Doubleness on the New York Contemporary Experimental Stage: Bodies and Technology (original) (raw)
Related papers
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.
Critical Techno-dramaturgy: Mobilizing Embodied Perception in Intermedial Performance
2016
This dissertation attends to the ways in which the deployment of technological devices in twentyfirst-century intermedial performance might influence the audience members' perception of the relationship between humans and technology. Drawing upon the work of scholars in the fields of new media, performance studies, and the philosophy of technology, I argue that intermedial performance artists reinvigorate the role of the human body in performance by mobilizing embodiment as a techno-dramaturgical strategy for shaping the audience members' perception of human-machine interaction. Chapter One surveys the history of performance and technology from the ancient Greek theatre to twentieth-century performance, with particular emphasis on the conceptual significance of techne and poiesis in dramatic theatre. Chapter Two examines the theories of intermediality in performance as well as the co-evolutionary relationship between human beings and technicity in order to delineate the analytical and dramaturgical potential of an original conceptual framework known as critical techno-dramaturgy. Chapter Three explores the interplay between embodiment, technology, and space in intermedial performance and its effects on the audience members' awareness of their embodied existence as they navigate the cityscape with bicycles, handheld computers, and mobile phones. Chapter Four investigates the intersection of performance and techno-anxiety by looking at how intelligent machines that appear to perform autonomously might affect the audience members' perception of these anthropomorphic technological agents in relation to their own bodies. Chapter Five examines how the construction of the "cyborg" as both a conceptual metaphor for and a material instantiation of human-machine "fusion" could impact the prosthetic relations between persons with disabilities and the technological devices that they employ in intermedial performance. Finally, Chapter Six looks at my involvement in the production of an original creative project that uses critical technodramaturgy as a strategy for shaping the audience members' perception of the complicity between digital media (particularly video technology) and the mediation of death. ! "#! ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Any major project that takes a few years to complete would require a great deal of dedication and perseverance on the part of the person who is pursuing it. This dissertation is in no way the result of a solitary effort, but that of a collaborative relationship with brilliant mentors who have supported me throughout this intellectual journey. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the following individuals and organizations for their assistance and encouragement over the past four years. First, I would like to thank the University of Waterloo's Department of English Language and Literature. It is a privilege to be in the company of an exceptional group of faculty and students who are not afraid to push the boundaries of critical inquiry and knowledge creation in the humanities. I owe a debt of gratitude to Fraser Easton, the previous chair of the department, for supporting my academic pursuits at every step of the way. My gratitude also extends to Aimée Morrison and Randy Harris, who, as graduate chairs, provided much motivation and care for my wellbeing. And many thanks to Julie-Anne Desrochers, Margaret Ulbrick, and Mélanie LaFrance for all the help and assistance that they have offered me through the years. Indeed, this dissertation couldn't have come to fruition without the kindness and generosity of Andy Houston from the Department of Drama and Speech Communications. Andy has been an amazing teacher and friend to me. He had invited me to join the creative team for the production of From Solitary to Solidarity (S2S), and this performance has since become the focus of the final chapter in my dissertation. Although I was an external collaborator on the production, Andy made sure that I felt right at home with the team members during rehearsals. I am truly grateful for the opportunity to work with him and his talented team at the Drama department. I am also extremely thankful for the thought-provoking questions and insightful comments that my external examiners, Bruce Barton and Jennifer Roberts-Smith, had raised during the defence. Both have provided me with interesting ideas to think about for any future ! #! project that I may intend to pursue. A special note of thanks goes out to my committee members, Beth Coleman and Jay Dolmage, for their feedback on the chapters of my project. Beth's study of avatars in digital networks and Jay's work on prostheses and the embodied rhetoric of disability have inspired and informed the topics that I have explored in this dissertation. I have been very fortunate to have the both of them on my committee. I would like to express my most sincere gratitude to my supervisor, Marcel O'Gorman, who has been a great mentor and a wonderful friend to me. Through his critical approach to the study of media as well as his creative teaching methods, he has introduced me to a fascinating range of ideas espoused by such innovative thinkers as N. Katherine Hayles, Ernest Becker, Bernard Stiegler, and David Wills. As the director of the Critical Media Lab, he has provided a collegial environment for my colleagues and I to work on digital media projects that examine human-machine interaction. Marcel's commitment to his students' development is highly admirable, and I have been a beneficiary of his steady guidance. I can't thank him enough for the valuable feedback and unwavering support that he has offered me throughout the writing process, and I hope to emulate his assiduous dedication to scholarship and teaching in my own career. But this journey wouldn't have taken flight if not for the love and support of my family. Many thanks to my brother, Nigel, for helping me to stay positive and focused as I worked on this project. No matter the time of day, you have always been willing to provide a listening ear. Thanks especially to my parents for encouraging me to do the things for which I have the greatest passion. The both of you have taught me the importance of asking good questions about the world. Through you, I have learned how to dream, and for that, I am forever grateful. And then there is Suzanne, my best friend and life partner. Words can never fully express my appreciation for the love, kindness, and encouragement that you have so generously offered during this process. You have been most patient with me, even when I am busy working away on the computer for hours on end. This entire endeavour wouldn't have been possible without you, and I thank the Almighty for bringing you into my life.
