you never quite know what you’re going to find. My set design work can then be seen as a reflection of how Donyale Werle, a set designer based in Brooklyn, New York, sees her design process. For the show Peter and the Starcatcher, which ran at the Brook Atkinson Theatre on Broadway in Spring 2012, Werle’s set design process is described as:
on the very edge of having a very clear vision and not knowing at all what the outcome is going to be. What lies between this dichotomy are the materials that are available. This is the nature of creating the set out of salvaged and recycling goods. So the design can be seen as an organic process, in that it is determined by the elements found in the surrounding environment.
(Julie’s Bicycle, 2012)
This is reflected in my set design process, which also runs in conjunction with Rubbish Theatre’s devising process for the show, If an Orchid Was All You Had. We are bound for an organic and experimental journey, which is certain to produce visual stunning and conceptual daring material.
First port of call – collect and source all possible unwanted materials and items. Once collected it will be a matter of working closely with our Director, Jacob Kay, and the rest of the ensemble to devise our piece based of the material we create but also the material we find.
References:
Julie’s Bicycle (2012) Sustainable Design: Peter and the Starcatcher. [online] Available from http://www.juliesbicycle.com/latest/case-studies/3583-sustainable-design-peter-and-the-starcatcher/ [Accessed 12th February 2017].
Johnston, S. (2014) Tips for green, more sustainable show. [online] London: The Guardian. Available from https://www.theguardian.com/culture-professionals-network/culture-professionals-blog/2014/jan/29/tips-green-sustainable-shows-production [Accessed 12th February 2017].