Monday 30 September 2013

Super Quick

Neal gave me feedback on my stuff so far.

Most of it I've already hit (thanks to Larissa), but he raised a good point about what I'll call 'internal clarity', or each sentence/paragraph/chapter relating to the overall piece.

Because a lot of my thesis has been written across different time-spans, not everything fits. Some bits work better than others, but as a whole its a little patchy.

Here's an idea of how to make it work overall:


Chapter One – What is New Media?: Understanding New vs Old.
Chapter Two – Liveness and Co-presence: Theatre vs Recorded.
Chapter Three – Convergence and Hapticity: Where New meets Old.

Overall – Theatre’s character is already in use for each of these, whether to borrow, remediate or predate. New Media’s only introduction is the digital, but theatre integrated this almost as it was born, making theatre “the great remediator” as well as the end-point of New Media. While NM seeks to obtain the character of theatre, theatre just absorbs NM into the repertoire; as such, theatre reigns supreme, the oldest media also being the newest because of it’s capacity to absorb, remediate or converge, regardless of terminology.

That's the gist. Larissa just sent through revisions (didn't see her today) so about to have a look, but I figure if I'm a bit more distinct about my chapters, the whole piece will end up a little more coherent, as crazy as that sounds.

That'll do for now, but watch this space. I have a feeling that the next week has a lot more in store.

Sunday 29 September 2013

Medium talk, Danish.

Last night I went out for my best friend from Monash's 25th.

It was a great night. We went to some fancy cocktail bar and I was wearing flanno (flanny for the Melbournites) so I didn't theoretically fit in at all, but it was great to catch up with the old mates - and some new ones.

What made me laugh was just how easily old friends (re)connect. I arrived on time and it took about 10 minutes for half a dozen of us to describe our last year to each other, at which point we grabbed martinis and talked about now.

By this I mean making real conversation off the cuff, without having to rely on old stories to stimulate input. One of Suz's best mates I'd never met - a Dane by the name of 'Danish' - had flown in from Denmark as a surprise. At six foot eight, the guy was a behemoth, but we hit it off instantly, cracking terrible jokes and talking about the differences between our penal systems.

The drink and the conversation flowed freely, moving effortlessly between big things and little things, but what really stood out was that everyone present could talk to anyone else about almost anything and there was nothing to be embarrassed about, regardless of how well we knew each other.

As a cohort, we made a crack about leaving all of this off Facebook, which we did. For a few hours, we just existed in a world of our own, not answering phones, not being distracted.

Several of us talked about our research, others chatted about work or whatever was on our minds.

As the place closed, I shared a cab with one of the girls and she ended up staying at my place, with all of the things that style of interaction usually entails.

At around 6am, I sat on my balcony with a cup of tea and watched the sun come up. I watched it until I started to nod off, and crawled into my shared bed for a few hours of sleep.

I awoke to a note on my neighbouring pillow with thanks for the evening, some lipstick - and no phone number.

I smiled, then cooked up a great breakfast before riding in to work.

I had almost no hangover, even though I'd consumed the same quantity as a Darwinian polar bear and a giant Danish Ned Kelly lookalike. Sure I burned a fair bit off during early morning 'exercise', but there was something about the nature of the entire evening that just screamed pre-media.

I can't quite put my finger on it but I felt like I was 20 again, with the added bonus of ten years extra experience.

This is what I'm trying to get at with theatre as a precursor to (and aim of) new media. There is something about connecting that can't be done through mediation, but as the world becomes more mediated we have to rely on it regardless. The gist is to make it as invisible as possible, and the way is to skip small-talk, to go straight to medium talk.

If we connect without restraint (except for general manners), we become closer, no matter what the mediation. Theatre has this always in mind, but much new media still focuses on the ability to capture moments, even though lives are not just snapshots of food but the experience of eating it.

There is some slow dramaturgy at work here (see Eckersall) about tangible sensations like eating, knitting, gardening and quite possibly sex that cannot be replicated in static media.

This cannot be broached in small talk either. At the very least we need discussion to begin with the medium.

Again with the English, Danish.



Saturday 28 September 2013

Different Ways too the Same Place

So I spoke to my Mum last night and we talked about our research and writing styles (she's studying speech pathology at Newcastle Uni). She seems to do things the other way around to me.

