talulahpollenne-blog

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On Performance, Social Media and Society

“Live performance audiences are characterized by co-present interaction, whereas mediatized audiences can be diffused and feature imagined communities, which are newer ways of experiencing community. Live audiences see unique performances; and these are bounded by space and time. Mediatized audiences, on the other hand, see recorded performances, which are not subject to spatial and temporal constraints” (Hayes 2006:40).

“One of the consitutive elements of social media is that it can create the impression in users that their actions do not have consequences that would ordinarily apply offline” (Lonergan 2016:32)

“People […] prefer to be distracted by spurious and illusory activities, by institutionalized vicarious satisfactions, than to face up to the awareness of how little access they have to the possibility of change today” (Adorno 1991:194)

“Social media platforms such as Twitter, [are] used not only to organised and encourage demonstrations, but also to attract the attention of the international community” (Lonergan 2016:22)

The opening on my research is as follows:

With the rising use and broadcast of social media and mediatization, individual citizens are given platforms to express themselves to their social networks and beyond. A shift in time, and the acceleration of data sharing, impact on the rapidity at which anyone can share a performance of themselves, of someone else, and who can vision it. Today, the whole world can watch a live-stream with only a few seconds delay from the original broadcast an interact with it, sharing, commenting and reacting. This online performance could be that of an amateur puppeteer as well as of a politician addressing crowds.

We observe a blur between amateur and professional performances as well as spectator and “spectactor”. The analogy to Boal’s Theatre of the Oppressed is not neutral; social struggles are being negotiated via new performances, new platforms and by new performers. I insist that politics have in fact been a performance since Ancient Greece, in captivating the masses in atriums and auditoriums, but that their positioning within the world of social media is increasingly changing and shifting towards popular interactive and consumer driven culture and entertainment. See Jeremy Corbyn performing as a main act at Glastonbury 2017 (Facebook) (see https://talulahpollenne.tumblr.com/post/162405103046/jeremy-corbyn).

Culture and society are shifting towards increasingly consumerist activities and more and more “value [...] is grounded in the reach and impact of our posts, [and] by the connections we have forged with others” (Lonergan 2016:14). 

For theatre makers this means that an online presence is primordial for success and following. It also opens up new mediums and media to explore and exploit in multimedium and multimedia performances. 

For theatre goers, the experience of a live performance holds infinite possibilities; the convention of audience and actors separated by the fourth wall is blown up by new time, space and body positioning online and in life. 

For new performances, such as popular politics, a practise that was perhaps more traditionally reserved to the elite becomes widely available, negotiable and appropriable to varied and interconnected audiences increasingly willing to consume and fill new found free time, as well as engage with the world and be heard. 

New communities are formed via social online networking (see https://talulahpollenne.tumblr.com/post/162404148326/inter-connectivity-via-social-media-reference). People become performers and their identities are tailored to their networks. In terms of theatre this fragilizes and changes the potential impact that a performance can have in the long term. On one hand it is archived and available for people to consult and revisit, but on the other hand it is subject to the precarious possibility of being overrun by the next popular video or article. It also gains new ownership as it it passed on, analyzed and reinterpreted through time and space.

Are new performances perhaps simply those that reach the most people and that have the most impact ? Perhaps it no longer matters whether or not I am a trained or qualified performer, as long as I have an extensive online following, intisive and demonstrative identity, and an impactful and entertaining message.

Despite this vision of a new popular politics and performances, journalist Jamie Bartlett (2017) has an interesting view on what could become of popularised politics. Cryto-anarchy ! This no longer directly relates to new performances but is nonetheless fascinating !

References :

Adorno T. W. (1991) The Culture Industry, London, Routledge.  

Bartlett J. (2017) Forget far-right populism – crypto-anarchists are the new masters. The Guardian [online] https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/jun/04/forget-far-right-populism-crypto-anarchists-are-the-new-masters-internet-politics (accessed 14.06.2017)

Facebook (2017). Jeremy Corbyn | Glastonbury 2017. [video]https://www.facebook.com/JeremyCorbynMP/videos/10155505916123872/ (accessed 27.06.2017)

Hayes, S. (2006) Building Community: A Sociology of Theatre Audiences, unpublished PhD thesis, University of Salford.http://usir.salford.ac.uk/2034/1/shPhD2006.pdf (accessed 24.05.2017)

Lonergan P. (2016) Theatre and Social Media, London: Palgrave.

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Media and politics performance. A young man unheard of until 3 years ago, with no party, but a year old online organisation, becomes France’s President.

Reference :

Benard, L. (2017). How the French Media Turned Emmanuel Macron Into a Presidential Candidate. Vice. [online] https://www.vice.com/en_uk/article/4xkw4w/how-the-french-media-turned-emmanuel-macron-into-a-presidential-candidate (accessed 08.06.2017)

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A politician is able to perform at a mainstream cultural event and is broadcast online for millions to see and react to.

