📚 Artificial Things — 6a.6
Set Design & Props
Designed by Anna Jones · What is set · What is a prop · What it means
📚 What you'll learn on this page
- Know the difference between set design and props — and why it matters in the exam
- Describe the floor, backcloth, staging and props of Scene Three accurately
- Link each element to the stimulus, intent and mood
- Form your own interpretations of individual set pieces
6a.6.1 Description
🎨
Designer: Anna Jones
Anna Jones designed both the set and the costumes for Artificial Things. This is why the same paint effect appears on the backcloth and on the dancers' clothes — they are part of a single visual world.
⚠️ Exam key distinction — know this
🎭 Set Design
Fixed elements that create the physical environment of the performance. They do not move and are not directly used by performers as handheld items.
In Artificial Things: Stage floor (grey + wooden border) · Painted backcloth
📦 Props
Objects placed on stage or used by performers during the dance. They can be moved, interacted with, or become part of the choreography.
In Artificial Things: Wheelchair · Paper snow · Vitrine · Stools · Headless mannequin
Why does this matter in the exam?
The AQA mark scheme distinguishes between questions about "set design" and questions about "properties (props)". If you are asked about set design and only describe props, you will not access the highest marks. Equally, if asked about props, the floor and backcloth alone will not be enough.
🗺️ Stage Diagram — Overhead View (Scene Three)
Set Design
Stage Floor
Pale grey with a wide wooden border around the entire stage. The border frames the space exactly like the edge of a snow globe — or a picture frame — trapping the characters within.
Set Design
Painted Backcloth
Pale with washed-out, dripping vertical stripes in blue, green, grey and white — inspired by Djurovic's paintings. The same paint effect as the costumes, creating visual unity.
Staging (Upstage Left)
The USL Feature — Vitrine, Stools & Mannequin
Upstage left, there is a glass display cabinet (vitrine) lying on its side, filled with paper snow. In front of it stand three brown stools — the outer two shorter, the middle one taller. On the middle stool sits a headless mannequin dressed in a brown suit and shoes.
Props — Items Used by the Dancers
Laura's wheelchair — starts collapsed and dismantled on its side at DSR, directly recreating the stimulus image. The dancers reassemble it during Scene Three. It becomes a platform, partner and prop throughout the scene.
Paper snow — trails from DSR to USL across the stage floor. It moves and flows with the dancers, creating footsteps and pathways. The sound of the dancers moving through it (crunching) complements the wind aural setting.
Stools and vitrine — in the Family Portraits section, all four dancers use them: David on a chair, Dave on the vitrine, Amy on a stool, and Laura in her wheelchair. The stools and cabinet transition from set dressing to active props when the dancers use them.
Headless mannequin — seated on the middle (taller) stool in a brown suit and shoes. It does not move — it watches. The absence of a head is central to its impact: it suggests incompleteness, a figure from the past, something missing.
The paint effect links set, costume and stimulus
The vertical paint streaks on the backcloth are the same effect as those on the costumes. This visual unity was deliberate — Anna Jones designed both. It also links directly to Djurovic's paintings (Stimulus 2), creating the sense that the entire world of the piece has been painted by the same hand.
6a.6.2 Appreciation — DLIE Builder
6-mark question
Needs D + L only — facts, no opinion required.
12-mark question
Needs D + L + I + E to reach the top mark bands.
D
L
I
E
✓
D
Describe — what can you see?
Facts only. Name, position, appearance. No opinions here.
What a Describe point does: Names specific features and describes their appearance, colours and position on stage. Uses precise vocabulary: "upstage left", "pale grey", "proscenium arch". Contains no opinion words — it is purely factual.
Which of these is the best Describe point for the set of Artificial Things?
Model Describe point
"The set is designed by Anna Jones for a proscenium arch theatre. The pale grey stage floor has a wide wooden border around its entire edge. The backcloth features pale, dripping vertical streaks of blue, green and white. Upstage left, a glass vitrine lies on its side filled with paper snow; three brown stools stand in front, and a headless mannequin in a brown suit sits on the taller middle one. Paper snow trails diagonally from downstage right to upstage left."
6a.6.3 💜 What Atmosphere Does the Set Create for You?
💜 Your Personal Response
These prompts ask about the overall feeling the set gives you — as an audience member entering and watching Scene Three.
Prompt 1 — First impressions
Imagine entering the theatre and seeing this set for the first time before the dancers appear. The grey floor, the wooden border, the paper snow, the backcloth, the vitrine. What do you feel? What world does this suggest?