By this I mean I rant about stuff I know about and am pretty concise with the things I don't.

We also talked about our Supervisors and that goes in reverse too. I send Larissa stuff via email, so when we meet we pretty much hang out, exchange stories and tell jokes over ginger tea, then really quickly talk about the work. Mum sends life stuff to her super and they talk shop in the meetings.

I spoke to a lovely girl at work today who stresses about the work by reading too much then writes everything at the last minute. I write volumes because editing is my bane - the more I have the more I can refine.

I'm off to see another friend doing Honours elsewhere (Monash) who has just finished his performance project and is freaking out about having to write.


I thought I'd be under word count, but I'll be looking at 15-16K on Friday when I'm all written up.

I'm taking the train up to NSW because it gives me more time to write than the usual airplane angle.

Never thought I'd like writing a thesis, but I do. Never thought I'd take the train again but I will. Never thought I'd meet so many people doing research but I have.

Whatever works for you is how you do it. Sometimes it isn't what you think will work, but as long as it gets you there it is totally awesome. No matter which way we go about it, we all end up at the same place.

Thursday 26 September 2013

Windy

Today was both forms of the word, with gusts attempting to blow me off my vehicle as I traveled along my curving pathway.

Another terrible sleep, but the gym session this morning pumped me up to get some serious editing out of the way - and I knocked over the last of the stuff Larissa had already looked through. I got stuck on a pair of leading paragraphs (between the first and second chapters), but opening a previous iteration of my essay and looking at that really helped.

At this point, I'm actually looking at three chapters around 4000 words each - effectively a 14-15K essay. The problem is, it's all good stuff. Methinks I'll need to finish my final chapter over the weekend and start writing an intro/conclusion to get a feel for what is really necessary. If it all works then hey - at least I'm not short.

One particular thing that wound me up was the (to me) annoying convention of having to continually explain (in the form of spelling out) what I'm trying to do. JUST READ THE FUCKING THING AND YOU'LL GET IT. Not that hard.

Larissa did tell me something that made it a little less annoying, which is that my markers are much more likely to read the thesis out of order. The idea becomes more along the lines of putting markers throughout for the markers, so no matter how windy - or windy - there are checkpoints along the way to keep everything steady.

English is a horrible language at times, isn't it?

Anyhow, after doing the latest edit on part 1, I had a look over part 2 and realised that for the most part (again with the English) I'm up to speed there. I need to fold in some Convergence stuff a little earlier and perhaps be a little less abrupt with the Co-presence, which means I can round the whole thing up with some Hapticity, rub my hands together and open a beer.

It's a windy road on a windy day, but I'm staying on my bike and loving the ride!

Wednesday 25 September 2013

Balls

I awoke early this morning after a pretty poor sleep. I was tired from the get go, but I couldn't get back to sleep (there is a lot of sun in my room) so I rolled out for a coffee and got to work.

For ease of it all, my work is basically split in two, so for the moment I'll talk about it like that. On the one hand is the stuff I've already received feedback on (Chapter 1 and most of Chapter 2) and the other side is the rest.

I began with part 2. I started cutting out a few superfluous sentences, tightened up a few bits here and there and found a couple of spots to insert some Eckersall. But for some reason I couldn't focus on it, so I went back the first part (earlier than I might've liked) and worked though that.

I added a couple of paragraphs, moved a few things and deleted all the 'red ink' (the comments in Word) Larissa had left that I didn't need, like spelling/grammatical errors, which left me with about 6 things to work on. I just kind of wore it down until I got to this one place that had me stumped.

Larissa had written in a pair of sentences that didn't fit where they were in almost any way - as far as I could tell. What did I do? I stared blankly at them for a while before tearing up three paragraphs to force them in. Silent movies? Lucille Ball? Jesus...

I got a little bit into the process before being overcome with proper exhaustion. So I went for a walk around the block, sat back down and worked through some more.

It isn't done, but it isn't too far off either. I can't spend too much more time on that section either, because I have a lot more to take care of, but if I can do the reverse of today tomorrow (knock out part 1 and fire up on part 2) I'll be in a good place, with - ideally - a full draft, partially edited, by Monday.

