Tessa Rixon is a practitioner-researcher in digital scenography & Australian performance design.
Tessa's research promotes new modes of integrating established and emergent technologies into live performance; exploring the potentiality of authenticity within digital scenography; and showcasing Australian performance design practice and histories. Her latest research explores the impact of the pandemic on digital pedagogies within the creative arts, and the role of technology within ecoscenography. Her research has been published in top-ranked publications including the International Journal of Performance Arts and Digital Media, and Theatre and Performance Design. In 2021 Tessa guest-edited the first special edition in over a decade to highlight Australian performance design (Scene Journal (Intellect)). See more on Tessa’s research here - https://eprints.qut.edu.au/view/person/Rixon,_Tessa.html
As Lecturer in Scenography and Technical Theatre at Queensland University of Technology, Tessa specialises in scenography, production practice, vision systems, 3D design modeling, and show technologies including Isadora. In her professional practice, she has worked across a range of dance, drama, music and festival projects as a lighting, vision and systems designer, technical manager, festival coordinator, operator and stage manager. Qualifications include a Bachelor of Creative Industries (Drama), Bachelor of Fine Arts (Technical Production), Bachelor of Creative Industries (Honours), as well as a Fellowship with the Higher Education Academy.
Tessa is the Australian Committee Representative for ITEAC ’23 (the International Theatre Engineering and Architecture Conference), the National Secretary for the Australasian Association for Theatre, Drama and Performance Studies (ADSA) and co-convenor of the ADSA Scenography and Performance Design Working Group. Tessa is an active member of IFTR, TAPRA and OISTAT working groups on theatre and performance design and technology.