Tools and Technology-iStopMotion
I have always been captivated by the pain staking process known as stop motion animation. Its incorporation in film and television, juxtapositioned by other live action, envelops the imagination and creates another depth of reality. With the advent of new digital media and highly sophisticated methods of computer animation, stop motion animation has decreased in use but is still emulated stylistically in some feature films, such as the Lego Movie(Tsai, 2014). As a fan, I have always wanted to test the waters of stop motion animation but with no training or tools, the task seemed very difficult.
A few years ago, I bought an inexpensive DSLR, and through fairly low tech means, I created a stop motion animation of a few paper puppets talking to each other. Without too much information (not like there is really much to it), I would take a picture, move the puppet a bit, and then take another picture. Several hundred pictures later, I import the pictures into the computer, load them in Windows Movie Maker, and stitch all the pictures together. All the while, I hoped that the pictures showed the slightest increment in movement so that there were not any jumps in action. Essentially, this was similar to the way that stop motion animation was done on film, but I was not seeing any benefit of modern technology.
A few years later, I purchased a newer model DSLR and I found a program that would advance my prowess of stop motion. iStopMotion is an animation software that allows so many allowances. There are many tools/features that it has but the most useful to me is that I can connect my camera to my computer and get a live view from my camera on my computer monitor. After I take a picture or record a frame of animation, a ghosted "live" image comes up on the screen so that I can make sure my movement for my puppets is appropriate. This onion skin effect allows me to "See what the animation is going to look like before you capture the frame" (Boinx, 2015) and enables my animation to be more error proof.
Additionally, I plan on using a few other tools as well. The Foregrounds Tool allows you to create an "overlay [for] your animation with a picture of video with transparency" (Boinx, 2015).
In working with the background, the Chroma Keying tool allows you to animate and place "[objects] into real background pictures or movies or put an actor into an animated scene" (Boinx, 2015). At the moment, I am not sure how I plan on using these features but I believe that their presence broadens my scope of possibilities.
Using this software allowed me to create this test animation that shows a platform going together. Incorporating stop motion animation into my project allows me the affordances that it does in cinema, creating things that are otherwise impossible/difficult to do otherwise. Because of the fact that I already put together most of my platforms prior to starting this project, I am using animation to show visually how the platform goes together, utilizing multiple learning styles.
Click here for my test with iStopMotion
Boinx iStopMotion: Mac Stop Motion and Time Lapse Software. (n.d.). Retrieved March 13, 2015, from http://boinx.com/istopmotion/mac/
Tsai, D. (2014, February 20). Here’s How the Animators Made The Lego Movie: Watch | TIME.com. Retrieved March 13, 2015, from http://entertainment.time.com/2014/02/20/how-the-lego-movie-was-made-animation-video/
Tuesday, March 31, 2015
Thursday, March 26, 2015
Script for Platforming
This is my script for the video about platforming. This is really the first part of a two part video because the next video will deal with how I made a thrust (platform extension of the stage) and put it up by myself. Look for the videos on YouTube coming soon.
Making and Putting up a Platform--The Easy Way
One of the most basic and useful set pieces you can make is a platform. A platform is a fixed walking surface that is made from standard, readily available materials. As a versatile piece, platforms can be used in a variety of ways and using them makes sets more interesting to look at because action could be happening at different levels. In addition to the visual appeal that this piece adds, using platforms increases the acting space and is an absolute necessity in some shows. In this video, I'll review the basics of making platforms and show some examples of how they're used in our production of In the Heights.
To start, platforms are typically made in a few standard sizes and doing this, makes them versatile to use. A platform, when made correctly and with quality materials should last you a long time and being able to put up a second level or raised walkway quickly definitely helps you in the construction process.
With that being said, most platforms that I make are usually 4 feet by 8 feet, 4 feet by 4 feet and 4 feet by 10 feet. Using these basic sizes makes it easy for me to make a variety of platform configurations at the blink of an eye. Or... maybe a few blinks of the eye. Whenever you have a good stock of platforms, it is easy to make a 4 foot by 16 foot platform by combining together two 4 by 8 sections.