Reference :

Facebook (2017). Jeremy Corbyn | Glastonbury 2017. [video] https://www.facebook.com/JeremyCorbynMP/videos/10155505916123872/ (accessed 27.06.2017)

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Stimulus for #icymi (In Case You Missed It 2017)

Reference :

BBC (2017). What Facebook Knows About You. [video] http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08qgbc3 (accssed 09/06/2017)

In Case You Missed It (2017) [user generated content online]https://www.facebook.com/icymi.online/ (accessed 26.05.2017)

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In Case You Missed It, Online Security Campaign

“So if I post something to Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram or Twitter, those companies might profit from the placement of an advertisement or targeted post on my feed; they might also profit from the mining of personal data of the users who read or respond to my post. Perhaps that is the price that we agree to pay when we use social media resources” (Lonergan 2016:28-29).

The aim of the #icymi (In Case You Missed It 2017) campaign was to raise awareness about the ways in which Facebook uses user generated data for its own profit.

We generated online resources such as a website, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter account, and performed a live stream as the main event of our campaign.

Interestingly enough our campaign sought to shed light on the little spoken of commercial activities of such social media platform and challenge these, however we were constrained to utilise these as tools and systems to share our project with an online audience and spread our message. I suppose this is one of the contradictions that occur not only on such a project, but in the every day conflicting online presence and offline life.

On one hand I am quite happy to be able to share articles with my friends and dates of upcoming shows on Facebook for example, or to find out that one of my favourite bands are playing in London, but on the other, I am infuriated when I learn that political parties can pay Facebook to target specific users with propaganda (Booth 2017). During the general election this past month (June 2017) I found that my social media platform restrained me in an eco-chamber of pro-Labour propaganda and I struggled to imagine what a Conservative’s news feed might look like. I was torn between the privilege of instant information and a “disinformation eco system” (Wardie in Post-Truth and Revolution 2017) I was contributing to.

The conflict between an increasingly mediatized society and political systems, correlated with new performances will be explored in On Performance, Social Media and Society (https://talulahpollenne.tumblr.com/post/162428317071/on-performance-social-media-and-society).

References :

Booth R. (2017) Inquiry launched into targeting of UK voters through social media. The Guardian. 17.05.2017 [online] https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/may/17/inquiry-launched-into-how-uk-parties-target-voters-through-social-media (accessed 13.06.2017)

In Case You Missed It (2017) [user generated content online] https://www.facebook.com/icymi.online/ (accessed 26.05.2017)

Lonergan P. (2016) Theatre and Social Media, London: Palgrave.

Post-Truth and Revolution, (2017). [Radio programme] BBC Radio 4. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08q30rg (accessed 15.06.2017)

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Mediatization of a performance where body is the canvas for negotiation and expression.

Reference :

Colfer, D. (2017). Sasha Velour Vs Shea Couleé - So Emotional (Lipsync For Your Life) Grand Finale. [user generated content, online] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AzWhRGZoMdY&feature=youtu.be (accessed 23.06.2017)

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Body

What are body and identity ?

- Contemporary western settings; technologies = external sources to reflect identity, construct..

- Hyper Self-awareness

- Social identity/ies and social interactions impact

- Navigating position of identity and body in the world

- Narcissism

Notes and notions :

Anthropomorphism, imagining or attributing human characteristics to non-human entities (flowers, clouds, mechanisms, buildings..) 

Increasing anthropomorphism to make human relationship with technology easier (Apple’s “hello”, Word’s animated paper clip, emoticons) 

Faces convey expressions: communication.

Today technology and body are being merged (Pistorius, bionic technologies..)  

Alternations/ameliorations of body 

Relationship with technology: portrayal, dependency, addiction

Body as a canvas, object, commodity, stimulus… 

Audiences project their own interpretations on what they see..

Liminality, liminal Gods (spiritual) – where we place ourselves on earth compared to potentially something else. Life and earth -> life on earth -> what life could be 

For theatre: what happens on stage -> The theatre -> what happens in the mind 

The theatre is the liminal state, the potentiality; should transform us and take us out our bodies – emotional and cerebral

Case of celebrity culture, ex: celebrities playing Hamlet: new dimension of their existing identities impacting on the pieces, commercial dimension of exploiting celebrity culture, greed, opportunism.. 

Celebrity culture in the 20s oriented towards women in advertising for ex, aspiring to unattainable fabricated existence. 

Self-portraits (15th century) and selfies, representations and re-representations of self. The selfie, as explored by the exhibition Selfie to Self-Expression (2017); placement of the body in space and time.

