Reproductie van een plattegrond van de begane grond van het Eden-theater in Wenen door W. Kuhnen before 1893

Curator: Well, isn’t that… orderly? All right angles and neat little boxes. Editor: Indeed! What we have here is a reproduction of a ground plan of the Eden Theatre in Vienna. The work by Römmler & Jonas dates to before 1893. Note the meticulous detailing in this architectural drawing done on paper. Curator: It feels very sterile, almost clinical. You'd never guess that this grid system leads to a space buzzing with art, music, and raw emotion. I see this maze of corridors, these antechambers, as barriers… Editor: Barriers perhaps, but also articulations. The grid organizes the flow. I’m struck by how the axial symmetry emphasizes progression. You have the main entrance moving toward the stage with increasing layers of intimacy. Consider how this plan also symbolizes control—ordering not only space but the experiences within it. The semiotics here point towards controlled theatrical viewing. Curator: Controlled experience? Maybe. I like to imagine the opposite—chaos unleashed by the performance. But I do admit, the further you are away from the stage the more it’s contained again. Editor: Look closely, and you begin to realize how those hard lines imply something intangible—a whole performance captured within a plan, hinting towards how design imposes limitations on behavior in space. You get these zones – almost akin to rules in drama theory - that dictate plotlines or stage setting. This makes it easier for me imagine movement from scene change to the play coming into view - or the beginning and end. Curator: Well, for me, it’s almost like the memory of the space – like a faded theatre ghost map made with aged paper instead of dust – capturing impressions. A lovely ghostly impression that shows what could exist at one point, and what has now ceased to be, as if to contain what the building once encompassed and lost overtime: Art. Editor: An insightful reading, taking this drawing from plan to poetry. This gives more for which to consider.