So now that you know some sizes that they come in, we're going to move on to their anatomy and assembly. Each platform is made of three parts: a lid, a frame and the legs. The frame is the part that gives the platform its structure and is the part that the leg and lid attach to, the legs give the platform its height whatever you choose that to be, and the lid is the walking surface. If we want to make a 4'x8' platform that is three feet high, we need the following materials:
Materials:
2-8' pieces of 2x4 lumber
5-3'9" pieces of 2x4 lumber
6-3' pieces of 2x4 lumber
1-4'x8' piece of 3/4 plywood
20-3" drywall screws
12-1 5/8 drywall screws
12-3 1/2" carriage bolts (3/8" or 5/16" diameter bolt should be fine)
12-nuts
12-washers
Additionally, you should have the following tools to work with as well:
Tools Needed:
Circular saw or Compound Mitre Saw to cut down the 2x4s
Drill
Phillips Head Bit
Drill bit
Ratcheting Wrench
Socket for the nuts
What I like to do is lay out my materials in the way that they'll be assembled, so I would place the pieces of wood for the frame, which are two 8 foot pieces and the 5 3'9" pieces, which I'll call almost 4 foot pieces, like this.
Notice the spacing of the almost 4 foot pieces. I lay them out so that they are two feet apart on the 8 foot piece, so one is at the end, the next one is 2 feet in, the next at 4', the one after at 6' and the last at the other end. The remaining 8 foot piece gets attached in a similar way to the other 8' piece on the opposite side of the almost 4' pieces and at this point, and, once all your wood is laid out, you'll attach everything with your 3" screws.
When attaching everything together, please remember that all of your connections should be square, meaning that your 8 foot piece should be exactly perpendicular to the almost 4 foot pieces. Squarely attached, and properly screwed in, your frame should be solid and ready for the next step.
At this point, your frame should measure 4 feet by 8 feet, the same dimensions as your plywood lid. The 3/4" piece of plywood, should then be positioned on the frame and then attached using your smaller sized drywall screws. Make sure you spread the screws out when you connect your lid to the frame to ensure there is no movement of the plywood as the actors walk across your platform. Once that's all set, the only thing left to do is attach the legs to the platform.
I would highly suggest bolting your legs to the frame. For one, it is easy to disassemble the legs from the frame for storage, and then put them back together with the same structural integrity in the future. If you use screws for attaching the legs, you run the risk of the wood splitting and making the frame unsafe. Also, the connection that nuts and bolts provide is very strong. If for any reason the whole platform were to twist, screws have a higher potential of failing than nuts and bolts, so for safety's sake, nuts and bolts are the way to go and as far as bolts go, I prefer carriage bolts. I like using carriage bolts for two reasons, one, they require one less washer than hex bolts do because of the head design and two, you don't need to use a second wrench when tightening them up. So find a drill bit that is the same size as your 3 1/2" long bolt and drill two holes going through the leg and the frame for each leg. Depending on the thickness of bolt you use, that will determine what size hole you'll need to make for the bolts.
Once your holes are all drilled for the 3' high platform legs, its time to attach them, so get out your wrench and tighten them down. When everything is attached, flip it over and your platform is complete.
Now that you have one platform, feel free to make a few more and bolt them together to make beautiful, long walkways that your actors can walk on. If you need to make very high platforms, ones that are higher than 4 feet in the air, I would recommend using 4"x4" lumber instead of the 2"x4" that we we used here. They will have a bigger footprint and provide a much sturdier walkway.
In the show in the heights, I have a variety of platforms, 2' high ones as well as 8' high platforms and in the next video, I am going to show you how I made a thrust for our stage. This is a another platform job but its a little different. If you're interested, be sure to tune in.
If you have any comments, questions or suggestions, please leave them below or contact me via email. Until next time...
