JOE PAGNAN
Scenographer•Director
01 about
I am a scenographer with proficiency in scenic and lighting design. Represented by the Associated Designers of Canada.
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Seeking meaning through the pines, I am honoured to be a part of the global design community. Growing up playing on farms and backwoods around southern Ontario; I currently reside with my partner and rescued "wolf" in rural Eastern ON Canada. I work across Canada. Actively engaged in exploring emerging performance practice and theory, I was an assistant curator of the 2011 Canadian Exhibition for the Prague Quadrennial of Space and Design (Czech Republic) and continue research into emergent design practice and technique. Once a member of the Young Centre's emerging artist program, I hold a BFA Honours from Ryerson University and participated in intensive master classes with Universitat Weimar / Theatre Bauhaus (Berlin), OWOW Project (Poland), and Rimini Protokoll (Berlin). Current research hopes to answer the question: Can we define performance space in an unstable or degenerative organic world? I have been invested in understanding erosion on performance and tradition, how our environments affect the way we share stories. This research is ongoing. Joe is an instructional designer and adjunct faculty at Theatre Production @ DAN School of Drama and Music, Queen's University.
COVID 19 UPDATE! Joe Pagnan and creatives endeavour to make your workplace safe! We have adopted work from home initiatives to create design, our practice has open to include Photography, Game Illustrating and TTRPG: new performance/interactive world building and game management! We bring people together across pixel and sound with immersive collective storytelling events focussed on design and engagement. This is being developed alongside Still Life: Commodifying Erosion.
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Our current project: ARIA is concerned with Augmented Reality for Immersive Accessibility. This project is generously supported by the Government of Canada.
Please click through the images below, or the drop down portfolio menu to see more in depth descriptions of the design theses for each project, and more detailed photography; as well as access my curriculum vitae.
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02 portfolio
03 Collaborations
Select past collaborations include:
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Theatre & Dance: Globe Theatre, Tarragon Theatre, Theatre Sheridan, Pearle Harbour Presents, Talk is Free Theatre, Birdland, Citadel + Compagnie, Buddies in Bad Times, Lemontree, Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre, World Pride Organization, Magnus Theatre, Theatre by the Bay, Suburban Beast and Canadian Stage Company.
Exhibitions: Art Gallery of Ontario, Casa Loma, L Space, Small Arms Arts Building, Nuit Blanche, Prague Quadrennial (assistant curator, 2011).
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Corporate Design: Secret City Adventures, Hard Rock Café (Toronto)
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Educational: Humber College, Sheridan College, Ryerson University, TIFT Youth Mentorship, Arts Live!, Arts N Fusion.
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