International Journal of Performance Arts and Digital Media: Volume: 3 | Issue: 2-3

Volume 3 Number 2&3 – 2007 Special Issue: Performance and play: Technologies of presence in performance, gaming and experience design (Guest editor: Lizbeth Goodman with Deveril, Esther MacCallum-Stewart & Alec Robertson) 97–99

Editorial Performing and Being (There) live and online Lizbeth Goodman

101–102

Introduction Part 1: Performance futures: Bodies in movement, viewed through multiple screens Introduced by Lizbeth Goodman

103–121 123–138 139–150 151–165

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183–195 197–208 209–222 223–236

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253–267 269–279 281–294

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Introduction Part 2: First, second and third spaces: Digital narratives and the spaces of performance Introduced by Lizbeth Goodman Article Hotel Pro Forma’s The Algebra of Place; destabilising the original and the copy in intermedial contemporary performance David Fenton Orienteering with double moss: The cartographies of half/angel’s The Knitting Map Deborah Barkun and Jools Gilson-Ellis The warfare of the imagined – building identities in Second Life Dr. Esther MacCallum-Stewart Embodied narrative: The virtual nomad and the meta dreamer Denise Doyle and Taey Kim Playing the third place: Spatial modalities in contemporary game environments Axel Stockburger Introduction Part 3: Complexity: The theory into the practice Introduced by Alec Robertson Article Emergence and complexity: Some observations and reflections on transdisciplinary research involving performative contexts and new media Dave Everitt and Alec Robertson Reconstruction theory: Designing the space of possibility in complex media Karen Cham Emergent objects: Designing through performance Alice Bayliss, Joslin McKinney, Sita Popat and Mick Wallis An approach to the design of interactive environments, with reference to choreography, architecture, the science of complex systems and 4D design Alec Robertson, Sophia Lycouris and Jeffrey Johnson Index

ISSN 1479-4713

www.intellectbooks.com

intellect

9 771479 471004

03

3.2&3 International Journal of

Performance Arts and Digital Media

intellect Journals | Theatre & Performance

239–252

Article Performing self beyond the body: Replay culture replayed Lizbeth Goodman Performing in (virtual) spaces: Embodiment and being in virtual environments Jacquelyn Ford Morie Being there: Heidegger and the phenomenon of presence in telematic performance Martha Ladly Ersatz dancing: Negotiating the live and mediated in digital performance practice Helen Bailey

ISSN 1479-4713

Volume Three Number Two and Three

Performance Arts and Digital Media

International Journal of Performance Arts and Digital Media | Volume Three Number Two and Three

International Journal of

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International Journal of Performance Arts and Digital Media Volume 3 Number 2-3 The International Journal of Performance Arts and Digital Media draws its contributions from researchers and practitioners placed at the rapidly developing interface of new media technologies and performance arts. As such, it acts as a forum for both creative thinking and innovative practice in theatre, dance, music and live art. Contributions cover work that is either domain-specific or where disciplines are in convergence. The journal actively encourages debate and cross-disciplinary exchange across a broad range of approaches. Such debate may extend into associated implications for teaching and research at both undergraduate and postgraduate level. The spectrum of topics identified in the scope includes areas such as virtual and physical bodies, distributed non-linear performance, interactive performative installations, and real-time music performance interfaces, among many others. However, all subjects within or across the disciplines will be considered. This journal presents an innovative platform for lecturers, researchers, students, practitioners and educators in music, theatre, dance and the live arts to both learn and contribute. Furthermore, it allows researchers and software/ hardware developers with an interest in the performance arts to become more involved in the debates surrounding their work.

Editorial Advisory Board Philip Auslander – Georgia Inst. of Technology, USA Johannes Birringer – Brunel University, UK Glorianna Davenport – MIT, Cambridge, USA Jane Davidson – University of Sheffield, UK Scott deLahunta – Dartington College, UK Duncan Holt – University of Hull, UK Susan Kozel – SMARTlab, University of East London, UK Simon Lock – University of Lancaster, UK Gary McPherson – University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA Lisa Naugle – University of California, Irvine, USA Kia Ng – University of Leeds, UK James Oliverio – University of Florida, USA Gordon Ramsay – University of Nottingham, UK Paul Sermon – University of Salford, UK Jenn Sheridan – BigDog Interactive Kate Sicchio – University Centre, Doncaster College, UK Barry Smith – University of Bristol, UK Andrea Zapp – Manchester Metropolitan University, UK

