Can Theater and Media Speak the Same Language Reading Notes Pt. 1

Aronson: Can Theater and Media Speak the Same Language?

• Since it first started in ancient Greece, theater has shown an interest in technology
• The history of scenography is, at least in part, a history of the development of new technologies so that we can create scenic wonder and amazement
• Before the twentieth century, theater technology was mostly mechanical
• The main focus back then was to create an illusion where things appeared to move on their own
• Aronson suggests that some technologies that are used on film and video does not necessarily work just as well on the stage; scenographic vocabulary
o Communication is still possible, but content is overwhelmed by form
• Reasons why projection does not work well on stage:
o Physiology (how the eye sees)
o Psychology (how the brain perceives what it is seeing)
o Philosophy (what vision is, how culture informs the way in which we see)
• All other forms of art aside, theater is the only art form that uses what is signified as the signifier of that object
• Key element of theater: space and volume  time
o Example: actors; they have volume, move through space  move through time
• If a theatrical scenography includes a projected image, then the audience experiences the disjunction of perceiving a different world
• In some cases, the illusion of a projected image works from a limited viewing angle
• Difference between stage and projection:
o Stage: we experience it here and now; we know it exists because we see it in front of our eyes and we can physically touch it
o Projection: exists in the present but the image itself is from the past (photographed or filmed prior to performing)
• Objects or people in the projection may no longer exist, time has transformed the subject while preserving the object  projected image is dead
• One exception: “mummified image” – live video feed that projects a video image as it is captured (temporal dissonance?)
• Framing is crucial to our understanding of the mechanics of perception
• Any stage, no matter how configured or how its architectural design relates to the audience always forms a frame
• Visual image within the frame = obey visual order of an extrinsic world
• One advantage of movies over theater = presents us with an infinite world
• When movies or still pictures are projected on stage, two realities come into conflict: 1) frame has changed 2) raises the pictorial question of figure and ground
• When an a moving or cinematic image is projected on a stage, confusion and dislocation ensues
o An object is more likely to move than the ground, the moving image on the stage further reinforces its function and figure
• Framed projection implies a boundless image. Therefore, tension is present between the potentially unlimited expanse of the image projected and the self-contained-ness of the physical projection
• Complication: onstage we see objects in movement against the generally static ground of the stage VS. in cinema, nothing is stable
• Stage set is almost always permanent and unchanging
• Two similar images are subject to vastly different interpretations because of the quality of the material and the context in which it is read