You fight! Digital swarms, gaze and presence in Kokoschka revival's multimedia theater performance (original) (raw)
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Skenè. Journal of Theatre and Drama Studies, 2021
As digital design increasingly inscribes its own narrative from the outset of the rehearsal process, twenty-first century theatre artists and audiences are becoming more and more accustomed to porous dramaturgies, influenced by information technologies and digital articulations. This article explores the use of technology in contemporary performance by interrogating the diverse functions of the multimedia element by touching on a number of theoretical and practice-related issues: How has technology affected performance both in terms of creative strategies and audience experience? What are some of the pleasures and dangers involved in the omni-presence of the media in today’s theatre landscape? How has digital articulation enhanced, ironized or redefined structure and characterization? Under what conditions can the encounter of corporeal presence with an electronically interceded image provide meaningful experiences for the audience? Bringing in examples from different multimedia productions, I will try to illustrate a work method of compositional dramaturgy, where the philosophy that structures the mise-en-scène draws from the visual as well as ontological collision between the live and the mediated.
Mediated Presence: Performance Art and Technology
2013
“The whole tendency of modern communication whether in the press, in advertising or in the high arts is towards participation in a process, rather than the apprehension of concepts. And this major revolution, intimately linked to technology, is one whose consequences have not begun to be studied although they have begun to be felt." Recalling McLuhan’s words, this paper is an attempt to study the effects and consequences of technology and how it allowed performance artists greater flexibility in experimenting with space, time and representation, engaging in a social and institutional critique. The pertinent questions here are: how are performance artists reflecting upon our social and political structures today, and what would the role of technology be in such critique? If performance art, which is a time-based art that emphasizes interaction between artist and audience, is still concerned with keeping ‘art’ close to people, it will need to take into account the new spaces and times engendered by technology. Furthermore, it will need to devise its own space and time, fashioning its own modes engagement and perception, by questioning how the artist can still be present today in a world where we interact with screens more than people, where we broadcast our lives instead of living them.
The Construction of Presence and the Multimediatic Stage: hegemony of an immanent presence
Ju a r e z Nu ne s ; St e ph a n B a u m g a r t e l-T he C on s t r u c t ion of Pr e s e nc e a n d t h e Mu lt i m e d i a t i c S t a g e : h e g e m o n y o f a n i m m a n e nt p r e s e n c e Rev. Bras. Estud. Presença, Porto Alegre, v. 5, n. 3, p. 640-661, Sept./Dec. 2015. A v a i l a b l e a t : < h t t p : / / w w w. s e e r. u f r g s. b r / p r e s e n c a > ABSTRACT – The Construction of Presence and the Multimidiatic Stage: hegemony of an immanent presence – In this work, we depart from the understanding that the co-presence of performers and spectators in contemporary theatre articulates itself through a focus on fiction and one that emphasizes the sensorial perception and concrete interaction. Based on a discussion of the problem of expression in Deleuze/Spinoza and on the critique of the production of meaning in Gumbrecht, we name these two modes of presence respectively emanative presence and immanent presence, with the latter becoming hegemonic in contemporary theatre. We aim to reflect on how a multimedia device, with its possibilities of intermediality, may impact on the interaction between immanence and transcendence. Keywords: Emanative Presence. Immanent Presence. Theatrical Performativity. Multimidiality. Contemporary Theatre. RÉSUMÉ – La Production de Présence et le Théâtre Multimédia: l'hégémonie d'une présence immanente – Dans ce travail, nous partons de la compréhension que la coprésence des artistes et des spectateurs dans la scène contemporaine s'articule autour de deux axes: un sur la fiction et un autre qui met l'accent sur la perception et l'interaction concrète. Ayant pour bases la discussion du problème de l'expression chez Deleuze/Spinoza et la critique à la production du sens chez Gumbrecht, nous désignons deux modes de présence : présence d'émanation et présence immanente, ce dernier devenant hégémonique dans le théâtre contemporain. Notre objectif est de réfléchir comment un dispositif multimédia, avec ses possibilités de médiation, peut-il avoir un impact sur ce jeu de l'immanence et de la transcendance. Mots-clés: Présence d'Émanation. Présence Immanente. Performativité Théâtrale. Multimédia. Théâtre Contemporain. RESUMO – A Construção de Presença e a Cena Teatral Multimidiática: a hegemonia de uma presença imanente – Neste ensaio, parte-se da compreensão de que a copresença de artistas e espectadores na cena contemporânea articula-se por meio de um foco na ficção e outro que privilegia a percepção e a interação concreta. Com base na discussão do problema da expressão em Deleuze/Espinosa e na crítica à produção de sentido em Gumbrecht, são designados dois modos de presença: presença emanativa e presença imanente, sendo que a última se torna hegemônica no teatro contemporâneo. Objetiva-se refletir como um dispositivo multimidiático, com as possibilidades de uma intermidialidade, impacta nesse jogo de imanência e transcendência. Palavras-chave: Presença Emanativa. Presença Imanente. Performatividade Teatral. Multimidialidade. Teatro Contemporâneo.