Editor David Collins School of Intermedia and Performance Arts, University Centre Doncaster College High Melton Doncaster DN5 7SZ E-mail: [email protected] Associate Editors Alice Bayliss University of Leeds E-mail: [email protected] Steve Dixon Brunel University E-mail: [email protected] Sita Popat University of Leeds E-mail: [email protected] Book Review Editor Barry Smith University of Bristol, UK Editorial Assistant Julie Northmore School of Intermedia and Performance Arts Doncaster College High Melton Doncaster DN5 7SZ E-mail: [email protected] Tel: 01302 553553 ext 4215

The views expressed in this journal are those of the authors and do not necessarily coincide with those of the Editor or the members of the Editorial Advisory Board. International Journal of Performance Arts and Digital Media is published three times per year by Intellect, PO Box 862, Bristol BS99 1DE, UK. The current subscription rates are £30 (personal) and £210 (institutional). Postage for each volume is free within the UK, £5 within Europe, and £10 outside of Europe. Enquiries and bookings for advertising should be addressed to the Marketing Manager at Intellect. ISSN 1479-4713 © 2007 Intellect Ltd. Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use or the internal or personal use of specific clients is granted by Intellect Ltd for libraries and other users registered with the Copyright Licensing Agency (CLA) in the UK or the Copyright Clearance Center (CCC) Transactional Reporting Service in Printed and bound in Great Britain by 4Edge, UK the USA provided that the base fee is paid directly to the relevant organization.

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Notes for Contributors Opinion The views expressed in the journal are those of the authors, and do not necessarily coincide with those of the Editor or the Editorial Advisory Board. Referees The International Journal of Performance Arts and Digital Media is a refereed journal. Referees are chosen for their expertise within the subject area. They are asked to comment on comprehensibility, originality and scholarly worth of the article submitted. Length Articles should not normally exceed 6000 words in length. Submitting Articles/visual texts should be original and not be under consideration by any other publication. Three hard copies must be sent to the editor, typewritten or printed on one side only, and double-spaced. If the article is accepted, it should be put on disk, with any required amendments, and this electronic version of the article as agreed for final publication should then be sent to the Editor. The electronic version should be in Word, and be submitted on a 3.5 inch disk or CD, along with a hard-copy version. The disk should be labelled with the name of the author, the title of the article, and the software used. (Formats other than Word are not encouraged, but please contact the editor for further details.) Please provide a self-addressed envelope to cover the return postage of submissions. Language The journal uses standard British English. The editor reserves the right to alter usage to this end. Foreign words and sentences inserted in the text should be italicised. Because of the interdisciplinary nature of the readership, jargon should be kept to a minimum. Whereas articles in other languages may be submitted for review, translation into English will be the responsibility of authors should they be accepted for publication. Hard copy Hard copy text should be double-spaced and single-sided with at least a 3cm left margin. Software The journal is set with Apple Macintosh equipment and reset using QuarkXPress; it is therefore best whenever possible to supply text in Word as this crosses easily from PC to Mac systems.

Author biography A note on each author is required, and this should include details of their current position, their institution, institutional mail and email address, or an alternative contact address if necessary. This should not exceed 80 words. Abstract and keywords Each article should be accompanied by an abstract, which should not exceed 150 words in length and should concentrate on the significant findings. Authors may submit a second abstract in a first language other than English also where appropriate. Each article should also be supplied with 3–5 keywords for searching purposes. Headings The main text should be clearly organised with a hierarchy of heading and subheadings. Main headings should be typed in lower case, bold and increased size; secondary headings should be in lower case, bold italic. Quotations Quotations exceeding 40 words are displayed (indented) in the text. These paragraph quotations must be indented with an additional one-line space above and below and without quotes. Captions All illustrations should be accompanied by a caption, which should include the figure number. and the acknowledgement to the holder of the copyright. Notes Notes will appear at the side of appropriate pages, but the numerical sequence runs throughout the article. These should be kept as short as possible and to a minimum, and be identified by a superscript numeral. References and Bibliography These should be listed alphabetically at the end of paper and must adhere to the following models: Books: author’s full name, title (italics), place of publication, publisher, year, and page reference. Articles: author’s full name, title (within single quotation marks), name of journal (italics), volume and issue numbers, date, and page reference. A bibliography may be included if this is deemed to be a necessary addition to the sidenotes.

