[1] In the contemporary English usage, scenography can be defined as the combination of technological and material stagecrafts to represent, enact, and produce a sense of place in performance.
The Galli da Bibiena family was a pedigree of scenographic artistry that emerged in late-seventeenth-century Bologna, but spread throughout northern Italy to Austria and Germany.
[4] While also aligned with the professional practice of the scenographer, it is important[citation needed] to distinguish the individual elements that comprise the 'design' of a performance event (such as light, environment, costume, etc.)
The practice of scenography is thereby a holistic approach to the composition of performance and can be applied to the design or curation of events within, and outside of, the conventional theatre environment.
This could be the role of directed sound systems in cultivating a feeling of isolation; the usage of a tightly focused lantern to re-orientate the spatial dimensions of a place; the scent of an old well-worn desk; along with how costumes mould relations between bodies and stage environments.
Hann summarises this position by using the hybrid 'stage-scene' when discussing the tensions between the histories of these practices, particularly with reference to original Greek skene as a physical tent or hut that ultimately shaped current conceptualizations of 'the stage'.