The point is that no matter how tired you are, you can always squeeze out a little more, and sometimes that little bit puts you in a good place for when you get back into it. The more you put it off, the worse it gets, so just get it done.

The other point is that I am exhausted. Not physically tired or mentally fatigued, but all of the above at once, and I could really use a good rest, so I'm going to watch the rest of this documentary about a guy with a massive scrotum and stop whinging about my relatively small problem.

Tuesday 24 September 2013

4500: Pens and Swords

Today I went to the gym and moved over four metric tonnes in about three-quarters of an hour.

For an 80-ish kg guy with (really) bad knees, shocking ankles (from breaks) and a bung shoulder, I'd say I didn't do too badly.

My trainer/brother was pretty stoked at my resolve, and because we trained together I got to see what my potential might be. He's an inch taller than me, 10-15 kegs heavier than me and can throw almost twice the weight I can. As I loaded his weights onto the bars, I realised that since this year I have improved beyond the point I thought I could do at all, only to see that it's not even close to what I can actually achieve.

After the work out, I rolled home and sat before my laptop. I read over the first round of stuff I sent Larissa. I deleted the (four metric tonnes of) grammatical errors, and sat with the notes, all six of them. There were a couple of 'insert paragraphs here', a pair of 'goods' (do nothing, this works) and a pair of 'Larissa thinks you should write this here'. The first two I'm stewing over, the second two give me hope and the final two I'm not sure I agree with - one because it's in the wrong place, the other because it doesn't seem to fit at all.

After reading that stuff, I dived into the rest instead. I pulled the 4500 words I'd written for the end and started hitting them with a view to refining, rewriting and editing them into something I might use to hit the rest from another angle.

I deleted excess. I moved a few sentences here and there and all of a sudden I found a paragraph in my third chapter to switch with the last one in my second.

HOLY SHIT.

This one paragraph changed everything. It gave me a way to move what I already have into better order (i.e. edit) and fit what I don't into gaps.

I don't want to jinx it, so I won't go into anymore for the moment. Also, I moved a few tonnes of both mental and physical weight so I'm pretty tired, and it's 'Breaking Bad' night if no-one else minds.

Pens or Swords? Which one hurts more? Which one feels better? After 4500, I still can't tell...

Monday 23 September 2013

Read it and weep

I don't have any writing focus today, so after my meeting with Larissa (which went pretty well - took fifteen minutes and was mostly us just talking about unrelated stuff) I headed home to relax.

Which means reading up on the stuff I need to know more about.

First stop was a quick look at Margaret Morse and Erving Goffman. Goffman looks at the world through the lens of theatre, but in the realm of sociology. No need to go deep, but worth mentioning him along the way. Morse does a lot more stuff with interfaces, especially in the progression from film through TV to new media. She has a little theatre about her, but is more on the side of NM which is what I need to chuck in.

I spent more time reading Peter Eckersall (one of my markers). I had an idea to write some of his stuff on adaptation into the mix, but I found his work on dramaturgy to be more up to the task. There are some pretty good articles that really fit with the convergence idea whilst taking into account the history of theatre. They look like this:

http://www.tandfonline.com.ezproxy.lib.rmit.edu.au/doi/full/10.1080/13528165.2012.696864#tabModule

http://search.informit.com.au.ezproxy.lib.rmit.edu.au/fullText;dn=029826682408264;res=IELHSS

The last of them led me back to Hans Lehmenn, but into a different essay of his I can't get my hands on called "Mirror Mirror, Fourth Wall" in a collection called "Theatre after Theatre".

I really want to read it but I'm also a little terrified that I've finally found the person who has already beaten me to my essay in the form of an old German Professor of performance.

When I do read it I'll cry either way (joy or despair).

Read it and weep you might say...

Sunday 22 September 2013

Sunday

I worked today, and everyone was in a foul mood, which means we all laughed at each other for being so silly. Laughing at it took all the power out of the negative emotions so we all ended up having a good day.

I have some sleep to catch up on because of my fun/work filled weekend, but also because I have a big week ahead of me. Even while I've been having a real weekend, I still managed to take care of most of the little tasks that often get in the way of writing.

Tomorrow I have class and meet Larissa directly after that. I moved my personal training session to Tuesday so I can write directly after meeting the Boss. I have a funny positivity having handed in a draft and getting decent feedback. I WANT TO DO BIG THINGS.