Prompt 2 — Coldness and isolation
The lesson asks: "What would you feel like trapped inside a snow globe?" How does the wooden border — framing the entire stage like the glass of a snow globe — affect your experience as an audience member?
Prompt 3 — Spareness
The set is deliberately minimal. Does the sparseness feel right for this work, or would you want more? How does having so little on stage affect where your attention goes?
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6a.6.4 💜 What Do Individual Set Pieces Suggest to You?
💜 More Than One Way of Seeing
Strong answers explore multiple interpretations. Tap each to read different readings — then form your own view.
🖼️ The wooden border / frame
AThe snow globe — characters trapped within it
The wooden border recreates the glass rim of a snow globe, directly from Stimulus 1. The characters cannot escape the frame — they move within it, just as the isolated figure in the stimulus is confined within the globe.
BA picture frame — they are subjects of a painting
Linking to the Djurovic paintings (Stimulus 2), the wooden frame could suggest the characters are like figures in a painting — observed, static, fixed in time. This connects to the intent of being the subject of the gaze of 'the other'.
CA stage within a stage — constriction made visible
The wooden border creates a stage within the proscenium stage — a world within a world. The characters are doubly confined: within the theatre and within the frame. This could suggest that life's limitations are inescapable layers, one inside another.
🧍 The headless mannequin
ADave's father — a figure from the past
The mannequin wears a brown suit — like the jacket Dave puts on for his solo. This could suggest it represents his father: a figure from the past, incomplete (headless), frozen in time, waiting to be acknowledged in the tribute solo.
BA symbol of loss and incompleteness
The missing head could represent what is missing — identity, voice, presence. The headless mannequin could symbolise the incompleteness that comes with grief: the shell of a person, present but not fully there. This connects to the theme of regret.
🏺 The vitrine (glass display cabinet)
ABeing on display — the gaze of the other
A vitrine is a museum display case — it exists to be looked at. The dancers are inside a vitrine (the wooden border/snow globe), and behind them is another display case. They are objects on display, subject to the audience's gaze. This connects directly to the choreographic intent.
BA container of preserved memories
The vitrine, filled with paper snow, could suggest a vessel for preserved memories — like a snow globe itself. The snow inside is not falling; it has settled. This could represent memories that have crystallised, no longer moving, fixed in time.
❄️ The paper snow and its trails
AJourneys — pathways through life
The paper snow creates trails as the dancers move through it — footprints, pathways. This could suggest the journeys the characters have made to arrive at this moment of grief and resolution. Each pathway is unique; each character has their own story.
BThe artificial world — nothing is real
The snow is paper — artificial, constructed, not real snow at all. This could connect to the title: the world these characters inhabit is Artificial Things. The snow globe is a constructed, artificial version of winter. The limitations might also be artificial — invented, not fixed.
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📌 Revisit This — Key Points from This Page
Set designerAnna Jones — designed BOTH set and costumes (same paint effect)
Set designProscenium arch · Pale grey floor with wooden border · Painted backcloth (vertical blue/green/grey stripes)
PropsWheelchair (collapsed DSR) · Paper snow (trails DSR→USL) · Vitrine (USL, on side, filled with snow) · 3 stools · Headless mannequin (brown suit)
Wooden border linkCreates the shape of a snow globe — the characters are confined within it (Stimulus 1)
Vitrine linkDisplay cabinet = being on display = subject of the gaze of 'the other' (choreographic intent)
Headless mannequinCould represent Dave's father — incomplete, frozen in time. Wears the same style jacket as Dave in his solo.
6a.6.5 Revision Check
✍️ Revision Check
10 questions — including the set vs props distinction, links to stimulus/intent, and interpretation. Answer all ten, then submit.
1. What is the correct definition of a PROP in dance?
2. Which of the following is SET DESIGN (not a prop) in Artificial Things?
3. Who designed both the set and the costumes for Artificial Things?
4. Describe the stage floor of Scene Three.
5. Where is Laura's wheelchair positioned at the start of Scene Three?
6. How does the wooden border of the stage floor link to Stimulus 1?
7. What is a vitrine, and where is it positioned in Artificial Things?
8. How does the vitrine link to the choreographic intent?
9. What could the headless mannequin most convincingly represent in the context of the work?
10. The paper snow creates trails as the dancers move through it. What could this most effectively suggest?
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