where to start

We are in a period of transition caused by a dramatic rise in digital technologies such as the internet and mobile phones, and the shared spaces that they occupy. Corporations are watching nervously as niche becomes the new black. Traditional models of content production, distribution and revenue generation tumble precariously into an open source culture of shared ownership, content management systems and audience participation.

Theatre, once a device to manage the masses, is now challenging the public with invisible interventions in physical and virtual spaces, far removed from the fourth wall or black box. Grammars of film have evolved from the one-to-one of the zoetrope, the one-to-many of the cinema screen, the one-to-few of television and more recently the one-to-one-to-one viral nature of internet and mobile phone platforms.

This blog aims to explore interdisciplinary creative practice, particularly theatre and performance art, cinema and digital video production & dissemination, new media arts (specifically the internet and mobile phones), open source technologies and collaborative experiences. My foraging will drift across shared and live events, from Festivals through to the Theatre of Sport, celebrating the best and worst examples I have stumbled upon, and the input and feedback of others.

My aim is that this will become a shared space where practitioners and researchers can contribute to the discussion, with invited guest bloggers to quietly whisper their own voices in this burgeoning world of noise. I do not aim to provide solutions, merely document the world I see changing around me. Or is that perhaps a world that I am changing around me?


My Background.

It might help if you know why I care about all this. I went to my first show at Manchester's Royal Exchange when I was thirteen, spending the majority of it watching the crew with their swift and subtle set changes, and the slow cross fading of lighting and sound cues. I was hooked and worked solidly at every Theatre that would have me, but never even contemplated being able to actually study something that was just so fun. Fortunately I was wrong, and found the perfect course, embedded in a sculpture park, with some inspirationally wild playmates.

My first degree was in Theatre Design & Technology where I was introduced to the work of performance artist Roselee Goldberg, the scenographer Josef Svoboda, the costume extrovert Oskar Schlemmer and the mask work of the Commedia dell'arte. My college multimedia performances were criticised for "containing too many media", resulting in a "minimalistic mixed media" final show; and so I was introduced to the dichotomy of education and production.

My Masters was in Interactive Multimedia Production, the first course of it's type in the UK, associated to the School of Computing and Mathematics and not the Design School where it currently resides. When my final project (a 'Media Virus' driven online community with a live multimedia, performance art, dj/vj, UK book launch for Douglas Rushkoff's "Ecstasy Club") was presented, the lecturers had no idea how to mark me. How could anyone know if my experimental approaches were right, or wrong? What questions were being asked or answered within this crazed online/offline shared social network performance? Did it matter that many of our audiences thought they were simply attending a rave? Somehow I graduated regardless, and moved into the world of new media through my first job as Projects Assistant for the International Symposium on Electronic Art in Liverpool & Manchester.

My company's first project, the-phone-book.com, was an experiment in the world of online publishing (now called "User Generated Content") under the constraints of the technical limitations of mobile internet (then WAP1.0). This quickly lead to questioning the commercial opportunities for artistic ringtones and logos, artones.net. Both projects demonstrated the need to educate not only the creators of mobile content but also their potential future audiences, and so the-sketch-book.com was born.

Several projects and education programmes later, we have returned to our performance roots with a promenade piece, The Burgess Project. This was an experiment in the generation of new work, delivered in old and new medias, large and small screens, live and virtual contexts, with linear and non linear narratives and interactive experiences from two-way text messaging and bluetooth broadcasting, to a large scale public sing-along.

The energy and stimulation that The Burgess Project reignited naturally clashed with the constraints Business places on Creativity, leading us to make the decision to break ourselves in two. the-phone-book Limited will continue to produce & deliver train the trainer masterclasses, bespoke learning, production environments and consultation on emerging technologies for creative practice. A new company, honeycomb, will celebrate "the messy space" through research and experimentation, and all things process.

honeycomb demonstrates a real need to return to my passion for 'the live', particularly inspired by the work of Quebecois' Robert Lepage, his innovative use of technology within dynamic theatricality, and his brave use of the collaborative process for his global ambitions.

It is therefore with Monsieur Lepage that I will start my core research, with generous input from colleague (and hopefully one day PhD mentor), Aleksandar Dundjerovic, who has already published two books about Lepage, one on his Cinema and one on his Theatricality.

I'm not sure where this journey will end, but if I am able to continue to learn from the many people with whom I have shared a passion for theatre, technology, wine and life, then I will count myself most fortunate. If it does indeed lead to a PhD, then I will most unfortunately risk becoming "Professor Plum"...