Visual Materials Illustrations to articles are welcome when they assist discussion of artworks, learning activities and/or environments. Generally, only non-colour reproduction is available. All illustrations, photographs, diagrams, maps etc. should follow the same numerical sequence and be shown as Figure 1, Figure 2 etc. Please do not send original slides, photographs and other artworks. If originals are all that is available, these will need to be supplied electronically. Visuals in proposals should initially be sent as low-res JPEG files on PC formatted floppy disk or as an email attachment. They should be accompanied by an electronic version of the original text in MS Word on either 3.5 inch PC formatted disk or a CD. If articles are selected for publication contributors will be asked to provide images to the Editor with respect to Intellect’s Notes to Contributors. Copyright Before publication, authors are requested to assign copyright to the Journal subject to retaining their right to reuse the material in other publications written or edited by themselves and due to be published at least one year after initial publication in the Journal. A credit to the publisher and the original source should be cited if an article that appears in the Journal is subsequently reprinted elsewhere. Permissions Copyright clearance should be indicated by the contributor and is always the responsibility of the contributor. The source has to be indicated beneath the text. When they are on a separate sheet or file, indication must be given as to where they should be placed in the text. The author has responsibility to ensure that the proper permissions/model for visual image releases are obtained. Reviewing Please contact the Editor if you are interested in reviewing for this journal. Contributions welcome The Editor welcomes contributions. Any matter concerning the format and presentation of articles not covered by the above notes should be addressed to the Editor, David Collins, School of Intermedia and Performance Arts, Doncaster College, High Melton, Doncaster DN5 7SZ. Email: [email protected]

Any matters concerning the format and presentation of articles not covered by the above notes should be addressed to the Editor. The guidance on this page is by no means comprehensive: it must be read in conjunction with Intellect Notes for Contributors. These notes can be referred to by contributors to any of Intellect’s journals, and so are, in turn, not sufficient; contributors will also need to refer to the guidance such as this given for each specific journal. Intellect Notes for Contributors is obtainable from www.intellectbooks.com/journals, or on request from the Editor of this journal. For additional guidance on submissions, reviewers guidelines or general information, please contact David Collins. Email: [email protected].

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International Journal of Performance Arts and Digital Media, Volume 3 Number 2 & 3. © Intellect Ltd 2007. Editorial. English language. doi: 10.1386/padm.3.2&3.97/2

Editorial Performing and Being (There) live and online Lizbeth Goodman SMARTlab, University of East London As each live performance team struggles with issues of documentation, so too do mediated performance teams struggle with issues of technological change and rapid ‘upgrading’ of systems that outstrip most academic budgets and project time frames. Some of these same issues impact on creative design teams: whether for scholars studying user-centred design methods, or for practitioners engaging in research and knowledge exchange projects. At the same time, many of us fight to beat the daily clock, to expand the space-time continuum just far enough to cram in that much needed ‘spare’ time before and after the full-time working day, to allow for reading and scholarly reflection, creative writing or design work, rehearsal, performance, filming, editing and more critical reflection. There is rarely enough time to engage in both the time-based arts and the scholarly consideration of them, and yet, we make time, all of us, somehow. This work matters, and is developing rapidly, and is shaping the scholarly as well as the practical parameters of the next generation (of students, or researchers, of makers, producers and of consumers or – in computer terms – of ‘users’). This is itself a feat of considerable complexity and dedication to design, and in some senses can also be seen as a form of ‘magic’, or of creative invention the rules of which cannot be shared because they are reinvented with each act of engagement (whether intentional or not) with the social necessity of making time for work that matters. Within all this, the academic domain of performance art has, in recent years, had its borders further challenged by the advent of game studies and theory, and the interplay of design and experience design with the fields once recognisable for their focus on bodies in spaces. In addition to including representatives from art, fashion, design and architecture in any given performance team, it is now typical to include experts from a much wider range of disciplines too. Drama and theatre studies have made room for live art, performance art and also mediated performance and embodiment studies. With the growth of all these distinct but overlapping fields, ideas have evolved along with the scholarly community’s vocabularies and critical frameworks for engaging and analysing with the emergent ideas, so that in 2007, a study of performance and play also reaches quite naturally and seemlessly into the domains of computer science, informatics and