But i can't ignore the little ones along the way. As I do, the big thing loses its sense of joy.

This is very strange to me. I feel really happy with where I am, unlike a couple of weeks ago where I was quite worried. I'm at the point where I could actually apply for a PhD and might even be ready to do it. I've finally been enjoying the lifestyle of an academic, writing about stuff I like and missing it when I'm not doing it. Not missing it like a crutch when your ankle is still tender, or missing it like the girl you were supposed to marry but fucked it up with ambition.

Missing it like performing, like something you just should be doing without 100% knowing why, like when you get up on a nice day and smile, even though you like the rain.

Sunday is my liminal day, the day that everyone has off and I almost always work. But on days like this, work is fun, so it isn't really work.

Sunday puts it all into context. If I can sit here at my clean desk with my neat computer while a documentary plays in the background and enjoy the first-world happiness associated with writing about myself to myself, then I can't really complain. The things will happen when they do, and I won't miss out on anything as long as I'm happy with where I am at the present.

It's a nice night to sit on the balcony and breathe the air before bed. Happy Sunday.

Late and Great

Hey guys,

I know it's late but this is what happens when you work in hospitality and have messed up sleeping patterns.

Anyhow, I had a quick read over the feedback The Boss sent me and for the first time there was not one, but two sections where she actually wrote 'Good'. One even had a smiley face.

It's nuts to think that this little word can have such an impact but it did, does, and makes me want to write better.

And this was the two-chapter draft. She hasn't shot feedback through for the three chapter version, except to say the concepts are clearer and the writing is improving.

Note to self: go with my gut.

Larissa said to check out Margaret Morse and a couple of other things, but Morse stuck.

Why? Because Morse leads into haptic interfaces, which in my extensive excess writing (stuff that didn't make the cut) is all over the place, citing theatre as a physical medium that is a clear precursor/inter-influence on haptic media.

I'm tired, hungover, hungry and a little drunk, but more excited than anything, because my gut told me to do the haptic thing and I'm going to chase it down.

The other thing my gut told me about was adaptation. By this I mean that theatre is a medium where a script is just the bones and a play can be made in any way at any time, which makes it like new media in that editing can be done on the fly and there is no 'right' way to do anything. I was calling it 'concrete' vs 'fluid' in my head, where concrete media is made solid and not subject to change (photo, painting, film [especially] and TV) and fluid can be made anew as necessary (theatre and new media - not all new media but a large majority).

Theatre, immersive theatre in particlar is like a game engine. There is a skeleton, but each experience is different. Another thread, but a great one to chase down, possibly at a later date.

Anyway, the adaptation thing (making any number of shows from a base script) also lets me link Eckersall (one of my thesis markers) into the mix, which then ties into the rest of the piece.

Where once I was worried about not being able to generate enough content, now I'm concerned that I might end up with too much, but that's what the Boss is for - to tell me when I'm good and tell me when I'm not. I'm starting to think that I might actually finish around 15000, which may be to my benefit all things told.

I want to write something compelling, but it also needs to be entertaining, otherwise it isn't me at all.

The late great thing is not just linked to the time of the post and the feedback, but because all of this got me thinking about 2010, a year when I did a show, wrote my own version of it and saw a different version that same year. It was the Shakespeare classic of Midsummer Night's Dream, and the director was none other than the late, great Peter Oyston. A director, a mentor and a friend, Peter founded the VCA as well as the Circus Oz. It's great to see I'm at RMIT where the Oz archive is a huge thing, but also work with VCA and do my own thing, much of it influenced by Peter. Plus I used to hang out with a 72 year old that was more childish than myself, but with a way nicer house.

To Lateness, To Greatness and Peter.

Thursday 19 September 2013

Thinking Cap

I think I found my thinking cap. I've been wearing this old beanie that doesn't fit properly. My Nanna knitted it and when I wear it, I get good vibes, even if I look like a dodgy prisoner.

Anyway, the hat has given me 2400 words in two days. I'm over count (10.5k) with a section to go.

It's not great stuff, but it isn't terrible, and the fact that it is out of me and on paper is a massive relief.

First hurdle was being able to write 10000 words that make sense together. Reached - and a quarter of it came in two days and a beanie.

