Scenography Commission met in Tel Aviv, Israel and worked with local choreographers in an intensive workshop
Scenography Commission Meeting Minutes
May 28-June 1, 2006. Tel Aviv, Israel
Submitted by Ursula Belden, USA, June 1, 2006.
Download the Minutes
9:00 am, MAY 30, 2006 – TEL AVIV,
Present at the meeting: 15 voting delegates and about another 15 non-voting members.
Voting delegates:
In Suk Suh - Korea
Reija Hirvikoski - Finland
Sunniva Telestan - Sweden
Edit Zeke - Hungary
Richard Hudson - UK
Zeki Sarayoglu - Turkey
Simona Rybakova - Czech Republic
Piret Rumvolt - Estonia
Peter de Kimpe - Netherlands
Irena Sentevska - Serbia
Jerome Maeckelbergh - Belgium
Wei-Wen Chang - Taiwan
Tali Itzhaki - Israel
Ursula Belden - US
Attending:
Michael Ramsaur - US
SungChul Kim - Korea
Laura Crow - US
Arnold Aronson - US
James Franklin - US
Kate Burnett - UK
Abigail Hammond - UK
Pascaline van Heddegem - Belgium
Rita Geerts - Belgium
Lilja Blumenfeld - Estonia
Henk van der Geest - Netherlands
In-Jun Kim - Korea
Kazue Hatano - Japan
I know there were a few more. I apologize if I missed your name.
OISTAT president, Michael Ramsaur, attended the meeting to organize and supervise all election-related activities.
Reports of Recent Commission Activities:
Chair In Suk Suh, announced that Korea will host the World Stage Design 2009 in Seoul. Exact dates TBA. Korea will also host the 2009 OISTAT World Congress – and will invite North Korea!
China will invite 24 designers to an “Artists and Designers Conference” in Shanghai, November 24 - 28, 2006. The title of the Conference is: “Contemporary Design Creation and Cultural Exchange.” Those who would like to be considered for this conference should contact the Chinese OISTAT center. The contact information reads as follows:
Cai Tiliang
Chairman of China Association of Stage Art (OISTAT-China)
Tel: +86-10-6775-2301
Fax: +86-01-6403-5684
Mobile: +86-138-0125-4989
E-mail: zgwim@acto.org.cn
Matters Arising:
1. PQ 2007 and Scenofest
Simona deferred to Arnold Aronson (Commissioner General for PQ’07) for the PQ report: The dates for PQ’07 are June 14 to 24, 2006 with opening ceremonies scheduled for the evening of June 14. The awards ceremony will be held on June 18. The jury has been selected. Site assignments for the national exhibits are nearly complete. Arnold has the ground plan if anyone wants to see where they are located.
59 countries are currently committed to participate in one section or another; There are still some places open for last minute arrivals. Some major players like France and Austria are missing. But a number of new countries are coming.
55 countries have registered for the national exhibition
45 for the School Exhibition
__ for the Architecture exhibit
At PQ ‘03 there were 125 presentations, performances, lectures, etc. In ‘07 Scenofest will be presented by PQ and Scenofest jointly, will get the whole center hall (where Heart of PQ was last time) and will not be just for students. There will be panels, symposia, presentations, lectures, workshops, tours, and additional activities; The featured play this time is The Birds by Aristophanes. Many activities (work-shops, performances, presentations) will revolve around this text. The sound and lighting working groups will collaborate in creating programming revolving around aspects of The Birds.
Scenofest activities are being headed by the Education Commission. Those wishing to be involved should contact Sean Crowley at info@scenofest.com.
The Architecture Commission has voiced concern about the width of their exhibit space on the balcony of the central hall and on an outside balcony, which will be covered. Further PQ discussion was curtailed due to time restrictions.
2. 2008 OISTAT Scenography Commission Meeting in Stockholm
Sunniva announced that Sweden is interested in hosting an OISTAT meeting in June 2008 in Stockholm. Exact dates and further details are not yet determined.
3. OISTAT News and Activities
Michael Ramsaur reported on OISTAT News and Activities: The OISTAT office is moving from Amsterdam to Taiwan. The move has gone hand in hand with the creation of a new and active OISTAT Secretariat which will run the office. It has also required that OISTAT registers as an international NGO. Wei-Wen Chang was responsible for providing much of the organization and structure. OISTAT has three employees (which is a novelty): Wei-Wen Chang, the Executive Director of OISTAT, and her secretary, Jane are bothl ocated in the new Taiwan office; Jennifer Walker is working as the OISTAT Director of Development out of the Netherlands for fund raising. There are also funds available to OISTAT; they do not carry over from year to year, but must be spent on an annual basis. Wei-Wen further reported that the new office will be shared with the national organization and will be located in Taipei is “ready to set up.”
The short term goals of the new Secretariat are to:
The Mid or Long range goal is to develop Asian OISTAT involvement and to develop a stronger relationship with allied organizations.