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engineering (with work that engages with artificial intelligence and robotics, including computer vision, sonic design etc.), psychology (with virtual reality studies), education (with the increasingly common focus on role play and interaction design in virtual learning environments and online games), on gender studies (in terms of avatar role play), philosophy and phenomenology), critical theory (with the theoretical framing of time-based arts and media in terms of their cultural status and complex ideological systems and impacts). The list goes on . . . Within this increasingly interdisciplinary academic world, scholars and practitioners are, quite sensibly, seeking out new methods of working together to address key concerns with shared vocabularies and joined-up thinking and implementation strategies. The authors in this special double issue of IJPDM were all encouraged to address their own work in relation to the wider field: to consider the impact of play in its widest forms to their own work, and to show some of the steps that lead between performance, digital media, game studies and play in design. In Part 1, the focus is on Performance Futures, with a focus on Bodies in Movement as viewed through Multiple Screens. The authors in this section were invited to address their own subjects whilst framing larger issues from the fields of Performance and New Technology, Psychology and Virtual Reality, and Dance Studies. In Part 2, the focus shifts to the domains of scholarship that reach back towards performance from Gaming and Experience Design, with authors contributing from the fields of Theatre, Game Studies, Cultural Studies and Digital Media, and Art and Design. Finally, in Part 3, the last four papers engage with the theory of complexity as it is employed and evolving in both the scholarship and the practice of design, from performance to play to the design of new modes of thinking about design. This last section includes work gathered at the Design for the 21st Century event on Magic In Complexity, held in London in February 2007. That work brought together an unusual group of artists, designers, technologists, performers and scholars, engaged in two different strands of work and thought, from Emergent Objects to the theories of Complexity Science as applied to the 3d and 4d design arts. As all the papers in this double issue show, the technologies that allow us to view and review, play and replay, both ourselves and our technological framing of selves, have developed to such an extent in the past few years that what was unimaginable only a decade ago is now ‘reality’ or embodied in ‘virtual’ reality. The authors whose work now fills the pages of this double issue have addressed these ideas, these modes and modalities, in their bodies, their performances, their interactive films and digital narratives . . . and have reviewed their work for scholarly presentation here, in order to invite response and ‘replay’ from the wider community of readers too. Yet, it is notable that there is an increasing resistance in the scholarly community to fixing ideas in time by printing on paper. Some scholars, and

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many students, have arrived at a point where it is either not possible to read the bulk of academic texts that appear, or is no longer seen as relevant to engage solely with published text. The work in this issue is thus presented to the public at a time when the status of the book as a designed artefact is in question – to a greater extent than in previous generations – and when it is now common for students to comment that they no longer rely on the reading of texts, ordering of books, use of libraries for their scholarship. Whether we like it or not, it is a fact of the academic culture of 2007 that many now rely on Google and Wikipedia as tools for study. In summary, this double edition of IJPDM has two main objectives: 1. To engage thinkers and makers in the world of performance and digital media in a transdisciplinary discourse, committed to the page but reaching beyond the frame of that page, and beyond the boundaries of play in its many and varied forms; and 2. To inspire thinking across disciplines and to encourage reflection from paper to paper, idea to idea, as each informs and re-contextualises the other. Thanks to David Collins, editor extraordinaire and remarkably (or ‘astoundingly’) present and intuitive collaborator. May this first inter-action be just a step along the road to many more creative engagements and moments of magic in complexity. Lizbeth Goodman University of East London For the SMARTlab Research Team

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International Journal of Performance Arts and Digital Media, Volume 3 Number 2 & 3. © Intellect Ltd 2007. Introduction. English language. doi: 10.1386/padm.3.2&3.101/2

