Today I had a good work out, which pepped me up to get some writing done.
I'm really happy to be in the final chapter, and as usual the Boss has sent me in a great direction.
This chapter is shaping up to be something pretty cool. It starts off with a couple of quotes - one theatrical, one new media - that essentially say the same thing. After this I land in hypermediate theatre territory, where I explain that theatre on both (historical) sides of the fourth-wall are relatively identical. Following this, I have a quick chat about Brecht (where I'm up to now), explaining his 'Alienation Effect' as not so alienating, which is also a huge feature of new media and present day (Brecht is a little bit dead) experiences of interfaces. This leads straight into the ever-present commonalities of theatre - which align almost perfectly with new media. VICTORY!
Commonalities are the usual (participation, interaction and shared experience) but with a few tiny tweaks the whole thing merges. If I can add a slight addendum (co-presence existing in the virtual as well as the physical - which is possible if I use theatre remediating the digital as is the case with AvatarBodyCollision) then co-presence becomes a non-issue - or more correctly, a shared issue - and convergence emerges as the telling factor, as co-presence can be simulated somewhat through television. This ties straight back into theatre as a hypermedium, where anything goes. Theatre can use anything in the arsenal, steal stuff from everywhere and the only other media type that can make this claim is new media. Blah blah blah.. Theatre 1: Everything else 0.
Seriously, Larissa knows her stuff, and knows how to send me down a useful rabbit-hole. Go Team!
Anyway, the title of this post should probably be addressed. I was watching the aforementioned show and this guy came out and did this awesome bit where the mic-stand was out of reach (which means it became a silent routine) and he got into one of those aluminium tube things that you might see in an industrial air-con unit and manipulated it to eventually reach the mic.
It was probably the most absorbing thing I've seen on TV in a long time (I actually stopped chewing just in case he said something) and it was clear that the judges and the TV audience were in the same state I was in.
Later, a guy came out with a band and did an amazing rendition of Prince's 'Purple Rain' (dude had a killer voice and didn't overdo anything and the band were excellent).
I couldn't help but laugh. I've been so caught up in writing about mediation that I've been really critical about what I watch, and I'm a super harsh theatre/film/tele-critic to begin with. It was so nice to genuinely be taken away, immediately as much as possible given the mediation, and just see something wonderful, regardless of how it was transmitted.
I think it had something to do with multi-remediation going on within the program (it's live physically co-present performance, recorded with a live studio audience, set up in the format of a somewhat vaudeville variety show, complete with theatrical frontality) and that as bogus as the show often is, it has less manufacturing than so many other reality TV programs on at the moment - like Big Brother for instance. There is very little narrative (following stories of contestants); overall it is just stuff happening, and if it's good stuff you want to see more.
Personally, I don't care about the people, just the performances, which I guess rings makes sense. I like to see great theatre, but I have no interest in celebrity. But that's another rope for another day.
Australia really does have some serious talent.
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