Tonight I try for the bibliography, just in case I get stuck at work and don't get the time to finish the last chunk. Also, I have a feeling that even though I've been pretty good when it comes to Zotero, there are going to be a few things to go after or rearrange (like the fact I have some authours with the same names and such, and a couple of book chapters that I've saved the book for rather than the chapter).

But I have to be up early and this bibliography needs looking at. Where's that beanie got to...?

Wednesday 18 September 2013

Now

Gotta get it out now before it fades.


I finished the Hypermediate Theatre section (it'll never be finished but it'll do for now), then did Virtual Reality, Remediation and Theatre (too short but good enough) and also killed Gob Squad. Got halfway into Punchdrunk, realised I had 1200 good words in a day (the same as the last five days total) and opened a bottle of wine...

Anyway, aside from wine being far less inhibiting than beer, I realised that I may need to add ABC (AvatarBodyCollision) to the mix.

Reasoning:

The 'Squad hit the nail when it comes to interactivity across new/old interfaces, as well as firing up the presence/co-presence angle.
P Drunky destroy the VR aspect in terms of immersion and the convergent aspect of stuff creating other stuff beyond the event (have a look at Causey or Jenkins as to how this works).

ABC work in almost the reverse aspect, which is why they're so powerful, basically creating totally digital theatre that adheres to both theatrical and new media convention. Sounds like FU(% 4(( to you but is everything to me (sorry - that's the wine talking).

Anyhow, I'm 2300 words into a 3300 word chapter with 2 days in the bag, only my days are terribly full and this chapter is moving towards 5K rather than the other way.

Done... for NOW...

Tuesday 17 September 2013

Australia's Got Talent - Really!

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.


Monday 16 September 2013

Bullets work

I've been keeping an eye on my bullet journal and the damned thing works. Ben and I were talking about it today and while we differ slightly on what a task and an event is, the rest works a treat.

On that note, I wrote a bit of an annotated bibliography of a couple of my main texts for Neal:

1) summary of the reading; why written, main arguments

2) your evaluation; who is it written for? context? what are the particular strengths (in your opinion), similarities or differences compared with other things you've read, weaknesses?

3) how you might use it; what does it help you understand better? how might you apply it? Do you see things differently? How might you question its assumptions?

- Bolter and Grusin 'Remediation' (1999)

- Auslander 'Liveness' (1999/2008)

- Manovich 'The Language of New Media' (2001)

- Chapple and Kattenbelt 'Intermediality in Theatre and Performance' (2006)

Remediation

1) Basically, it's a revision of Marshall McLuhan's 'Understanding Media'. The book presents a trinity of interrelated concepts - immediacy, hypermediacy and remediation - and argues that all (pictoral) visual media since the Renaissance adheres to these rules. It touts that immediacy is the ideal pursuit, and hypermediacy has emerged as a contingent strategy to better reach immediacy. It uses these two concepts to view media evolution and the current media state, calling the interplay between the two remediation.

2) It is written for new media enthusiasts and theoreticians at the turn of the 21st century, especially those that work in graphics and digital imagery. It presents a strong case for what I call 'static' visual media, but it kind of falls apart at the point where media starts to move and become participatory or cooperative. Again, great for a one-one relationship between viewer/object, but not great when that expands to many-one. Doesn't address theatre. Has been widely accepted into practically everything - at least the historical aspect (new recycling old and vice-versa) if not the actual ideas of immediacy and hypermediacy as they are.

3) I use it as a framework to approach theatre, addressing theatre as an interface and a visual medium. It helps me understand that the theatre I like and the other theatre out there have one difference - an interface. I see that if theatre can be seen to have an interface, then the progression of photo-film-TV-new media is actually more in line with theatre than photography. I see things differently by a long way; immediacy means something else, interface means something else, hypermediacy is way cooler than immediacy. I question the static media train, the dominance of immediacy and the evolution of VR without considering theatre (immersive theatre especially).

Liveness

1) Main ideas are that until liveness existed, all events occurred in the same 'time'. Since recording media entered the world the whole thing can be split into live, mediated and mediatized. Live doesn't necessarily mean co-present; there is kind of a hierarchy of classic liveness to totally delayed replication. Also, big focus on television as the dominant media form and how growing up in a mediatized culture affects how we view liveness and co-presence.