The Changing Position of the Theatergoer in the Changing Space of Online Performances
Zeszyty Prasoznawcze
During the last year we all were banned to participate in our everyday life using online transmission, homework, homeschool and different digital tools. But with all this we also gained access to cultural or other practices that previously were not part in our everyday life. That resulted in a detailed spectrum of participation from the form of listening-observing to the different levels of giving feedback and taking control (for example putting questions to the other participants or to the crew, taking part in the discussion, pausing or leaving an event). This paper investigates the possibilities of agency given to the participants by the online theater. It starts from personal experiences, but ends in questions regarding the medial nature of this new transmission form: to what extent should digitally transmitted performances, shows be considered theater? And if they are not theater, what are they?
Views on Absence/Presence: Theater and Technology
Proposals for a conversation Transformations regarding the issue of absence / presence, now a common concern on the contemporary stage, have their possible antecedents in the sociocul-tural turn occurring during the twentieth century, with global effects. The emergence of new media alters the positioning of the subject and his or her perception as an individual and social member of a collectivity, bringing about shifts in aesthetic perception, both for those who see a production as for those who produce it. Thus, nowadays, one experiences a reversal of roles: the spectator has become increasingly active, becoming part of the work, and being able to transform it. If the spectator is increasingly present in the game the artist proposes, the latter has sought by his absence his own mode of acting. The manipulation/use/production of technological devices offers multiple games, or forms of play that can give rise to ludic experiences or suggest other issues not yet experienced. The incor...
The Technological Gaze: How we see audiences, and the unmodern sublime
2019
In addressing the question of how we think and model the participant, user or audience for interactive systems, we initiate an interrogation of who we think we are, and what we think technology is in relation to who we think we are. Futureproofing innovation in design thinking must involve serious thought about conceptual models for how we see ourselves as makers and audiences, since they precede design solutions. Here, lessons and transferable insights from live performance and experience design can inform design thinking in digital materialities. This paper will explore the nature and direction of the technological gaze on audiences or human system users and interrogate its influence on design. Subsequently, it introduces observations from live event design that modifies techne with metis to invite the sublime as an integral part of immersive experience. CCS CONCEPTS • Human-centered computing ~ Interaction design theory, concepts and paradigms • Social and professional topics ~ Cultural characteristics
Dramaturgy of Digital Experience
In early 2012, Nielson announced its latest label for persons aged 18-34: “Generation C,” for “Connected.” Social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter have revolutionized how we converse, consume, play, and protest. Mobile devices allow us to carry the Internet with us wherever we go, which provides us with instantaneous connectivity to personal or professional networks and endless sources of information that influence our everyday realities. Media forms overlap and converge and digital media surround us almost every waking hour. “Digital experience,” as a title for this paper, can include almost any social activity, from the most obviously digital—such as immersive virtual worlds where people interact with others in avatar forms, to less obvious everyday moments, like riding on a bus full of people tethered to their (our) mobile phones, individually connected to immense global networks, perhaps blithe to the one in which they’re physically located, or as Sherry Turkle recently writes, “alone together.” Through convergence, mobility, and always-on patterns of use, ‘digital’ frames for experience grow more transparent and ever more powerful mediators of everyday life. What challenge does this pose for a dramaturgic perspective? What differentiates digital or Internet-mediated contexts from other earlier mediating technologies, such as language, writing, and electronic media such as telephones, radios, televisions and fax machines? What’s different about how we conceptualize and experience self, identity, and social experience, given the ubiquity of digital media in our everyday lives? The strength of the dramaturgic approach is that it focuses on how meaning is constructed interactively. Theoretically, the framework is well suited to grapple with the intricate overlapping layers of action that comprise digital contexts. Methodologically, dramaturgic approaches are challenged to grapple with unprecedented layers and flows of global, networked information, which complicate research practices that were developed for and remain entrenched in the study of traditional, physically situated social environments. In this paper, I address some of these challenges and questions: First, I outline key characteristics of digital interaction to illustrate how these influence presence, self-presentation, and sociality. I argue that digital media heighten dramaturgical awareness because of the need to deliberately write self into being, an activity that requires both technical skills and reflexivity about what is required to enact embodiment. Second, I discuss how certain unique aspects of virtual and networked practice complicate and blur conventional dramaturgic categories such as the individual, the interaction, and the situation. I suggest that that these shifts in everyday enactments pose significant methodological challenges to the researcher. Finally, I conclude by discussing the importance of continuing to develop creative and innovative research practices that resonate with contemporary networked social contexts.
Presence as Performance the mystique of digital participation
Elsewhere, we have discussed perceptually-seductive technology -interactive media designed to engage relatively direct perception rather than thoughtful reflection . Our Focus, Locus and Sensus (FLS) model of experience suggests that digital media that have this effect also generate a strong sense of presence . At Presence 2001 we described experimental results providing some confirmation of this idea, based on an interactive production called The Illusion of Being (Waterworth et al., 2001). In the present paper, we describe the use of interactive technology to seduce people to become performersnot mere "audience participation" but more "participation mystique" . Our suggestion is that we can understand and maximise social presence in virtual environments in this way. Further, we suggest that viewing presence as the result of participation removes the distinction between social and individual presence.