0.
guide 1.
introduction 2.
method as field of discussion
3. practice
4. theory
5. conclusion and further discussions
| 3.
practice |
3.1 what is multimedia performance? Artistic context, “performance” and contemporary perspectives on multimedia performance. 3.1.1 Technology as performance-technique 3.1.2 Technology as integral component of the artistic process The artistic practice of applying technology within a performance setting as an integral component of the artistic process can be traced back to the 1960s (Dinkla et al.2002). However, the whole question of how we experience multimedia performances remains largely unexplored in dance and performance theory according to performance and media choreographer Johannes Birringer in Media and Performance (1998:71). He considers this as rather surprising in the light of the attention given to multimedia performance collaborations, referring to influential works such as Robert Wilson and Philip Glass Einstein on the Beach (1974) Why this lack of analytic interest towards such an extensive, and growing, field of artistic expression? An explanation of the discrepancy between the vast attention given to multimedia-performances and the lack of studies examining them, might be a matter of delay between the phenomenon multimedia performance and the theoretical frameworks and terms applied to describe performing arts. “Performance” In Coming to Terms. : The Rhetoric of Narrative in Fiction and Film (1999), Seymour Chatman suggests that every discipline needs a critical re-reading or evaluation of its terms from time to time: “For terms are not mere tags: they represent – in some sense, even constitute – a theory” (1990:1). Such lack of dynamic between evolving disciplines and disciplinary terms might be located within performance-studies, that is, how the term “performance” is applied to cover an art-form in constant development. The term performance is complex and tricky. Diverse understandings of this term exist even within the frames of artistic practice. Performance is defined as something opposite theatre or dance, at the same time as these are all defined as performing arts. According to RoseLee Goldberg, establishing a strong tradition and widely accepted understanding of how to approach performance among artists and theoreticians alike with Performance: Live Art 1909 to the Present (1979), performance “defies precise or easy definition beyond the simple declaration that it is live art by artists” (Goldberg (1979, 1988) according to Carlson 1996:79). In Chatman”s terms, “live art” or the liveness of performance art might be said to constitute notions of performance in performance theory. Performance is understood as live performance, or as formulated by Peggy Phelan, “representation without reproduction” (Phelan according to Auslander 1997:pdf). Such perception of performance have an impact on how new expressions like multimedia performance are understood. In "Making Distinctions Between the Live and the Mediatised", Auslander points precisely to how “there remains a strong tendency in performance theory to place live performance and mediatised forms in opposition to one another” despite the substantial interest in thinking about the ways in which performance can interact with media and information technologies. Live performances are being valued as representation without reproduction and distribution in contrast to “its insidious Other” (i.e. digital media identified with mass-audience, reproduction and repetition) (Auslander 1997) [35. ontological oppositions]. To critically revisit terms from time to time in order to prevent conceptual misrepresentation might be particularly important when confronted with novel digital media forms. As I will return to in section 4.2 “The novelty and distinctiveness of digital media forms”, digitalisation may represent a break with traditions in varieties of ways. Disciplines within the humanities field may need to revisit not only their theoretical frameworks and terms, but also their methods. To recapitulate the contextualisation of multimedia performance thus far: Digital technology within performance contexts might be considered as any other development of performing techniques, or as part of a growing tradition dating back to the 1960s as integral component of the artistic process. I have suggested an explanation why this integration remains largely unexplored in dance and performance theory. The term performance is being stuck to represent “live art by artists” or “representation without reproduction”, which may be a matter of misrepresentation when confronted with new expressive forms like multimedia performance. This delayed notion of performance has been challenged, however (e.g. Auslander 1997), and multimedia performance as a theoretical field has developed, if somewhat modestly, since Birringer made his statement of how multimedia performances remains largely unexplored in dance and performance theory. The following section will cover briefly significant and contemporary examples of the growing, theoretical field of multimedia performance confronted with digital media from both the production and analytical side. Apart from my reference to Auslander and Causey from performance studies, these are all practice-based initiatives. 3.1.3 Refined theory of Multimedia Performance |
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3.3 the pieces |
3.4 recap chapter3 |
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Practice-based Method. Exploring Digital Media through
the Dynamics of Practice, Theory, and Collaborative, Multimedia Performance
Hovedoppgave i mediavitenskap for cand.filol
graden, Universitetet i Oslo, Institutt for medier og kommunikasjon, Mai
2006, Idunn Sem