2) Written for those that love going to events and wondering why the scene is drying up. Written to see liveness and co-presence as evolving phenomena. Written in a very easy to read manner and adherent to pop-culture, but also sort of lacking in the sense of classics. Has a great argument when it comes to the court-section (at least in terms of why co-presence matters) but does skip around a bit. Big fan of the link between television and theatre in terms of liveness and immediacy, nice way to approach the differences between theatre, film and TV, and the rewrite of the TV chapter also addresses Bolter and Grusin. Doesn't pick a side regarding pros and cons of technology, which is good or bad depending on how you like your arguments.

3) I'll use it to separate out all the pieces in the second chapter, and I'll throw it in to the co-presence bit at the end. Also helps me identify a working definition for theatre, which might end up being almost the same for the new media bit if co-presence fits in that sense. It would certainly work if virtual and and physical converge into one, but i'm still unsure if I buy that. I certainly see television and theatre differently, especially in the way that each has remediated the other - and continues to do so. Be that as it may, the book doesn't deal with the actual energy exchange between those co-present in a physical sense which is a big gap for a live performer like myself. I might skip it for this essay, but overall that is a huge question.

The bullet journal reminded me I had to do it, so I did. Good lesson. If I keep all my notes in one place I end up doing everything, and if I write them down in real world pen, I remember them.

Take a bullet.

Sunday 15 September 2013

Convergence

Everything is seemingly coming together.

I had a little bit of a sick feeling in my stomach this morning, expecting that Larissa might just burn my draft and shoot me (a bit rough, but I have been reading some fairly brutal manga lately).

Anyway, she said 'On Track', which is nice, and gave me a few things to look into, the main one being convergence.

For once, I've already seen something before she sent it to me! I found this great paper on convergence and was reading it a week or two ago, wondering where to fit it in to my essay. Now I know if I dig a little more, I'll have it up and running in no time.

The more I investigate this stuff, the more I'm reminded of a pair of works I've done and one work I saw at the Opera House. It also inspires me to make some more theatre, and I have my absolute baby I want to operate on.

But one step at a time. For now, further investigation into Convergence and Peter Eckersall, who has kindly agreed to examine my work.

Also, I might have to try and get a couple of interviews done. Sigh.

A least it's converging...

Saturday 14 September 2013

Bullets

Started the ol' Bullet Journal today and realised I haven't blogged in a little while.

That's okay because I've been writing like a madman. I've got a full draft for the first two chapters (7200 words) and some notes and pieces for chapter three.

What I've figured out is that I've done almost all of the theatre writing, which means I just have to get on the new media train.

I came to a neat discovery about ways to break the fourth-wall too. There are four main ways to alter the wall, three for breaking and one for erasing, which actually has greater likelihood of enforcing.

1) Shrinking.

This is where the screen/interface gets smaller (theatre/film becomes TV, TV becomes new media, especially tablets or phones). The more portable the object, the smaller the screen - and the higher chance of being interrupted by outside stimulus. While shrinking means better access, it also means less concentration.

2) Crossing.

The term is a little contentious, but crossing is the ability to move between interfaces, or to change what is coming through a single screen. Channel surfing on a TV or switching between windows on a computer would be examples of the latter and multiple displays (running two monitors simultaneously, reading a book and watching TV concurrently) or split screens (including two things happening independently on a stage) would be examples of the former. Crossing offers more choice (if one thing isn't doing it for you the other one/s might) but it also lessens the ability to adhere solely to one thing at a time, even if it's just a niggling curiosity as to what might be on the other channel.

3) Breaking.

This can happen in a variety of ways, but the best way to categorise a break is when the virtual world is ruptured by the real world. Virtual worlds are stable representations on the opposite side of the interface to the one you are on. The real world is the actual world you inhabit. If you look at it like this, breaking is pretty simple to accomplish. An actor forgets a line and you remember that you're watching a play. Illusion broken. Your phone rings at the cinema. Virtual world busted. A power outage hits and the TV turns off. You drop your PSP.

