Studio 5
Articulate Objects
Derham Groves
Studio Description
This studio involves designing three pop-up puppet theatres within Luna Park, St. Kilda. Puppets are fascinating things. Comforting and creepy at the same time, they are not alive, but not dead either. They move. They talk. But can they see? It’s a matter of suspending disbelief, which is why an amusement park is the ideal location for these speculative structures. In the process of playing with and designing for puppets, we will inevitably explore the possibilities of buildings that also move, talk and see.
Studio Outcomes
- To design three pop-up puppet theatres in Luna Park that directly respond to the demands of the puppets, the public and the site. One theatre will be for glove puppets, one will be for marionettes, and one will be for puppets on stage, e.g. Alexander Calder’s circus, Muppets and ventriloquist acts.
- Despite being speculative in nature, the architecture of the three theatres will be highly resolved, as the structures will be of human rather than of mega scale. This may involve making large-scale models to demonstrate how certain aspects of the theatres work.
- In keeping with the nature of puppets and public performance, presentation of the final designs will be fittingly theatrical. This may involve, for example, animation and filmmaking.
- To produce good work while having fun.
Studio Leader
Derham Groves has been investigating the design possibilities of dolls, mannequins and puppets for some time. He is the author of Victims and Villains: Barbie and Ken Meet Sherlock Holmes (2009), which is about dolls, and Hopalong Cassidy: A Horse Opera (2017), which is about glove puppets. He is also the curator of a forthcoming exhibition at the Baillieu Library called Monkeemania in Australia (2018), which will feature about 60 surreal glove puppets.
Reading & Reference
- Gross, Kenneth (ed.), On Dolls (2018).
- Herdt, Tania. The City and the Architecture of Change: The Work and Radical Visions of Cedric Price (2017).
- Satz, Aura & John Wood (eds.), Articulate Objects: Voice, Sculpture and Performance (2009).
- Stewart, Susan. On Longing: Narratives of the Miniature, the Gigantic, the Souvenir, the Collection (1984).
ST1/05 Mondays 09:00-12:00 in MSD Room 239
ST2/05 Mondays 15:15-18:15 in MSD Room 239