Spending more time on earth with increasing use of technologies we see ageing far more (question of women ageing in the acting world vs men) ->body culture and effect

Reflections :

As I understand it, the notion of a body and its placement in the world has shifted with the increasing use and normality of social media.

Let us consider the case of 15 year old Sam Gardiner who in 2012 used the social media Twitter to create the ‘invented personae’ of an established football critic/journalist and gained a consequential online following (Lonergan 2016:12-13).

This young man was able to convince 20,000 followers that he was a completely different person to who he was in “real life”. He performed a chosen identity via the social media platform of his choice, and people bought it.

For me this raises two points, that of 'invented personae’, as well as online social networks which I would assimilate to virtual or non co-present communities.

I wonder whether personae’s shifts, due to the possibility of the total creation of one, mean that all of us can become the performers that we think we want to be. If I can tailor my Instagram to current trends, and only share the pictures that flatter a specific representation of myself, I can create the person I think I should be and appeal to those who respond to my online identity.

I can also truly reach out to people who will have similar defining factors and share, inspire and question. (see https://talulahpollenne.tumblr.com/post/162404627946/mediatization-of-a-performance-where-body-is-the)

At an even more advanced level, I can create an avatar, potentially almost nothing like the person I am offline. Social media users therefore seem to all become performers of their identity, to varying extents.

This in turn suggests that each and everyone of us now holds the power to appeal to various groups of people depending on their chosen identities and the elements of these that they wish to share. We can observe new communities being created via social media, based on common interests, struggles, aspirations, and hash-tags.

Online communities and performed identities are explored in On Performance, Social Media and Society (https://talulahpollenne.tumblr.com/post/162428317071/on-performance-social-media-and-society).

References :

Lonergan P. (2016) Theatre and Social Media, London: Palgrave.

Selfie to Self-Expression (2017) [Exhibition]. Saatchi Gallery, London. 31st March – 28th May 2017.

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I am sensitive to the simple contemplation of time in this piece. The repetitions and overlapping of lyrics and sounds coincides with my vision of time; “it happens all the time”. The digital aspect to this track responds to a digital era, time and space functioning on a digital level.

Simple or bewildering ?

Reference :

Jaar, N. (2017). Space Is Only Noise If You Can See. [online] New York: Circus Company. https://soundcloud.com/dacso/nicolas-jaar-space-is-only (accessed 05/05/2017)

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Inter-connectivity via social media.

Reference :

TEDx Talks (2015). Virtual communities and social media. [video] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5txst5mOywM&feature=youtu.be (accessed 15/06/2017)

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Space

What are space and proximity ?

- Culturally defined

- Personal (myself in the space)

- Volume/Capacity

- Bodies and their association to other bodies (space and non-space between them)

- Cosmic space

- What is our space ? National identity

Notes :

England: what makes the british identity ? what is a threat to what is familiar ? Rural vs urban identity changes this perception. 

Geographical space, constituted by physical boundaries. ie, a country

Cultural space, constituted through tradition and meaning. ie, a theatre

Social space, constituted by relationships. ie, a bar

Economic space, constituted by means of consumption. ie, a globalised world

All of these spaces intertwine!

From Local to Global: “In strictly social terms, the major consequence of the two revolutions was undoubtedly the increasingly rapid transformation of society from one in which the centuries-old unities of extended family, community, and religion had traditionally been the governing realities in human life to one in which more individualistic, contractual, and money oriented relationships became dominant” (Nisbet in Hayes 2006:11)

Capitalist and neoliberal space

Space and Communication: web and social media can create a new space for sharing, discussing, debating and negotiating

Proximity : street theatre, anyone can watch, the theatre engages with the space

New found proximity to culture influences the arts and their consumption

Reflections:

The first thing that comes to mind is that art is created in response to the artist’s environment. This environment is created by the people who occupy it and its geographic location/locations. So this “space” that the artist occupies influences and conditions the art.

That space will also have a direct impact on audiences. If proximity to culture/cultures influences the artist, then this also has a direct impact on audiences and spectators.

So in a world that is less and less restricted geographically, or by space, and that offers more and more proximity, what is the impact on art ? Does it become more available and accessible ? Do artist have a bigger responsibility in addressing a global audience ?

I do know that in this day and age it is so much easier to get your work “out there” than it may have been a decade ago. I don’t know however if it makes the artist’s job any easier in terms of significant outreach and authentic art.

“Social media is a space for the performance of identities” (Longeran 2016:14). This statement relates back to questions of body and identity, and new platforms for the performance of these, with social media platform acting as “archives, performance spaces, meeting points” (Lonergan 2016:22).

