TRANSCULTURAL STAGE DESIGN AS A MOMENTARY SPATIAL EXPERIENCE

Abstract

Stage design is a temporary space built specifically for performance or play. The atmosphere that a stage designer creates is built to determine how the individual or group of people should perceive or feel during a performance or play. Meanwhile, transcultural aesthetics is a theoretical assessment of distinctive applied aesthetic concepts and experiences of cultures apart from one’s own. The transcultural stage design discussed in this paper is a performance stage for contemporary Hip Hop music by Bangtan Sonyeondan (BTS). The particular stage discussed is the band’s introduction and IDOL song performance stage during Melon Music Awards 2018. This massive stage contains the composition of a traditional dance performance of South Korea, the composition of Jindo (drum dance), Bunchaechun (fan dance improvisation) and Korean folk dance as the background for the opening of the IDOL song, hip-hop and electronic dance music from western culture. Through this performance, the audience had a momentary spatial experience that was familiar yet new. The idea of transcultural stage design as a momentary spatial experience will be explored through an analytical design approach to define the cultural and modern elements, bring a new blending atmosphere, and establish the Korean wave in Global art.