Tessa Rixon

Queensland University of Technology, Creative Industries Faculty, School of Creative Practice, Faculty Member

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Tessa Rixon (nee Smallhorn) is a practitioner-researcher in intermedial performance, digital scenography & Australian performance design.
As a lecturer in the School of Creative Practice at Queensland University of Technology, Tessa specialises in scenography, production practice, vision systems, 3D design modeling inc. SketchUp, and show technologies inc. Isadora. She has experience in course design, as well as blended learning design.

Qualifications include a Bachelor of Creative Industries (Drama), Bachelor of Fine Arts (Technical Production) & Bachelor of Creative Industries (Honours) from Queensland University of Technology. In her professional practice, she has worked across a range of dance, drama, music and festival projects as a lighting designer, vision and systems designer, technical coordinator and stage manager.

As an scholar in the field of scenography and technology, Tessa's research specialties include advocating new modes of considering the integration of digital technologies in live performance; exploring the symbiosis between interactive technology and dance within devising processes; examining the latest in technical innovation in performance; and studying Australian scenographic practice and histories.

Tessa is conducting her doctoral research on the integration of new media technologies into Australian live performance, investigating examples of national practice and finding new ways to create authentic, engaging performance for all audiences. Past publications include 'Symbiosis in digital performance: the relationship between interactive technologies and improvisational choreography' in Behind the Scenes: Journal of Theatre Production Practice (2019), ‘Celebrating Fifty Years in Prague: Reflections on Australian Scenographic Identity through the Prague Quadrennial of Performance Design and Space’ in Australasian Drama Studies (2020), and Reimagining Production Pedagogy in Response to COVID-19: A New Pedagogical Model for Creating Virtual Online Performance in Critical Stages (2021)

Tessa is currently guest editing a special edition of Scene Journal on Australian Scenography, and is a member of OISTAT, IFTR, TAPRA, ADSA, TNA and is a Fellow with the HEA.
Address: Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

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Papers by Tessa Rixon

Scaling Australian intermedial theatre: towards a new design methodology for sustainable performance creation and touring of complex visual theatre

International Journal of Performance Arts and Digital Media

Sand

SAND is an intercultural, transdisciplinary, practice-led research project. SAND is a rigorous in... more SAND is an intercultural, transdisciplinary, practice-led research project. SAND is a rigorous intercultural collaboration that brings diverse & high quality partners together to 1) create a bi-lingual, intercultural performance; 2) for experimental, transdisciplinary artistic exploration and 3) to provide innovative research around intercultural performance practice, transdisciplinary content creation & community engagement. SAND uses a case study methodology to investigate and test inter-cultural performance practice that respectfully navigates cultural and artistic encounter between four cultures (Aboriginal Australia; white Australia; Japan and Pakeha NZ) and that explores cultural understandings of the body and landscape through the universal material of SAND. SAND will investigate, experiment and refine intercultural protocols and creative practice in multiple, iterative creative developments that culminate in a performance at NORPA (Lismore) in 2020. Over a number of years (2...

Bedroom Spectacles: New possibilities for collaboratively devised performance inside Zoom’s 'window of opportunity

Changing Perspectives on Live Performance: Interrogating Digital Dimensions and New Modes of Engagement, Oct 9, 2021

Savouring new discoveries: Virtual Theatre Productions and the legacy of COVID-19 lockdowns on Australian tertiary design training

TAPDEN 'How Was It For You?' Symposium 2021, Jul 24, 2021

Finding the Digital on Australian Stages

The full length video of the presentation can be viewed at https://vimeo.com/348709117 (or click ... more The full length video of the presentation can be viewed at https://vimeo.com/348709117 (or click the 'View at Publisher' link above. Australian dance and theatre are incorporating more digital technologies into their scenographies. However, little is known about the practice of those who craft these digital performances, nor the impact of such technology on audiences. This presentation will speak to these gaps and consider how the notion of authenticity could inspire more meaningful integration of technology into performance. This presentation was given on Saturday 15th June as part of the Prague Quadrennial of Performance Design and Space (PQ) Talks program. The New Media 2 session was moderated by Christopher Baugh, and included talks from Christian Ziegler and Mark Coniglio. Extended abstract: Within Australian theatre and dance, an increasing number of professional productions are embracing both establised and emergent digital technologies as integral scenographic and dr...

Shaping Our Australian Design Identities: A visual essay

Scene, Dec 1, 2021

Reimagining production pedagogy in response to COVID-19: A new pedagogical model for creating virtual online performance

Critical Stages/Scènes critiques, Jun 1, 2021

Creating virtual space for undergraduate production artists:Reimagining production pedagogy online in response to COVID-19

Australasian Association for Theatre, Drama and Performance Studies (ADSA) Conference:Acts of Gathering: Goodbye-Hello. Hello-Goodbye, Dec 3, 2020

Interview with QUT: How to Successfully Move Online

TheatreArtLife, Sep 15, 2020

The influence of digital technology on the performance space

Drama Creative Industries Faculty, 2013

Through practice-led research, TESSA SMALLHORN examines the influence of digital technology on th... more Through practice-led research, TESSA SMALLHORN examines the influence of digital technology on the performance space. From the mechanisation of modernist culture to the digitalisation of present day, technology acts as response material for scenographers investigating the stage as machine. The interactive, real-time tools of digital culture encourage a systems-orientated approach that challenges user and operator alike. This article explores the studio practice and critical theory that was combined to offer a functional model of a digital stage machine.