The list here is pretty expansive. What becomes really evident though is the more active the involvement, the higher the chance of a break. Cinema and TV are less likely to break than either theatre or new media, precisely because of the combination of higher participation and fragility of their interfaces. Theatre has no tangible screen, which means any malfunction has no delay and a lot of people are going to notice it at the same time. An actor slips and everyone - other actors included - gasps. A server crashes and everyone swears. Your mobile screen cracks and you can't stop thinking about it because everything you look at on your phone is fractured. You fart in the theatre and can't stop thinking about it because someone might notice, especially if had beans for dinner.

Breaks happen in real-time and that's another thing theatre and new media always have over other interfaces. That's where the fragility comes from. Touchscreens are often capacitive, which means they respond to signals from the body. Live, co-present performance is exactly the same as performers respond to the signals from the audience. In both cases the delay is negligible and the glass is really, really thin...

4) Expanding.

In order to combat the problems of the interface, the best way is to make it so huge that the edges don't exist. Virtual reality is the new media way of erasing the interface. By filling the field of vision entirely, the screen is expanded to a degree beyond a typical interface and it becomes resistant to most breakages, power glitches excluded. Theatre has adopted this immersive tactic by creating spaces without stages, converting buildings into virtual worlds or creating performances that exist in unbounded real world space. If there aren't any walls, then you can't break them, right? No interface means no chance of hypermediacy. At least that's the idea.

Still, in order to erase an interface a huge degree of hypermediacy is involved. VR is totally constructed, and the only way to bypass that is to accept it and move on. VR hasn't quite made it there but that's where its headed. Theatre comes much closer. As theatre has always been an obvious construct (I'm just talking in terms of history - as a general rule theatre doesn't take itself too seriously EVER), participants are more inclined to leave judgement at the door and roll with theatre's virtual world. Audiences accept that the whole thing is imaginary and quickly adjust to the transparent immediacy of the experience. Plus there are often other people around in the same boat so there is a very communal, participatory and interactive vibe going on. Even when the performers are separate, audiences have each other to interact with, and when performers integrate it just becomes one huge interactive mess - in a good way.

This is what new media is chasing. Even though it 'started' the idea (and by this I mean new media claims to be the way to get everyone in better than any other media can), theatre grabbed the idea, ran with it and succeeded beyond new media's current capacity if not its wildest dreams.


In this way, theatre remediates new media as the converse occurs. Other interim forms (film and TV) try their best (especially TV) and while TV at least can claim itself as a real-time media, it can't yet attain the interactivity presented by theatre and new media. Film doesn't even factor into the equation.

No wonder theatre practitioners feature so heavily in new media experimentation. Anything goes in theatre so it makes a perfect breeding ground for, well, anything. New media adds the option of doing anything anywhere. While interactive participatory stuff is everywhere in new media (Facebook, Second Life, MMOGs, etc.), until VR exists everywhere, you still have to go somewhere to experience it. And as soon VR gets to that point it'll just become immersive digital theatre anyway, and for anyone that knows about the work of Helen Varley Jamieson, Blast Theory or much of the British-German performance scene, experiments are underway - and not too far off.

Time to bite the bullet?




Monday 9 September 2013

500

I had nothing going into today.

I couldn't hold focus for more than about 5mins. There were only three out of seven, and none of us in a particularly positive frame of mind.

Class aside, I walked out to my desk and went from Chapter 2 1800, to Chapter 2 2300. There is a huge difference between those numbers. One is halfway, the other only needs another 1000. Clearly the mathematics doesn't work out, but that's the nature of the game. It's all about where you feel.

I rolled home and managed to sort my computers out, which is a big thing. This way, I can leave a laptop at my desk and at home. The lighter the load between the two, the more likely I am to make the journey - and the more likely I am to produce work. For some reason, home sucks to study at. I have a feeling it kicked in when I heard the news, but that could be my imagination. Regardless, I work better alone and in space, and the desk at the Hub gives me both - as does my local library.

Anyway, I finished the theatre-film section. I'm on the TV slice with an aim to the new media chunk. Can't wait to be past the 'immediacy' chapter, which is kind of funny considering how obsessed I was with immediacy at the start of the year.

But I'm starving so I'm off to feed, shower and hopefully have a good sleep. I had a glimmer of sleep last night so if that's any indicator, perhaps I can catch a restful night tonight.

Sleep tight fellow lovers. May you all get a good 500 tonight.

