PhD DISSERTATION Study of Robert Wilson’s Creative Process is a dissertation on director/visual artist Robert Wilson's work (Part 1), and creative process (Part 2) I Title: Estudio del proceso de creación en la obra de Robert Wilson I Language: Spanish I Author: Pedro Valiente I Director: José Ramón Pérez Ornia I Program: Audiovisual Creativity and Production, Audiovisual Communication and Publicity I University: Faculty of Information Sciences, Universidad Complutense de Madrid I Defense: December 2000. Mark: cum laude [sobresaliente cum laude por unanimidad] I Published: 2003 E-Prints, Universidad Complutense de Madrid. Available on academic sites I BOOK SERIES after PhD dissertation: Robert Wilson. Planetary Performing Arts (published), and Suspended Time Space. Robert Wilson’s Creative Process (upcoming).

ABSTRACT I “Study of Robert Wilson’s Creative Process presents an investigation into one of the most influential multidisciplinary creators in the performing arts at the end of the twentieth century. The first part, 'Robert Wilson and the Scenic Avant-Garde in the Context of Contemporary Art,' is a comparative study between Wilson and other creators and artistic movements. It also includes a breakdown of the fundamental traits of his theatrical, audiovisual, and visual work, along with a final essay framing his work within certain forms of ritual art. In the second part, 'Aesthetic Evolution of Robert Wilson through Death Destruction Detroit: 1979, 1987, 1999,' the focus is on the core of Wilson's style: the creative process, using different versions of a production as a reference, spanning the three decades in which Wilson has developed his work. Additionally, the text includes writings about Wilson and his main collaborators, a reference to the Spanish scenic avant-garde, and the catalog of his work.” I UCM

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Study of Robert Wilson's Creative Process

“Art can be heard in silence and felt in stillness. In his PhD dissertation, Pedro Valiente explores the creative world of Robert Wilson, a director who shaped time, space, and light into poetic structure. Part 01 places Wilson’s artwork within ritual, postdramatic aesthetics, and the visual arts, highlighting durational composition, sculptural light, and the suppression of narrative. Part 02 turns to Wilson’s creative process, with The Days Before DDDIII as its central case. Drawing on rehearsal notes, visual scores, and collaborations, Valiente reconstructs an oeuvre that privileges image over text, gesture over action, and sound as architecture. The result is a choreographic approach to perception that suspends time and reshapes how audiences experience space and story.

Valiente’s work traces Wilson’s distinctive universe, and proposes a methodology for understanding contemporary creation as a system of intermedial and temporal relationships. It contributes to performance studies and art research by combining analysis with practical insight, offering a rare internal view into Wilson’s thinking in images. Also, it contributes a vital model for studying visual dramaturgy in today’s interdisciplinary stage practice.” Site I E-Print I EXTERNAL REVIEW