Miniaturising Australian Intermedial Theatre: A new model of sustainable performance creation and touring for large-scale complex visual theatre

International Federation of Theatre Research:Theatre Ecologies: Environment, Sustainability and Politics, Jul 12, 2021

Shaping Our Australian Scenographic Identities: A visual essay

Scene

In the form of a visual essay, this reflection charts a course through eight specific moments in ... more In the form of a visual essay, this reflection charts a course through eight specific moments in Australian performance design history. Selected by guest editor Tessa Rixon, this essay features contributions from Australia’s most established designers from sound, lighting and costume through to the latest in performance design practice and research. Specially curated for this special edition on Australian scenography, each contributor reflects on a personal experience of a pivotal performance design from their own practice or their experience as an audience member. The resulting contributions present a mix of design forms and focuses, across all forms of live performance ‐ mainstage theatre, independent site-specific performance, queer theatre, Indigenous theatre, Indigenous dance, scenography for performance beyond the stage frame, performance in response to the climate crisis and finally, a few pivotal stepping stones in our national scenographic identity ‐ from the very personal,...

The state of Australian performance design: A roundtable discussion on scenographic practice, education and research through the lens of the Prague Quadrennial

Scene

As the Prague Quadrennial of Performance Design and Space 2019 (PQ19) drew to a close, Australian... more As the Prague Quadrennial of Performance Design and Space 2019 (PQ19) drew to a close, Australian designers, researchers and educators gathered to discuss the impact of PQ on our scenographic communities while querying the evolutions and challenges facing design practice. Australia’s vast geography made this event a unique opportunity to bring together leading experts from multiple states and capture contemporary perspectives. At the midpoint between the 2019 and 2023 gatherings ‐ a time of global pandemics, political unrest and educational transformation ‐ this article offers the outcomes of this roundtable as a unique snapshot of the state of design practice within Australia through the lens of the Quadrennial. The roundtable was themed around Australia’s presence at PQ19, the effects of PQ19 on those present and the ripples to be felt by those at home, and what attendance illuminated about current developments and concerns in practice, teaching and research. Led by practitioner-r...

Australian scenography

Scene

Training and … buildings

Theatre, Dance and Performance Training

Dark Mountain: scenography for the end of the world and a more-than-human future

Theatre and Performance Design

Celebrating fifty years in Prague: reflections on Australian scenographic identity through the Prague Quadrennial of Performance Design and Space

Australasian Drama Studies, 2020

The Prague Quadrennial of Performance Design and Space represents the largest international gathe... more The Prague Quadrennial of Performance Design and Space represents the largest international gathering of performance designers, researchers and academics. When the first Quadrennial was held in 1967, a dozen Australian stage and costume designers travelled around the globe to showcase Australian scenography and connect with the international community. Fifty years later, PQ 2019 marked half a century of Australia’s involvement in this pivotal international event. During this time, national scenographic practice has evolved in response to Australia’s unique geographic, cultural and political context, as well as international developments in the field. This paper celebrates the fifty-year anniversary of Australia’s involvement with the Quadrennial through a critical examination of the evolutions in our national performance design aesthetic: what we term our national scenographic identity. Combining previously unpublished images and historical information from the PQ Archives with crit...

Collaborating in a responsive environment

Our collaborations explore the human brain - its function and its failures - through the research... more

Symbiosis in digital performance: the relationship between interactive technologies and improvisational choreography

Within Australian live performance, there is a rising number of works relying on digital media te... more Within Australian live performance, there is a rising number of works relying on digital media technologies to shape their scenographic environments. Situated in this field of digital performance, this paper examines the relationship between two subsets of digital scenography and dance: interactive digital technologies and improvisational choreography. While there are a number of perspectives that consider the role and impact of digital technologies within this specific field, many focus on the dancer or choreographer rather than the designer/technologist. The concept of symbiosis offers an alternative framework to understand the relationship between interactive digital technologies and improvisational choreography, and has potential to provide agency to the designer/technologist within the collaborative process. Symbiosis is understood as a mutually beneficial relationship between two separate and different systems that come together to achieve a shared goal. While the concept of s...

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Creating authentic digital performance: A mixed methods study of Australian theatre and dance

Within the Australian theatre and dance industry, digital technology is playing an increasingly l... more Within the Australian theatre and dance industry, digital technology is playing an increasingly large role in performance design. We're at a point where projection, virtual reality, and interactive media are becoming more common on our stages. However, this is commonly in an adhoc way, with mixed success. Little has been studied or written about how to design such works - from the creative practitioners perspective - nor how the increase of digital technology on stage is impacting Australian audiences. We know audiences want authentic performance experience, and practitioners want to provide them - but little is known about how the technology that is increasingly being used impacts this exchange. This study will explore how the concept of authenticity can inform the use of digital technology in Australian theatre and dance, to provide a new framework for performance makers and designers, and enrich the experience of audiences. This in-progress research uses a mixed methods desig...