Indeed the web, and social media platforms offer new and globalised spaces for performances to occur. Indeed this can be the live transmission via satellite of an opera at a local cinema (Showcase Cinemas, 2017), as well as suicides being broadcasted on platforms such as Periscope (owned by Twitter) (BBC 2016). This last and shocking example aims to illustrate the variety in material as well as platform.

The notion of performance resides on an almost infinite spectrum but what is of value to note is the fact that performers have found a space in which to share their work. Everyone becomes able to publish their work and anyone can access it through the new online space.

This has social and cultural consequences that are explored in On Performance, Social Media and Society (https://talulahpollenne.tumblr.com/post/162428317071/on-performance-social-media-and-society).

References :

BBC. (2016) Woman ‘live-streamed her own suicide on Periscope’. [online]http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-36267011 (accessed 17/06/2017)

Hayes, S. (2006) Building Community: A Sociology of Theatre Audiences, unpublished PhD thesis, University of Salford. [online]http://usir.salford.ac.uk/2034/1/shPhD2006.pdf (accessed 24.05.2017)

Lonergan P. (2016) Theatre and Social Media, London, Palgrave.

Showcase Cinemas (2017) Film Info, All Opera: La Traviata. [online] https://www.showcasecinemas.co.uk/film-info/all-opera-la-traviata#PDIlEpEO8rAXzgoI.97 (accessed 17/06/2017)

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Acceleration via technology. “Technology is advancing at a speed that we haven’t seen before” (Frankland 2017).

Reference :

BBC Radio 4 (2017). Today. [podcast] http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08vwn8b (accessed 30.06.2017)

TED (2007). The accelerating power of technology. [video] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IfbOyw3CT6A&feature=youtu.be (accessed 06/06/2017)

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Time

What are time and liveness ?

- Perception of time through presence, control, relativity.

- Time as defined by what occupies it, this space.

- Socially constructed

Notes :

Linear time; from birth to death: a life time.

Cycles of time; from menstruation to climate change!: repetitive events.

Shifts of time between what is in the future, the urgency of the present and the remains of the past.

Revolution of ‘time’ with Industrial Revolution: automatisation and improved connectivity.

“When you stir your rice pudding, Septimus, the spoonful of jam spreads itself round making red trails like the picture of a meteor in my astronomical atlas. But if you stir backwards, the jam will not come together again. Indeed, the pudding does not notice and continues to turn pink just as before. Do you think this is odd?” (Stoppard 1993:4). This quote from Stoppard’s Arcardia sees Thomasina’s character reflect upon the theory of chaos and represent time as a non reversible notion. The arrow of time going from order to disorder.

Einstein’s Special Relativity: idea that position of body in space impacts time. 

Notion of free time: “organised freedom” for the profit of “institutions” and “industries” but “people are unaware of how unfree they are” (Adorno 1991:190-191. Here Adorno refers specifically to the camping industry however the occupation of free time can be drawn to the time we spend on social media today.

What defines the liveness of a performance ?

Is the immediate consumption of performance deemed an attribute of live ? Or is it the bodies present in the space that define the live aspect to a performance ? If a viewer witnesses a live transmission of a piece from the comfort of their home, does this reduce the "live" experience of the piece ?

I believe the immediacy of experience complicates the question of live performance. Indeed, if I witness action here and now, I consider it as live. The action happens before me and I consume it in the moment, process it via my understanding and maybe take something away from it. I am in the moment, in a particular space. For me, this is live.

In theatre, actors have been rehearsing the piece before the audience ever sees it. Theatre is live because bodies are experiencing the action in the space and at a given time. However, the piece is live on many occasions. It changes because the actors are alive and therefore the piece is subject to their own changes. A specific piece might be on tour and therefore continues to be live, beyond the time frame of one showing of it. It also continues to live in the minds of audiences.

As for watching the news, or listening to the radio, or reading a stream of comments on a user generated online content, these events are characterised by a dimension of 'liveness' too. One is listening to and responding to what is being broadcast at that very moment. What is seen or heard may have been recorded days or weeks before but it is the fact that one is subject to it in the present that makes it live.

Therefore with new recording and storing technologies, and platforms to share these digital archives, we notice a shift and acceleration in time. "For most of human history, social networks were the dominant means by which new ideas and information spread” (Standage in Lonergan 2016:16). Now social networks have the privilege of almost instant communication, therefore accelerating time.

The shifts in what can be perceived as live and what impact this has on our time are explored in On Performance, Social Media and Society (https://talulahpollenne.tumblr.com/post/162428317071/on-performance-social-media-and-society).

References :

Adorno T. W. (1991) The Culture Industry, London, Routledge.

Lonergan P. (2016) Theatre and Social Media, London, Palgrave.

Stoppard, T. (1993) Arcadia, Plymouth, Latimer Trend Co.Ltd.