Maryia Kamarova’s guest lecture unfortunately cut short due to a perfectly timed fire alarm was certainly an eye opener for me in terms of her artistic practice. Coming from a scenography background then moving towards incorporating sound as a medium within this practice, using the idea of repurposing electronic devices and common materials then crafting them into site specific installations and performances.

A Look into Scenography:

Maryia is part of Pyl Collective which extend and push the boundaries of scenography, they released their manifesto on scenography without borders in 2021 which luckily, I have managed to get my hands on an English translation. I had never heard of the term scenography before Maryia’s lecture thus it’s been intriguing to research into it, I specifically like the idea of scenographic thinking, analysing space and materials as a process to discover how to fit them together to bring across an idea (Bleeker, M. et al. 2019). I also am intrigued by the ability of scenography to bring out emotions along with cultural and political ideas using found materials, I’m interested in the process of selecting and designing new objects from old and re-using technology to create environments that achieve this (Von Rosen, 2021). Pyl’s scenography manifesto uses strong key words to section their main attributes, with my favourite being ‘sensitive scenography’ which entails exploration of technological organisms and focuses on non-human interactions between these (Liška, Jakub and Pyl 2021).

Looking into Maryia’s Practice:

The piece introduced to us within the guest lecture was 555 bugs which is a site-specific live performance of self-built electro-acoustic instruments that sonically interact with each other like observing small creatures carry out their lives. Maryia wanted to research into alternate sound sources and the ability to use these in a performance environment, these objects are created with simple electronic components and low-voltage circuitry (555 bugs, 2019). Her performance Hulko with artist Kunrad is absolutely stunning, and a wonderful way of using primitive objects like foraged stones and wood to create sound and bring about a natural and ecological sense, unfortunately the website ‘vimeo’ where most of maryia’s work is, requires me to submit an identification document to access anything so I haven’t had the chance to explore all of her work.

My Study:

Maryia’s lecture was inspiring for me as this kinetic/objects under motion practice is where I would like my creative practice to be as I enjoy the fascination and feeling of non-human autonomous sound producing objects. I decided with limited tools and materials to have a go at creating some sound objects.

I decided to sketch a few objects with the first being a contact box, with a playable spring attached. This ended up looking and sounding like:

Secondly I wanted to use actual electrical circuitry (although very basic) it had to have a moving element so it could produce sound by itself. This motor and guitar pickup ended up looking and sounding like:

And lastly I wanted to try and interact objects like in Maryia’s work ‘Spojené zvukem’ (2024). I decided to attach a stretched spring to a motor and use it to impact my contact box to create a semi-random noise:

Bibliography:

• 555 bugs (2019) Overtoon. Available at: https://www.overtoon.org/en/production/2020/555bugs-1/ (Accessed: December 4, 2025).
• Bleeker, M. et al. (2019) Thinking Through Theatre and Performance. Bloomsbury Publishing, pp. 100–106. Available at: https://books.google.co.uk/books?hl=en&lr=&id=59iEDwAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PA100&dq=what+is+scenography+journal+article&ots=LwCe2F9k6R&sig=2qzcBeGxFLp1po3HkXt4By-BjAs#v=onepage&q=what%20is%20scenography%20journal%20article&f=false (Accessed: December 4, 2025).
• Liška, Jakub and Pyl (2021) “Manifest: Scénografie bez hranic (Manisfesto to Scenography without Borders),” Manifest: Scénografie bez hranic (Manisfesto to Scenography without Borders). Available at: https://jasuteren.cz/media/pages/cedit/3083814219-1762959758/cedit7.pdf (Accessed: December 4, 2025).

• von Rosen, A. (2021) “Why Scenography and Art History?,” Konsthistorisk tidskrift/Journal of Art History, 90(2), pp. 65–71. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/00233609.2021.1923566.