Sunday 8 September 2013

Stalling

So zero proper writing today but a few idea chunks to mull over and put into practice.

Did I tell you I got a desk in the Design Hub? I went and used it last week and just ripped through a thousand words in about two hours, and I'm allowed the space Mondays through Wednesdays.

I'll be in there for the next three days and I'll be working up a storm because I don't really have anymore excuses. Fuck whether I feel like it or not - so long as I can knock out the first draft I know I can just edit it until it's great, and if I can do it by COB Thursday I also have time to apply for PhD's.

Again, not sure if I'll do it next year (or if I'll even be accepted!) but worth the experience. I'll do it at some point for certain, so if some poor schmo decides to offer me money I'll take it. If not, I'll work and write until some poor schmo offers me money!!

I have a lot of other life stuff over the next 8 weeks so I have to be really productive with the time I have. I was contemplating taking a train up to NSW so I could get work done without moving around too much - but that is quite an expensive journey.

Anyway, I have a good direction, some good references and a great space to write. I've planned out my September calender, sorted my bicycle and cleaned out my computer.

Time to stop stalling.

Saturday 7 September 2013

Whoops

Mis-timed my work schedule today. Thought I had work at 8pm but it was actually at 3pm. Luckily I'm pretty close so I wasn't very late. Pretty hungry now though!

It did ruin my writing schedule for the day, but that just means two sessions tomorrow instead of one. Tomorrow's aim is to get chapter 2 done or as close as possible. I have a feeling chapter 2 will bleed heavily into chapter 3, and chapter 3 will cycle back into chapter 1 when it's all done which is exactly what I'm looking for. Just need to spit out the words.

This downtime has been great for reading, which in turn has given me a lot more time to focus on the real crux of my essay - the fourth-wall.

If new media is all about participation and interaction, theatre is the artform that best offers these ideas and it did so way before the introduction of interfaces. The newness of new media is in it's ability to bridge distance, but otherwise it adheres to the general theatrical model. While theatre's fourth-wall can be demonstrated as an interface both of itself and in terms of influence on the progression to new media, theatre also anticipated the breaking of this wall as the dominant cultural desire. New media remediates theatrical style and content where theatre remediates new media objects. While the two remediate each other, new media could not exist without theatre but theatre has no requirement for new media.

That's a bit strong but it's kind of the gist.

Man, I need to eat something. Peace.

Back from the dead II

Clearly I've been offline for a while.

I suppose I should make it clear. This post is exactly as it sounds. I was back home in NSW burying one of my best friend's who decided after a long battle with bipolar and schizophrenia that enough was enough and it was time for a change of scenery.

It was a pretty rough ride for those left behind, but on the bright side I saw (and drank with) loads of my friends and families.  Circumstances bad. Reunion good.

Everyone who hasn't seen me over the last couple of weeks has greeted me with the approximate title of this post, which is pretty funny in a morbidly literal sense. All jokes aside, this week I returned to routine (work, gym and writing) and I feel pretty okay.

I'm aiming (high) to have a full draft done around the 12th. Chapter 1 draft is complete, chapter 2 is half done with a pretty solid plan for the remainder and chapter 3 has parts sorted but needs a lot more work. I've been reading like crazy because writing has been a little difficult and the reading has taken my thesis on a slight journey which is both good and bad. On the good side I'm really getting into this genealogy of theatre to new media and back. On the downside, I can already tell where I'll need to do some rewriting - which in a backhanded way is kind of a good thing.

This draft is mainly to get my references in order, or at least to show where and how I might use them. I've shredded my original material, but not in a bad way. I've just been less precious about it.

Sadly I'm not writing in that vein, so the next few days will hopefully be a little more to do with generation. We'll see.

I'm tossing up whether to take special consideration. I know it might be necessary but if I can avoid it I will.  One thing all of this has taught me is that time is really important and how you manage it is big. Before this I figured 'go hard for a year' and then do the next thing, but what good is that if a bus rolls you out of nowhere? I have so much happening early November with friends and family I'm not sure I want to miss it, just in case.

If I need the extension I'll take it, but if I can do without I'll do just that. I'll ask the Boss, because she'll give it to me straight.

Anyway, I'm really tired. But at the very least I have someone to dedicate my work to, and that's one less thing to worry about.

Love to you and yours,

Josh