2009
Is an actor performing live if that actor is out of sight in the wings and appears on stage as a computer-mediated representation? Is co-presence with such a mediated embodiment problematic for the performer? This project seeks to explore the use of digital media elements, from the perspective of the actor, in the collaborative process of devising, designing, rehearsing and performing a Shakespearian theatre production. It raises issues of the creative possibilities that applications of new technologies afford and of a changing perception of the nature of liveness. Can digital media techniques usefully enhance the liveness of performance and extend the audience’s experience of the production? Specifically, can it augment their perception of themselves, mirrored on stage? Exploring the usefulness of digital media techniques takes a theatre practitioner into the intermedial, liminal spaces where the two fields converge. These are spaces of possibility where new ways of working might emerge. This thesis is presented primarily as an experimental performance and is contextualised by this exegesis with its written and DVD components.
Editorial Comment: Digital Media and Performance, Theatre Journal 61.4 (2009): 1-3
As Steve Dixon has observed in his influential book Digital Performance, 1 which is cited frequently in this issue of Theatre Journal, the 1990s represented a high-water mark in digital performance. That decade saw an explosion of innovation and euphoria surrounding the use of digital technologies-video projections, MIDI-triggered images and audio, sensors, telematics-in live performance events and performative installation art.
The bond between live art actions and a deeply mediatised society (p.30-33)
Intersections, 2020
This essay takes as its anchor my third research project Sky-field as an example of mediatised live art action. I would like to argue that the division between mediatised and live experience cannot be affronted in base of the deployment of the medium as such. Mediatisation is a relatively new term that refers to the deployment of media with technological timbre into live experience. In order to support my position, I will make a brief excursus on concepts around performativity with reference to P. Auslander, P. Zarilli and W. Benjamin among others. The aim is to unravel and offer a map of the debate around the issue of mediatisation and liveness.
Body As Medium. Between Theory and Technology of Theater
archée revue d'art en ligne : arts médiatiques & cyberculture, 2018
We present the theoretical approach to the problems of body and technology in stage performance. The starting point is the status of the categories such as presence, ephemerality, immediacy of the (theatre) performance radically undermined in the texts of performance studies scholars such as Rebecca Schneider, Amelia Jones or Philip Auslander. Utilizing examples of performances from young Polish theatre: Krzysztof Garbaczewski (b.1983) and Radosław Rychcik (b.1981), we juxtapose two functioning models of body-technology relation on stage. The first one – represented by Garbaczewski – is based on understanding the body as always mediated. It multiplies (undermines) the body’s presence by use of audiovisual means. The second one – Rychcik’s case – is to push the theatrical presence of the body to the absolute maximum. In this case an audiovisual layer is used to build a strong opposition to the actor’s stage presence. The two examples are used to propose new theoretical approaches. We would like to show that such stage phenomena are not only the sign of a changing technological reality, but are also important theoretical input in the understanding of theatre itself. We posit that every single body on stage (no matter if consciously, as in Garbaczewski’s case, or unconsciously, as in Rychcik’s case) is already mediated, and the use of technological tools is a way to play with this specific aspect of theatre’s corporeality. This broader perspective also incorporate elements of the political dimension of annexing media-mediated and media-manipulated corporeality, for it follow the apparently transparent and natural dimension of such actions, whereby once again, as postulated by Jacques Rancière it turn aesthetic considerations into political considerations.