Making and Putting up a Platform--The Easy Way
One of the most basic and useful set pieces you can make is a platform. A platform is a fixed walking surface that is made from standard, readily available materials. As a versatile piece, platforms can be used in a variety of ways and using them makes sets more interesting to look at because action could be happening at different levels. In addition to the visual appeal that this piece adds, using platforms increases the acting space and is an absolute necessity in some shows. In this video, I'll review the basics of making platforms and show some examples of how they're used in our production of In the Heights.
To start, platforms are typically made in a few standard sizes and doing this, makes them versatile to use. A platform, when made correctly and with quality materials should last you a long time and being able to put up a second level or raised walkway quickly definitely helps you in the construction process.
With that being said, most platforms that I make are usually 4 feet by 8 feet, 4 feet by 4 feet and 4 feet by 10 feet. Using these basic sizes makes it easy for me to make a variety of platform configurations at the blink of an eye. Or... maybe a few blinks of the eye. Whenever you have a good stock of platforms, it is easy to make a 4 foot by 16 foot platform by combining together two 4 by 8 sections.
So now that you know some sizes that they come in, we're going to move on to their anatomy and assembly. Each platform is made of three parts: a lid, a frame and the legs. The frame is the part that gives the platform its structure and is the part that the leg and lid attach to, the legs give the platform its height whatever you choose that to be, and the lid is the walking surface. If we want to make a 4'x8' platform that is three feet high, we need the following materials:
Materials:
2-8' pieces of 2x4 lumber
5-3'9" pieces of 2x4 lumber
6-3' pieces of 2x4 lumber
1-4'x8' piece of 3/4 plywood
20-3" drywall screws
12-1 5/8 drywall screws
12-3 1/2" carriage bolts (3/8" or 5/16" diameter bolt should be fine)
12-nuts
12-washers
Additionally, you should have the following tools to work with as well:
Tools Needed:
Circular saw or Compound Mitre Saw to cut down the 2x4s
Drill
Phillips Head Bit
Drill bit
Ratcheting Wrench
Socket for the nuts
What I like to do is lay out my materials in the way that they'll be assembled, so I would place the pieces of wood for the frame, which are two 8 foot pieces and the 5 3'9" pieces, which I'll call almost 4 foot pieces, like this.
Notice the spacing of the almost 4 foot pieces. I lay them out so that they are two feet apart on the 8 foot piece, so one is at the end, the next one is 2 feet in, the next at 4', the one after at 6' and the last at the other end. The remaining 8 foot piece gets attached in a similar way to the other 8' piece on the opposite side of the almost 4' pieces and at this point, and, once all your wood is laid out, you'll attach everything with your 3" screws.
When attaching everything together, please remember that all of your connections should be square, meaning that your 8 foot piece should be exactly perpendicular to the almost 4 foot pieces. Squarely attached, and properly screwed in, your frame should be solid and ready for the next step.
At this point, your frame should measure 4 feet by 8 feet, the same dimensions as your plywood lid. The 3/4" piece of plywood, should then be positioned on the frame and then attached using your smaller sized drywall screws. Make sure you spread the screws out when you connect your lid to the frame to ensure there is no movement of the plywood as the actors walk across your platform. Once that's all set, the only thing left to do is attach the legs to the platform.
I would highly suggest bolting your legs to the frame. For one, it is easy to disassemble the legs from the frame for storage, and then put them back together with the same structural integrity in the future. If you use screws for attaching the legs, you run the risk of the wood splitting and making the frame unsafe. Also, the connection that nuts and bolts provide is very strong. If for any reason the whole platform were to twist, screws have a higher potential of failing than nuts and bolts, so for safety's sake, nuts and bolts are the way to go and as far as bolts go, I prefer carriage bolts. I like using carriage bolts for two reasons, one, they require one less washer than hex bolts do because of the head design and two, you don't need to use a second wrench when tightening them up. So find a drill bit that is the same size as your 3 1/2" long bolt and drill two holes going through the leg and the frame for each leg. Depending on the thickness of bolt you use, that will determine what size hole you'll need to make for the bolts.
Once your holes are all drilled for the 3' high platform legs, its time to attach them, so get out your wrench and tighten them down. When everything is attached, flip it over and your platform is complete.
