{"id":60,"date":"2026-02-12T15:03:20","date_gmt":"2026-02-12T13:03:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dev.wrkshp.fi\/carpa9\/?p=60"},"modified":"2026-02-20T14:14:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T12:14:10","slug":"on-more-sustainable-performance-design-education-and-the-future-skills-in-a-world-of-polycrisis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nivel.teak.fi\/carpa9\/on-more-sustainable-performance-design-education-and-the-future-skills-in-a-world-of-polycrisis\/","title":{"rendered":"On more sustainable performance design, education and the future skills in a world of polycrisis"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Our multimodal presentation On More Sustainable Performance Design, Education and the Future Skills in a World of Polycrisis <\/em>at CARPA9, was focused on performance design and its education regarding sustainability, a more ecologically sustainable stage and the era of polycrisis. The presentation is inspired by two versions of an MA-level course, A More Ecologically Sustainable Stage<\/em>, at the Theatre Academy of the University of the Arts Helsinki in the spring and the autumn semesters of 2024: the experiences and materials, the collected data and the feedback from the courses. The presentation discusses ways to approach sustainability and eco-creativity in (more) ecological performance-making and its pedagogy. The aim is also to reflect on transformative learning and socio-cultural transformation in relation to more ecological theatre-making.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is more sustainable performance design?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In our opinion, more sustainable performance design is about bringing a more sustainable approach to performance design, including socially, culturally, economically and ecologically more sustainable practices and materialities in performance design. It is also systemic thinking: every design choice is intertwined with social, environmental, economic and political consequences. We can also say that it is eco-design, eco-scenography, eco-creativity, eco-justice, ethics, and climate care. It is transformative learning, doing things differently, designing and learning with nature. It is more than human design and understanding materials as co-creators. It is rooted e.g. in relationality, systems thinking, new materialism and posthumanism. It is about the eco-social and planetary education of an artist and designer. Also the perspectives on more sustainable art and design are present in it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is not difficult to find reasons for having the course in the curriculum. Everything comes back to the ongoing multi-crisis and the social, cultural, ecological and economic sustainability. In the work of performance designers, we can learn to emphasise a biocentric worldview rather than a human-centred one, understand relationality, systems thinking, layerdness (in the everyday and in the planetary levels) and to understand and strive for planetary solidarity, slowing down, care and sufficiency. We state that the ecologically more sustainable stage has to do with cultural, socioeconomic, artistic and political contexts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Course structure and learning activities<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Both versions of the course spanned over three weeks and included around 10\u201313 participants, mainly MA students in performance design: lighting, sound and stage design students from Uniarts Helsinki, costume design students from Aalto University and a few exchange students from Germany and Estonia in the autumn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The course consisted of a series of lectures and exercises exploring sustainability from artistic, cultural, and practical perspectives. The course was aimed to serve students with varying backgrounds and knowledge of sustainability themes, giving a sufficient knowledge base to continue exploring the topics further in ones own practice, so the lectures covered a wide range of themes. The course began with an introduction to sustainability in performance design, followed by explorations of the aesthetic and cultural dimensions of sustainability transformation. Lectures also addressed environmental emotions such as eco-anxiety and the ways performance can engage with them, as well as the social context and material dimensions of sustainability. The course included also artist talks examining perspectives from a recently published book Sustainable Choices<\/em> (2023), offered practical guidelines for sustainable artistic and technical work at the Theatre Academy, and introduced key concepts of circular economy and carbon footprint calculation, linking artistic practices to broader ecological frameworks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The assignments complemented these lectures through creative and reflective practice. Students first completed a pre-assignment presenting themselves \u201cin a more ecologically sustainable way\u201d using an artistic and performative form. Later, in small groups, they created artistic works showing how selected UN Sustainable Development Goals appear in their everyday environment. The course culminated in a final project, which could be either a roadmap, a study, or an artistic piece that was presented at a one-day exhibition at the Theatre Academy. Together, these activities connected theory and practice, inviting participants to explore how sustainability affects and transforms their own artistic practice and work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The assignments of the course produced performative, action-based, material and conceptual approaches. We have noticed, that knowledge and shared reflection can help students to see one\u2019s study field and the familiar ways of doing differently, to understand the concepts of a stage and performance differently. The student\u2019s outcomes included rethinking one’s designs and tools, recycling materials including ideas and performance concepts, inventing new materials, “eco-confessions”, crafts and household skills, cultures of doing differently, artivist responses, pedagogical responses, creating games for the audience to play, and considering the seasons when choosing materials and themes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Summarising some course findings<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