SungChul Kim made a request to the Executive Committee (EC), now that the Euro is stronger than the US dollar, that membership fees be changed back to the US dollar from the Euro. It was out of good will that OISTAT EC decided to change membership fees from the US dollar to the Euro when the US dollar was stronger than the Euro. Michael Ramsaur said he would relay this request to the EC.
The Sound Working Group reported that they have decided to have two live and two virtual meetings every four years. Live meetings will coincide with PQ and WSD. The virtual meetings will be held by phone. They have had one virtual meeting which was very successful.
Candidate Presentations:
Due to tight time considerations, we skipped Activity Reports from the Working Groups and moved directly to election matters and statements by the chair candidates. Three of the candidates, SungChul Kim (Korea), Reija Hirvikoski (Finland), and Laura Crow (US) were present at the meeting. The fourth candidate, Tolis Papazoglu (New Zealand), had written a letter to the commission which was read by Jerome Maeckelbergh from Belgium.
This had been on the agenda for the second meeting so none of the candidates were expecting to speak that day. Nevertheless, presentations were made.
After the presentations Henk made a motion to adjourn so that those who had not yet been to the lighting museum would be able to make this last session. The motion was seconded by Tali. Jerome asked if the second meeting could be extended. Tali said it could. The motion carried and the meeting was adjourned.
SECOND MEETING: 5:30 pm, May 31, 2006
Present 16 voting delegates:
In Suk Suh - Korea
Kazue Hatano - Japan
Reija Hirvikoski - Finland
Sunniva Telestan - Sweden
Edit Zeke - Hungary
Kate Burnett - UK
Zeki Sarayoglu - Turkey
Simona Rybakova - Czech Republic
Piret Rumvolt - Estonia
Peter de Kimpe - Netherlands
Irena Sentevska - Serbia
Jerome Maeckelbergh - Belgium
Wei-Wen Chang - Taiwan
Tali Itzhaki - Israel
Ursula Belden - US
Cao Lin - China
Michael Ramsaur started the meeting by explaining the voting procedures.
To win a candidate must receive a majority of the votes. With four candidates there would almost certainly be at least one run-off vote. It was agreed by a show-of-hands vote that the bottom two candidates would be eliminated for the run-off vote. No procedures for breaking a tie were discussed.
The question of the length of term was discussed. Peter de Kimpe made a motion that the Scenography Commission forward a recommendation to the EC “to extend the term of office for the next chairman to five years (to June 2011) and schedule future elections in conjunction with PQ.” Jerome seconded the motion. It was clarified that only official voting delegates could vote. Michael called for a hand vote. The motion carried: 14 in favor; 1 opposed; 1 abstention.
Each of the three candidates present was given about 5 minutes to present their plans and visions for the future of the Scenography Commission. Presentations were followed by a discussion and question period. Each of the candidates promised to make OISTAT a priority and take on less work if elected. The following includes key ideas from the candidate presentations and from their answers to questions:
SungChul Kim: Pointed out that he has worked in a managerial capacity with OISTAT for many years and that he humbly looks for the opportunity to serve as chair of the commission for the next five years. His main goals are to:
Reija: Stressed the need for team work. Promised to insure well-prepared business meetings. Stated that there is an urgent need to involve young people in OISTAT, that it is important to “change the blood,” and that the commission must do something at each meeting for young people. There must be interesting and inspiring subject matter at each meeting. She stated a need to “make the art of scenography visible.”
Laura: Passed out and read a four page statement about her philosophy and plans: She stated clearly that she was honored to be running for office with such esteemed colleagues and that she hoped to involve each of the other candidates as associates to help provide leadership. Her main goal is to expand membership and boost attendance at annual meetings. She again stated her concern for promoting more Latin American, South East Asian and African membership and promised to try and develop sponsorship arrangements with various national airlines to help fund travel costs. Other concerns include providing a professional looking web-site filled with images, finding seed money for the publication of designer monographs, raising the profile of designers, sponsoring at least one workshop at every meeting, supporting the working groups and increasing their activities, and creating a multi-media working group. Most of all she stressed a need to work towards goals of understanding between diverse peoples.
The voting process was handled by Michael Ramsaur with the assistance of Henk. Pre-printed paper ballots were used. Results of the first vote were:
Sung-Chul 7
Reija 4
Laura 3
Tolis 2
Discussion about the two top candidates was followed by a run-off vote which resulted in an 8 to 8 tie.
A third vote was held. It too was tied 8 to 8.
Michael Ramsaur called a ten minute break to let everyone consider the options. After more consideration, and discussion with the candidates, this proposal to split the term of chair in two was voted in. SungChul will be chair until WSD in 2009 and Reija Hirvikoski will be chair from 2009 through the PQ in 2011. The Working Group Heads will assist as vice-chairs for matters that concern them.
Matters arising:
The meeting was adjourned at 8:30pm.
Respectfully submitted by Ursula Belden, June 1, 2006.
Respectfully revised by SungChul Kim, June 30, 2006.
Related information: the website of the Israeli OISTAT Centre