Now that you have one platform, feel free to make a few more and bolt them together to make beautiful, long walkways that your actors can walk on. If you need to make very high platforms, ones that are higher than 4 feet in the air, I would recommend using 4"x4" lumber instead of the 2"x4" that we we used here. They will have a bigger footprint and provide a much sturdier walkway.
In the show in the heights, I have a variety of platforms, 2' high ones as well as 8' high platforms and in the next video, I am going to show you how I made a thrust for our stage. This is a another platform job but its a little different. If you're interested, be sure to tune in.
If you have any comments, questions or suggestions, please leave them below or contact me via email. Until next time...
Monday, March 23, 2015
Module 3 Discussion: Commercial v. Non-Commercial Video Media
As a genre of creation, film making is one that is quick to adapt to changes in technology. Auteurs constantly look for the next big thing that will allow them to develop their vision of a concept more completely and new, innovative technologies allow them to do so. For example, James Cameron wrote a treatment for Avatar in the early nineties. When it was apparent that the project was very involved and would require an immense amount of funding, he was forced to delay production until technology allowed him to do so. Ultimately, digital tools made tasks that were difficult to do in the real world feasible in the virtual world. In the same way that technology, or lack thereof, has been a standing impasse in our way of fufilling our conceptual desires, new digital tools are increasing our abilities. Shooting, editing, and releasing videos are simpler now then they have ever been and this is only going to continue in the future.
Within film and video making, I believe there are two distinct realms, equally changed by the advent of new technology. On one side is commercial film and video makers, creators that create very straight forward material that is less open to interpretation and is narrative based. In this category are Hollywood films, enjoyed by a wide range of people. These films may evoke thought and reflection, but their substance lies in entertainment.
On the otherside is non commercial film, or art film. While it is made for an audience, it is not necessarily driven by the same factors as commercial films (money) and there is not a need for a particular appeal but is a vehicle of expression. This tendency to move toward expression lessens the narrative drive, a strong component of commercial films. Through the use of various film/video mediums, aesthetic values play a large factor in meaning where this is not as impactful toward the overall meaning of a work in commercial films. "In the 1980's, when I went to film school, there was still that distinction, but it started to mean less. People were still making choices about shooting on analogue video based on economics, not based on content or aesthetics" ("Roundtable", 2011). While the medium is impactful toward meaning, so is other components of viewership. For instance, these films may be part of a larger artist experience and aspects of their presentation should be evaluated against the greater meaning. For example, Nam June Paik's presentation of Electronic Superhighway: Continental US was an installation that incorporated "closed circuit video made up of 47 channels and 313 monitors [outlined in neon to create a map of the continental states]...each section represent[ing] a single state in the United States...[which] implied different cultural backgrounds in each state" (Wu, 2012). Within this work, one can see the themes arising and the medium, the structure, the video content and the environment all give rise to the message Paik is working to express. Commercial films, by constrast, retain their meaning whether they are seen in a theatre, at home, or on a cell phone on the way to work.
In researching interactive films, something that is enabled by digital tools, I found a company named Silk Tricky. This company is something of a digital advertising company and through my exploration of their site, I would say that they are the "rock stars" of interactive media marketing. They create something they call "Enteractivity: that sweet spot where interactive and entertainment meet" and they have created two interactive action movies. The first is Bank Run, a narrative that takes place both on the website and mobile platform, and is driven by user choices. The second short movie is Outbreak, a narrative that has an endpoint within the website. While the possiblities of the "Choose Your Own Adventure" abound, I believe that these interactive movies fall short being that they offer one end. As expressive art allows you to come to your own meaning at times, these two movies push you in a specific direction, being that the wrong decisions result in dying in the movie.
Conclusively, I think that while digital media is transformative for both commerical and non commercial film makers, digital tools are more impactful in the realm of non commercial content creators. As evidenced in my experience with Bank Run and Outbreak, these films were more of the same and played as a hybrid between action movies and a video game. With expressive driven content, the enabling of new activities are a great departure from traditional film making techniques and experimenting with different tools allow new possibilities for meaning making, especially in a digitally dominated world.