Introduction Part 1: Performance futures: Bodies in movement, viewed through multiple screens Introduced by Lizbeth Goodman The first section of this special double issue on play in performance and new media looks, and relooks, at the body and its frames. Each frame is considered as a reflective surface in the hall of mirrors of multiply layered fictions and mediated stories, that John Barth describes in ‘Lost in the Funhouse’, as discussed in the first paper in this part. The term the body, refers, for the purposes of this section at least, to the visceral form of the human as s/he engages in space and time, and makes an impact on others through the act of being present, whether live or on screen. The focus here is on the body as placed: the space it takes up in lived experience and within the alternative frame of screenic presence. The work revolves around the notion that each body and each body memory, gesture, deliberate and multiply framed staging of self in performance leads to another layering of communication as bodily inscription. The four papers have thus been gathered around the central theme of multiplicity in framing embodiment, and each engages in a deliberately polysemic act of writing about the body and embodiment, with an awareness of the presentation of the ideas both in print and in digitally mediated formats. In each of the papers, the themes of replay are considered: in other words, each piece engages with the theme of the role play of self in the increasingly mediatised and theorised worlds in which we live and present ourselves daily. The first paper tackles a subject of long-standing concern to researchers working on the body and embodiment: the subject of self in replay culture. This paper reaches back through a decade of ideas and critical, performative and screenic experiments in re-presentation of bodies of all shapes and abilities, across a wide range of media formats. The paper is deliberately wide ranging, as the themes set the scene for the papers that follow in all three sections, even as they summarise and analyse a set of ideas that have been developing for a decade, and that will be replayed in new form in work to come. The focus on the emergence of new forms of body images in the age of ‘mechanical reproduction’ takes up Benjamin’s classic argument and applies it to the body as an increasingly commodified and designed ‘object’ in its framing and reframing in early 21st century culture. The second paper, by artist/scientist Jacquelyn Ford Morie, draws upon the author’s long career in virtual environments and experience design,

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focusing on the performance implications of this emergent high tech media landscape. The paper takes some of the same themes raised in the ‘Replay Culture’ article – those of embodiment, or play and role play, of the theatricality of performance, and the shifting boundaries of ‘real space performance’ – and replays these in relation to a study of Virtual Environments: seen as a new frontier in performance and digital media, and as a sphere influenced and shaped largely by teams led by women artists as well. The third paper, by musician and digital media expert Martha Ladly, considers embodiment, presence and absence in virtual spaces beyond the complex, high technology screens of VR and VE, in the domains of small screen mobile technologies and real space performance stages and streets as well. The fourth and final article, by dance expert Helen Bailey and her team, studies and considers the negotiation of the live impulse and images of liveness as framed and mediated by digital performance practices. By placing these four papers together as a set, though they are written by authors of different generations and cultural backgrounds, and from a wide variety of disciplines, this section aims to raise a few questions and to offer the first stabs towards paths for finding answers.

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International Journal of Performance Arts and Digital Media, Volume 3 Number 2 & 3. © Intellect Ltd 2007. Article. English language. doi: 10.1386/padm.3.2&3.103/1

Performing self beyond the body: Replay culture replayed Lizbeth Goodman SMARTlab, University of East London Abstract

Keywords

This paper re-views the field of performance studies through the lens of a large body of the practical work in new media performance and technology tools creation. It thus engages critically with the author’s own earlier ideas about play, replay and the performance of self: taking a new position informed by an altered view of performance that has developed in recent years with benefit of both hindsight and the applied method of multimodal vision. Working live as a mover and director who has taken a visible physical place in mixed ability performance work, the author argues that the framing of self in performance which is personal, is complicated not only by theories of agency and the frames in which performance and performance theory are both viewed and reviewed, but also by the shifting nature of ‘self’ as the body and one’s ways of engaging through the body both age and change. The paper has been written specially to set the scene for and raise key issues discussed elsewhere in this double issue of IJPDM. It shares the body of a decade’s research (1987–1997) and another decade’s further research and reworking of ideas around the omni-presence of media and the performance of text and other forms of representation in the digital age (work conducted since 1997, but focussing on original practice-based research performance experiments and shows staged for these purposes between 2000 and 2005). The paper takes its own media, for example the paper on which it is to be printed – as one of the subjects of study – exploring key theories of representation and gendered performance re-viewed from the lens of the new media age of the early years of the 21st century, as they are now ‘replayed’ here, but for the first time in print, on paper.

performance play replay presentation re-presentation self presence engagement erasure digital media live art live text blog wiki

Even the most perfect reproduction of a work of art is lacking in one element: its presence in time and space, its unique existence at the place where it happens to be. This unique existence of the work of art determined the history to which it was subject throughout the time of its existence. This includes the changes which it may have suffered in physical condition over the years as well as the various changes in its ownership. The traces of the first can be revealed only by chemical or physical analyses which it is impossible to perform on a reproduction; changes of ownership are subject to a tradition which must be traced from the situation of the original. (Walter Benjamin 1936)

