Packer, Jordan, Wagner and New Media

     Randall Packer and Ken Jordan's "Overture", discusses the "interactive" media that has been developed through not just the past few years, but the past hundreds of years. When you read the word "interactive" you are probably thinking of interactive, performance art. This might even make you think of the work of Abramović for example. Interactive media is an art. You live and breath the future when you are experience new multimedia like VR or even AI. We are only experiencing the beginning of what we know about multimedia. 

    Packer and Jordan also write about the works of Wagner and the effect he has had on today's media from over 100 years ago. Wagner opened a theater called Festpielhaus. If you search up the translation of this, it means "festival hall". This was an amphitheater, much like Shakespeare used to use back in his day. The shape and purpose of this theater was to have the audience almost be one with the art or performance. The "pit" as they call it in the theater world, dropped down in front of the stage where the orchestra and musicians played. The circular feel of this theater keeps the audience fully engaged with the performance that is occurring. I believe all theaters should be built this way. Much like the Colosseum, although the performance was straight ahead or raised above the eye level instead of the viewer having to look down, this theater layout allowed the audience to not just watch the performance, but be a part of it. The audience is the new main focus of the art itself. We see this with virtual reality when we physically become one with the game by putting the goggles on and becoming a character inside that game's world. Theater is much like this in the fact that you become so intrigued by the story and it's characters that you almost feel you are in their world and environment. 

    One example of the audience being so included in the art itself is when I went to see Once On This Island on Broadway a couple of years ago. This took place at Circle In The Square Theatre in New York, New York. This theater had lights shining on not just the middle stage, but the audience as well. My best friend and I went for his birthday and we sat front row. Obviously this performance takes place on an island, so there was sand for the base layer of the stage. Our, not literal, toes were in the sand because we sat up front. The actors make you feel apart of the production by reaching to you, dancing to you, singing to you and maybe even landing their lines at you. It was an incredible experience, much different from the handfuls of other Broadway shows I have seen.