Roundtable On Digital Experimental Filmmaking. (n.d.). October, 51-68.
Shaw, J. (2012). New-media art and the renewal of the cinematic imaginary. Technoetic Arts, 173-177.
SilkTricky. (n.d.). Retrieved March 10, 2015, from http://silktricky.com/
Wu, G., Gough, P., & Wall, C. (2012). Multiple-channel video installation as a precursor to transmedia-based art. Technoetic Arts, 329-339.
Thursday, March 5, 2015
Introductory Script
Script for Introductory Video-Designing and Preparation
Background:
As scenic design and construction is a process, it is important to examine your environment and your design challenge before you start to work. Then, moving into the design phase you can work out issues you come across as to not waste time and funding on avoidable mistakes. In this introductory video, I am going to discuss my design process and how I begin to plan for this upcoming project.
(Medium shot talking in front of a bulletin board)
Hello everyone. I'm glad your taking this journey with me as I work through the production for the set of In the Heights. I wanted to give you a background of our design challenge before we get to all of the fun of designing and creating the set. Every journey begins with a step, and in this case, my first step was learning what this show is about. Without getting into the plot, the show takes place in a working class neighborhood in Washington Heights. The set consists of three store fronts; (motioning a list) a taxi dispatch, a corner store and a beauty salon. The fourth space in the foreground of the set is a characters house which consists of a door and a step. In back of that is a park-like area and in the far distance is the George Washington bridge. If you read the script, you will get many more details which will tell you more specifically what the needs of each scene are.
(Medium Shot but a different angle/background)
(Starting perpendicular to the camera, turning and walking a few feet toward the camera)
Now that I'm familiar with the basic set needs, I do some research. I'm looking to find out what Washington Heights looks like in real life, what stores in the area look like, what the bridge looks like and what other productions have done. As I do some internet searches, I take notes, print out pictures and make sure I get everything together before I start designing. Reference pictures are a must and having as much information available will only make your task of designing easier. In my searches, I found out that the "gold standard" of this set is based off of the Broadway design, created by Anna Louizos. I found a YouTube video of a tour of the set so I am going to include many of the details of that set in my own design. As I take notes, I often do quick sketches, of things as specific as a cabinet or as general as the layout. With all of my notes, pictures, and rough sketches, I am ready to start making my design.
(Picking up a yellow pad)
As I start my design process, I make sure I have a good understanding of what my space will allow. For a previous show, I measured all of the dimensions of the stage, the depth, the width and the height. When I looked at the Broadway set, I noticed that it is a tall design,(motioning height) meaning that there are multiple levels for the buildings. I know I can't accommodate that height because the stage that I work on is not that big, with an approximate height of 14 feet. So this limitation is among one of the many considerations I have to make when I make my design.
With all of my dimensions set, I take my rough sketchs and start to develop them in the computer. My personal preference for software is Sketchup, and I can scale all of the set pieces and see how set pieces would look like in relation to each other. Once I have my design, I can even take down the dimensions of the set pieces so anyone can build them. There are other programs out there and for this purpose, I'm sure any 3-d modelling software that your comfortable with will do the trick. From here, I take my model and generate images with different angles, and share them with the other people working on the set. I'll provide some basic views, like a top view, a front view and some isometric views to the lighting designer, the sound designer and director so that I can make sure that all of our fields work together cohesively. Like I said before, the more information available, the better.
(Medium shot, turning toward the camera)
So that is it for now, this was a quick overview of my design process and development. If there is a need to talk about something in more detail, I'll be sure to record a video in the future. The next video to be released will summarize the set development in Sketchup,describing the some design choices I made and briefly discuss materials that will be used. After that, future videos will discuss the production of the actual set pieces and more material talk. The overall idea of these videos is to build toward the next video and scaffold the information. So here, we discussed some basics of design in this video and will go into a bit more detail in the next video. At the end of this series and the completion of the set, everyone watching should have a good idea of what goes into creating a theatrical set, seeing the process first hand. Until next time, take care and happy making.