Body as Medium. Between Theory and Technology of Theatre
Our speech will present the theoretical approach to the problems of body and technology in stage performance. The starting point will be status of the categories such as presence, ephemerality, immediacy of the (theatre) performance radically undermined in the texts of performance studies scholars such as Rebecca Schneider, Amelia Jones or Philip Auslander. Utilizing examples of performances from young Polish theatre: Krzysztof Garbaczewski (b.1983) and Radosław Rychcik (b.1981), we would like to juxtapose two of functioning models of body-technology relation on stage. The first one – represented by Garbaczewski – is based on understanding of the body as always mediated. It multiplies (undermines) body’s presence by use of audiovisual means. The second one – Rychcik’s case – is to push the theatrical presence of the body to absolute maximum. In this case audiovisual layer is used to build a strong opposition to the actor’s stage presence. The two examples will be used to propose new theoretical approach. We would like to show that such stage phenomena are not only the sign of the (technological) reality changing but also a very important, theoretical input in the understanding of the theatre as such. We will state that every single body on stage (no matter if consciously like in Garbaczewski’s case, or unconsciously like in the Rychcik’s case) is already mediated and the use of technological tools is a way to play with this specific character of theatre corporeality. This broader perspective will also incorporate elements of the political dimension of annexing media-mediated and media-manipulated corporeality, for it will follow the apparently transparent and natural dimension of such actions, whereby once again it will turn, as postulated by Jacques Rancière, aesthetic considerations into political considerations, which would be the speech final point.
The Impact of Digital Media on Contemporary Performance
This thesis investigates artworks born at the convergence of digital media and contemporary performance, and the ways in which technology impacts the field of performance. The term digital media refers to technology that produces digitised (as opposed to analogue) content such as text, audio, video, graphics and metadata. Contemporary performance refers to artworks that combine different artistic traditions—experimental theatre and dance, video art, visual art, music composition and performance art—in a single performance event. The convergence of these two fields has produced a significant body of technological works of art that challenge and reconfigure traditional conventions in contemporary performance. This thesis examines the impact of digital media on the ways performance is created, received and experienced, and the extent to which media open up new possibilities for creative expression and may generate new art forms. I mapped the field by defining three large categories that mark the heterogeneous landscape of technologically enhanced performances today, namely multimedia theatre, telematic performance and pervasive performance. Methodologically, I combined hermeneutic methods of interpretation and reflection with academic forms of practical inquiry, combining textual analysis of relevant works from each of the three categories—such as Ghost Road (Murgia and Pauwels 2012), make-shift (Jamieson and Crutchlow 2010) and Rider Spoke (Blast Theory 2007)—with the practical development and analysis of a pervasive performance experiment titled Chain Reaction (Pérez 2009 and 2011). Theoretically, the project is interdisciplinary, bringing together performance theory, digital media studies, experimental game scholarship and experiential art documentation. In discussing the ways in which digital media impact contemporary performance, I identify a number of traditional conventions in the field of theatre and performance that are currently being challenged. These are in the areas of audience participation, use of space, actor role, rehearsal and staging, and performance documentation. Central arguments in the thesis are, on the one hand, that researchers, critics and practitioners must look beyond the visionary expressions of aesthetic potential in order to grasp the real state of technologically enhanced art forms. On the on the other hand, it is only by considering both, the horizon-pushing high-tech along with the purpose-orientated low-tech, that a more grounded understanding of the present impact of developing technology on art culture can and should be reached.
Digital cultures are performative cultures. This assumption is illustrated by the ubiquitous and invisible infrastructures that constitute them, which are interstratified by so-called ‘smart things’, creating a socio-technical environment, in which performances of the technological come about. The digital performs, the human reacts to the agency the technologies suggest, and vice versa: “Performing (the) Digital”. There is a considerable genealogical background to this assumption, which needs to be reconstructed. It is founded within a ‘discourse history of performativity’, which has been taking place across scientific disciplines concerning technology and the humanities since the 1950s. How then can performative methods engage with these cultures on a critical level? Methods and epistemology of socalled artistic research may hold an answer to this question.