#livenessdebate

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Introduction:

‘L&D’ began as an exploration of the liveness debate and how one might deceive an audience into a portrayal of live movement both physically and digitally. It shows how movement and speech can be perceived to be live to an audience but on the contrary in reality it has been pre-recorded. Subsequently, whilst liveness and deception were the fundamental basis of the piece, it was the introduction of the theoretical paradox’s of ‘The Ship of Theseus’ and the ‘Teletransportation Paradox’ that informed the conceptual nature of the choreography; the driving force behind choreographic decisions. Throughout this blog I will explain both paradoxes in detail and elaborate on their importance to the process culminating in the final product whilst also exploring their unlikely relation to the liveness debate; particularly between the Teletransportation Paradox and the liveness debate.

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‘Liveness’ and The Ship of Theseus:

The liveness debate has been deliberated for a long time within the dance space since the term live was coined. The debate being on various points of live/mediatised dance space, but largely on the notion that dance is ephemeral, it is experienced in the moment and any attempt to recreate that does not hold as much value. As Peggy Phelan states in ‘The Ontology of Performance: Representation Without Reproduction’ ‘Performance’s only life is in the presence. Performance cannot be saved, recorded, documented, or otherwise participate in the circulation of representations of representations.’ (Phelan, 1993:146) The idea that performance is fleeting and that any representation or reproduction in a mediatised form is no longer characteristic of the performance, follows the same principles of the ‘best candidate’ theory of ‘The Ship of Theseus’ paradox. As I wanted to explore the fleeting nature of dance in the live space I decided on performing a repetative movement sequence, recorded and then projected onto a screen and then re-recorded, to then again be projected during the final performance, with the camera still left in the space.

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How I applied the Liveness debate through the technology:

The resoning behind having the camera set up in the space was to give the illusion that the feed was live, addressing that with new advancements in technology, including the introduction of live feed that it has been incorporated into modern life culture. ‘Live performance now often incorporates mediatisation to the degree that the live event itself is a product of media technologies… In the theatre, as at the stadium you are often watching television even when attending the live event, and audiences now expect live performances to resemble mediatized ones.’  (Auslander, 2008:25&26) Upon reflection the set up of the performance resembled that of a miniature concert, with the projector and two smaller screens, not too dissimilar to the popular set up used at music and comedy festivals.

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How I applied the Liveness debate through the technology part 2:

But as the sequence was repeated. The reasoning for repetition is explained further in blog post ‘Choreographic decisions for projection’) the intention was for the audience to notice the other elements of the performance, that in order for the projection to be live the presentations on the projection would reflect upon itself and go on endlessly, much like when you face two mirrors towards each other creating an infinite reflection. The difference being that the recordings is not a reflection of one another but a reproduction. Hence, if you were to apply situation 2 of ‘The Ship of Theseus’ to the individual recordings and the live moment; meaning the original recording, the recording with the original and the live performance individual Identify with the original ‘Ship of Theseus’ and ship A and B respectively.