When teaching this course, we have noticed that the role of emotions is strongly present when working with the themes of ecology and sustainability. Also difficult and even scary subjects can turn into interesting through meaningful assignments. The importance of what kind of change the work could bring about in society became crucial. There has also raised interest in learning more about the relation of accesibility and sustainability. The impact of a work is linked to the nature of its audience. Student\u2019s outcomes have included e.g. DIY attitude, everyday domestic skills and an ethos of inventiveness. An encouraging observation is that any stage can be the more ecological one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At this point, we can summarise some results from our course. We are all learning this subject, and learning involves dialogue. Learning means experimenting and learning also from failures. It is important to share knowledge openly and listen to each other, including other species and agencies, and also stay open to incorporating alternative ways of experiencing into our work and building a better future together. The method of constant questioning can be adopted and used as a guide to the artist’s everyday action and education. (What do we already have, what do we really need?) As educators, we can foster the understanding of the humankind as a part of the nature, not separate from it, and support the nature connection via experiencing, embodiment and multisensoriality. We need to keep dreaming and visioning (alternative and different futures). More ecological practices need time and resources, and a pause to rethink. Art has the power to change things.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our CARPA9 presentation was extended with a facilitated discussion with the participants, aiming to approach the speculative future of performance design and asking what are the future skills of a performance designer, what could and should be taught and known, and how to cope with the sustainability transition in education, in the field, and outside the academy. The discussion aims to collect material for mapping the future understanding and the changes in the field and developing education.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Teaching on this course and presenting the experiences and data is linked to Kilpel\u00e4inen\u2019s doctoral research about current movements, changes and sustainability in performance design and its education, and to Martikainen\u2019s work among the sustainability networking and eco-actions in the Finnish performing arts field. In her research Kilpel\u00e4inen asks e.g. how the designers are approaching a more ecological stage and what kind of design strategies and artistic actions are raised, and how does eco-creativity figure in performance design and its education? Both Kilpel\u00e4inen and Martikainen are interested in what kind of knowledge is needed and what skills should be taught. In the future, it will be interesting to keep on mapping in the longer run, how the teaching of ecological sustainability is getting reflected in student works, through the curriculum and through study programmes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As educators, we see it constantly important to update the design practices and strategies and the pedagogy. We believe our course could also be adaptable to other art universities. The topic cuts across the entire field of performance design and its education with its urgency. Questions about more ecological ways of doing art and theatre are globally shared issues. The next version of the course will be held at the Theatre Acedemy of the University of the Arts Helsinki in the autumn 2026. We are interested in developing the course in a more community-based direction and also towards outdoor education and bringing student\u2019s cultural and geographic roots visible. We are also planning to integrate The Theatre Green Book<\/em> and the multidisciplinary collaboration between artists and other sectors more to the to the course content. We are delighted to continue exploring the more sustainable stage together with the students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Background and further readings<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Beer, Tanja. 2021. Ecoscenography: An Introduction to Ecological Design for Performance<\/em>. Singapore: Palgrave Macmillan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beer, Tanja, Dominique Hes. 2017. \u201cSustainability in production: Exploring eco-creativity within the parameters of conventional theatre.\u201d Behind the Scenes: Journal of Theatre Production Practice<\/em> 1(1). via.library.depaul.edu\/bts_journal_of_theatre_production_practice\/vol1\/iss1\/4<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fancy, David, Conrad Alexandrowicz, eds. 2021. Theatre Pedagogy in the Era of Climate Crisis<\/em>. London; New York, New York: Routledge.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fancy, David, Tanja Beer, David Vivian. 2021. \u201cEco-scenography and sustainable theatre production: David Fancy in Conversation with Tanja Beer and David Vivian.\u201d In Theatre Pedagogy in the Era of Climate Crisis<\/em>, eds. David Fancy & Conrad Alexandrowicz, 197\u2013203. London ; New York, New York: Routledge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Humalisto, Tomi, Raisa Kilpel\u00e4inen, eds. 2023. Sustainable Choices: Potentials and Practices in Performance Design<\/em>. Helsinki: University of the Arts Helsinki. urn.fi\/URN:ISBN:978-952-353-066-9<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kilpel\u00e4inen, Raisa. 2023. \u201cOn the Search for a More Sustainable Stage \u2013 Mapping the Perspectives of a Performance Designer\u201d. Research in Arts and Education<\/em> 2023(3):52\u201368. doi.org\/10.54916\/rae.136947<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kilpel\u00e4inen, Raisa. 2023. \u201cReflections on Sustainability in Performance Design.\u201d In T. Humalisto & R. Kilpel\u00e4inen, eds. Sustainable Choices \u2013 Potentials and Practices in Performance Design<\/em>, 32\u201355. Theatre Academy of the University of the Arts Helsinki. urn.fi\/URN:ISBN:978-952-353-066-9<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lehtinen, Sanna. 2021. \u201d<\/em>Aesthetic Sustainability\u201d. In\u00a0Situating Sustainability: A Handbook of Contexts and Concepts<\/em>, edited by P. Krieg and R. Toivanen, 255\u2013267. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press. doi.org\/10.33134\/HUP-14-18<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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