Background:
As scenic design and construction is a process, it is important to examine your environment and your design challenge before you start to work. Then, moving into the design phase you can work out issues you come across as to not waste time and funding on avoidable mistakes. In this introductory video, I am going to discuss my design process and how I begin to plan for this upcoming project.
(Medium shot talking in front of a bulletin board)
Hello everyone. I'm glad your taking this journey with me as I work through the production for the set of In the Heights. I wanted to give you a background of our design challenge before we get to all of the fun of designing and creating the set. Every journey begins with a step, and in this case, my first step was learning what this show is about. Without getting into the plot, the show takes place in a working class neighborhood in Washington Heights. The set consists of three store fronts; (motioning a list) a taxi dispatch, a corner store and a beauty salon. The fourth space in the foreground of the set is a characters house which consists of a door and a step. In back of that is a park-like area and in the far distance is the George Washington bridge. If you read the script, you will get many more details which will tell you more specifically what the needs of each scene are.
(Medium Shot but a different angle/background)
(Starting perpendicular to the camera, turning and walking a few feet toward the camera)
Now that I'm familiar with the basic set needs, I do some research. I'm looking to find out what Washington Heights looks like in real life, what stores in the area look like, what the bridge looks like and what other productions have done. As I do some internet searches, I take notes, print out pictures and make sure I get everything together before I start designing. Reference pictures are a must and having as much information available will only make your task of designing easier. In my searches, I found out that the "gold standard" of this set is based off of the Broadway design, created by Anna Louizos. I found a YouTube video of a tour of the set so I am going to include many of the details of that set in my own design. As I take notes, I often do quick sketches, of things as specific as a cabinet or as general as the layout. With all of my notes, pictures, and rough sketches, I am ready to start making my design.
(Picking up a yellow pad)
As I start my design process, I make sure I have a good understanding of what my space will allow. For a previous show, I measured all of the dimensions of the stage, the depth, the width and the height. When I looked at the Broadway set, I noticed that it is a tall design,(motioning height) meaning that there are multiple levels for the buildings. I know I can't accommodate that height because the stage that I work on is not that big, with an approximate height of 14 feet. So this limitation is among one of the many considerations I have to make when I make my design.
With all of my dimensions set, I take my rough sketchs and start to develop them in the computer. My personal preference for software is Sketchup, and I can scale all of the set pieces and see how set pieces would look like in relation to each other. Once I have my design, I can even take down the dimensions of the set pieces so anyone can build them. There are other programs out there and for this purpose, I'm sure any 3-d modelling software that your comfortable with will do the trick. From here, I take my model and generate images with different angles, and share them with the other people working on the set. I'll provide some basic views, like a top view, a front view and some isometric views to the lighting designer, the sound designer and director so that I can make sure that all of our fields work together cohesively. Like I said before, the more information available, the better.
(Medium shot, turning toward the camera)
So that is it for now, this was a quick overview of my design process and development. If there is a need to talk about something in more detail, I'll be sure to record a video in the future. The next video to be released will summarize the set development in Sketchup,describing the some design choices I made and briefly discuss materials that will be used. After that, future videos will discuss the production of the actual set pieces and more material talk. The overall idea of these videos is to build toward the next video and scaffold the information. So here, we discussed some basics of design in this video and will go into a bit more detail in the next video. At the end of this series and the completion of the set, everyone watching should have a good idea of what goes into creating a theatrical set, seeing the process first hand. Until next time, take care and happy making.
Digital Media in Performance Arts
After I reviewed at the readings in
this module, I realized dance and theater is perhaps the most transformed and
altered by digital media. In such a
"body-centric" means of expression, digital media deeply challenges
the relationship that the body has in these works of expressive art. An even deeper evaluation of the digital
media in dance and theatre allows us to examine how we use our bodies as a tool
of expression and how technology can be mediated in that experience. The third conclusion that I came to during
these readings is that digital tools are highly trans-formative in that they
broaden the capabilities that artists have in fulfilling their vision for
expression. As art is a tool which can
be used as an agent in discovery, it is clear that in this lens we can use art
to sort out all of the concurrent relationships between these entities.
