MULTIMEDIA IN PERFORMANCE

Essay Interactive Multimedia Masters

Alexadra Coa
February 2015

Art has long been interdisciplinary plays where actors sing and dance, visual artworks that
use text or contain poems. Technological advancements, increasing availability and
accessibility of accessories and gadgets have facilitated the interference of various
technological elements into the artwork. What was once a rigid line that separated the arts and
humanities from science and technology is now becoming blurred through experimentation
and exploration in contemporary work, which is being enriched with the newly found
dimensions of multimedia.[1]
I believe that as art in itself progresses, in general it is becoming more and more focused on the
means of expression as opposed to the content. In a certain way we could say that even if the
themes remain largely classical, the work tells stories that we already know, it is trying to find a
way to tell it that has not been done before. As Marshall McLuhans theory suggests media is
the message.[2]
Currently, the digital is a mainstream phenomenon, it is an essential part of almost all cultural
activity; in the Performance Arts this ranges from explicit use in digital performance to the
more concealed use in lighting and sound design and operation. The application of multimedia
is dependent on the availability of equipment, technical skills and understanding of the
medium so this is challenging artists to become open to new developments in the technological
field and how they might be integrated in their work, as well as technical experts with a passion
for the artistic expression to find new and creative ways to adapt and integrate these solutions
to the artwork/performance.

Elements of Multimedia in Performance

The Oxford English Dictionary defines the term multimedia (when applied to performing
arts) as more than one medium of communication, artistic expression and designing or
relating applications which incorporate a number of media such as text, audio, video and
animation, especially interactively.
Starting from this we can observe a first distinction between two different types of multimedia
performance: the various media elements can either be produced and pre-recorded or
generated in real-time, which determine whether the multimedia performance is either linear
or interactive. As multimedia continues to develop more and more in sophistication, in
performance this brings about a progressing from linear to the use of highly interactive digital
technology.
Multimedia can bring with it new aesthetic possibilities, but is also becoming an agent of the
narrative by adding depth and complexity to the fictional space.[3] It creates opportunities for
improvisation this means that despite the possible pre-recorded nature of multimedia
elements, each presentation of multimedia that involves live actors or even the audience can
still create a unique performance experience. At the same time, the idea of live performance is
Multimedia in Performance

challenged by the inclusion of multimedia elements, because their world is filled with
technologies that contain multimedia applications.
When it comes to the reception, the audience can either be experiencing the performance
intentionally, on purpose, as a traditional spectator, or by being a chance witness. In some
cases, the spectator might become knowingly or unknowingly involved in the process,
assuming the role of the spectactor. Given that many multimedia performances have very
positive results through improvisation, the artist is also presented with more opportunity to
open up his work to the audience. He still remains with the option of staging everything in a
controlled space and working together with actors/dancers/performers according to a specific
script, however one might also choose to let the audience experience a certain installation on
its own. As performance style evolves further and further away from just the basic visual and
audio product, the extraordinary lies in the kinetic experience that is added on top, so the
audience gets to perceive the work in all its dimensions.

The concept of ... (here and now) Klaus Obermaier

The concept of ... (here and now) is a dance performance by Austrian media artist Klaus
Obermaier, which heavily involves digital techniques and interactivity. It uses dance as the
driver for a complex fusion of music, lighting and real time video processing.
In this case it is the choreography that becomes the generator of music and space, with the use
of cameras and large projection screens, the performance space is split in two one where we
can see the live dancer performing the choreography and a second plane, where all phantasy is
projected, processed and manipulated, where silhouettes are deformed or infinitely multiplied,
where the movement of the dancers is mapped either in terms of speed or amplitude and then
superposed with the live video feed and at times with the music. Sometimes profound,
sometimes mysterious, sometimes playful, the outcome is always an immediate, yet
wonderfully distorted replication of the present moment. [5]

Hakana - Adrien M / Claire B

Hakana is an interactive dance performance which involves moving images in a volume.
Hakana is an old Japanese word that defines something that is impermanent, fragile,
evanescent, transient, between dream and reality. The performance plays upon this meaning,
by envisaging a dancer that gives rise to a space that seems at the fringe of the imaginary and
the real[6]. The images are animated live according to physical patterns of movement, the
rhythm of a sound design also performed live. The artists also opened the installation to
spectators after the actual performance time.

Multimedia in Performance

A mesh of letters, numbers, as well as geometrically precise patterns and shapes are generated
in real time and projected in the 3D space, perfectly defined, but fluid and completely
synchronized with the movement and gestures of the performer, like an echo of ones feelings.
Computers are in this case used to build a poetic tools, deflected from their functional utility,
they allow the production of new synthetic although sensitive areas. They open the doors of
imagination and blur the lines between the real and the virtual.

What might follow

One of the more obvious trends is definitely the stronger evolution towards interactivity, which
is becoming increasingly granular. With technological developments such as computer
capabilities, increasingly precise sensors, novel projection methods, it is becoming easier to
design solutions as well as process heavy data such as live video feeds and 2D/3D rendering.
On the other hand, I believe that what is truly of great potential in multimedia performance is
in the great shift that contemporary art is making towards the political, the functional the
way that artist, in my opinion, feels more responsibility and wants to dedicate their work to
social purposes. The greatness consists in the very powerful effects on the audience given by
novelty and the element of surprise when an interactive multimedia installation or
performance takes place in an unexpected space and people only later realize that they had
unknowingly participated, unintentionally become part of the performance.

References
[1] Paul Johnson (2014), Science, performance and transformation: performance for a
scientific age?, International Journal of Performance Arts and Digital Media
[2] Multimedia in performance. An Introduction (MMI 01 Resources)
[3] Pauline Sheldrake (2007), Weaving Worlds: Multimedia and space in contemporary theater,
MA Thesis Queensland University of Technology
[4] Rodica Mocan, Interviu Klaus Obermaier I and II
[5] http://www.exile.at/concept/movie.html
[6] http://www.creativeapplications.net/

Multimedia in Performance