Dance is described as an
"active interrogation of time, space, the engagement between intellect and
the sense, the real and the imaginary,...It is ultimately fluid and
changing,..." (Gunduz, 2012). With
the body being the primary tool in dance and theatre in the traditional sense,
the realization of why the body is used as such may be taken for granted
because of the traditional practices of dance.
The routine use of the body for both the performer and the audience is
normed and the injection of technology challenges these cultural practices in
this form of expression. Thus,
commentators focus on the ways in which the body "[constructs and deconstructs]
time, [the] dialog with gravity...[and the exploration of form]" and come
to conclusions how this all comes to be. (Gunduz, 2012). Trans-formative as technology is, it bends the
reality of gravity, form and time and can be seen potentially separating the body from this
expressive art, disembodying dance. The
same factors/characteristics that were once definitive of dance may no longer
be present or relevant and this sentiment is most likely worrying to the most
ludditic of dance and theatre critics.
Fortunately enough, injecting
technology has the capacity to transform dance and theatre in ways that were
not possible before and digital media extends the realm of expression. According to Katherine Hayles, "art is
capable of bridging the gap or discontinuities between rapid technological
innovations, an abstract understanding of the human body, and our embodied
experience" (Gunduz, 2012)
Furthermore, according to David Saltz, theatre theorist in the reading
Digital Dance, "digital interactive media have other characteristics that
those of traditional media, such as responding in 'real time' to the input of
the performer...[enhancing] the spontaneity or variability of a live
performance; they enable new possibilities of staging narratives; and also
produce a novel relationship between the performer and media" (2012).
In terms of narratives, Whit
MacLaughlin utilized the social media platform Facebook as an element within his
production of Fatebook. “MacLaughlin
cast 13 people who then created alternative identities, and those characters,
set up real Facebook pages, Twitter accounts and YouTube videos, including self-portraits…[they]
posted regular updates…[and] a Fatebook website tied it all together allowing
visitors to explore by character…to see more clearly the interconnectedness of
the characters” (Mandell, 2013). The
show itself was posed as a party and the theatre space was transformed under
the guise of mimicking “surfing through cyberspace” and examining the
interactions of the various characters. With
the roots of the show in cyberspace, the inclusion of this element not only
allowed the viewers to examine their own interactions with digital media but
the thematic element transformed the show into something it could not have
been, something that transcended time and physical space and allowed a new
narrative to take place in a transformed theatre space.
In terms of interactive work, in the book, "Art and
Electronic Media" I came across artist Tom Shannon's work. "Squat", an interactive sculpture,
consisting of plants, electricity and metal is a unique commentary on the
relationship between organic and inorganic materials, humans and machines. "Built in 1966... Squat, a robot
electrically connected to an ivy plant placed on a table in the same room, was
one of the earliest pieces in the US to explore issues of interspecies
communication, feedback, and the interaction of organisms with their
environment" (Jones, 2006) Within this piece, “touching the plant
[triggers] a voltage change, activating the motors of the robotic sculpture,
which moves, retracting and extending its three legs and two arms while making
humming and chirping sounds. The user
could stop the robot by touching the plant again” (Shanken, 2009). The aesthetic of exposing the immediate
relationship between humans and machines shows how the direct interaction
between both affectively changes the environment and space that they both
occupy. The introduction of the plant
further highlights the contrasting differences between organic and inorganic components
and while different, the cooperation of both shows how a symbiotic relationship
can exist.
In conclusion, while some may fear how digital tools may
change expressive arts, the benefits of their inclusion in performances and
theatre transforms the expressive arts in new ways that were not possible
before. Digital tools/media extend our
limits of expressions that were once stifled by gravity, time and space. Not only is their inclusion beneficial for
the performance, but they also allow us to evaluate the role of technology in
our life.
Gündüz Z. (2012) Digital Dance: Encounters between Media
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