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Breaking apart and reforming the notion of the self What does it mean to commit to paper the research outcomes, expressed here as ideas inscribed in text and destined for print, of a few decades – when that work has explicitly aimed to remove the fourth wall not only from the theatrical stage but also from the framing mechanisms of screenic technologies? What does the act of enactment entail in a body of work that spans theatre, dance and technologies for social inclusion, the joint aim of which is to empower audiences and ‘users’ of all levels of ability to engage equally, across what was known has been called ‘the digital divide’: to empower action and free participation on a world stage? . . . This paper explores the many and varied ways in which new technologies call us out of ourselves and our moments of being in shared timespace with others, and beckon us through the screen to other places, sometimes but not always coincident with our social, educational and cultural needs. As the moment in which we write is, as I and others have said and written before, ‘always-already-gone’ even as it is documented, it is the ironic but deeply engaged sense of being present that persists beyond the moment of enactment, or the moments of archival in digital form. Our acts, staged, filmed and lived, are all recorded and viewed even as they are experienced, and before they are stored in human memory, so – I would argue – before they are fully lived. In Britain, the most highly surveillance-marked country on Earth, the act of ‘being’ in terms of play is marked in each moment by the certainty of knowing that each moment is indeed recorded and (perhaps) watched by distant others. In this context, methods for re-embodying self (and other(s)) in the multimodal world are offered daily, but are rarely clearly labelled as such. In previous eras, it might have made sense to try to label the multimodal performances that we, many or most of us, embody. But now, given the speed of technological change combined with the shifting relationships that we all have to the notion of ‘present time’ in the age of telematics, it seems less important to label and tie down any concept or mode of communication or performance, and more important to capture instead a sense of the multiple streams of embodiment, and connection, that develop between bodies and minds in performances, staged and screenic. In this paper, the focus is on performances by and with people of mixed ability: a form marked by the absence of limbs and by stillness and silence as well as by movement and speech, and therefore a perfect focus for a study of multimodal communications (or the expression and experience of ‘self’ in and through multiple senses beyond the seen and heard).

An important aside – the self in flux, over time and in space The term ‘mixed ability’ is used here to refer to a state between all possibilities of movement, the remembrance of movement and the limited set of movement vocabularies that parts of the body are willing or able to make unassisted. Mixed ability performance is now a speciality of the SMARTlab team, who make work that pushes bodies to work together, live and on screen. This phase of work, informed deeply by the Theatre Games training 104

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of Clive Barker and by subsequent years of work in physical theatre and comedy, has all informed our professional theatre practice, which addresses a core theme; that of being in a state of being that is in constant replay, time-shifting between body states and memories of body states. This recognition of the importance of re-placing the embodied self, or of the body in real space and in screenic space, in the age of the digital, was the starting point for a new phase of research that coincided with a series of events (see Goodman 2007a,b) that led to collaborations with a new group of performers and technologists who were, and remain, equally engaged in a quest for re-embodiment in multiple spaces. These performances have involved six years of dancing with women and men in wheelchairs: some of whom have suffered spinal break or other serious injuries, others of whom dance despite chronic severe Cerebral Palsy, and related conditions that limit their freedom of voluntary movement and speech. The SMARTlab team has become in effect, adept at looking away from itself in order to sense and become part of the body of someone else in dance, virtual interaction or synthesised speech and musical interface experimentation (see for instance, the results of the The Interfaces Project, detailed online: www.smartlab.uk.com). The story of self in replay culture, is the story of sexuality in performance (the title for the book that I chose not to publish when it was first ready to print, as discussed below) as framed and reframed over a number of years with feedback and interaction from a number of sources. It is a story of stories within stories, many told by pictures and some told by gestures. It is a story reframed in a house of mirrors like John Barth’s Funhouse. This paper is the first sustained attempt to remove the story from the funhouse and to look at it from each of a series of modalities, and perspectives, at a time.

Back to the future – a series of radical breaks through the frame A piece devised by SMARTlab, Flutterfugue, was devised to showcase a range of performance technologies created by out team and colleagues in the course of a large European Commission Project,1 and brought women and (performing) artists into the mainframe of funding from Europe. That work is documented elsewhere, with focus on the aims and outcomes of the research that led to interaction between robotics and haptics engineers with animators, dancers and puppeteers in the Mediatheque showcase the SMARTshell tools that were created for it. What was not documented at the time was the radical reframing the evolving image of self in performance that evolved, invisibly, on two parallel tracks at this time: on the one hand, through a move back into live performance – though this was not consciously construed at the time in terms of terms of ‘self embodiment’ since the work in this show and its series of accompanying workshops was linked to closely to movement with Jayne K Rose, and with the other performers using wheelchairs and robotics to enable their live, embodied engagement. This process of becoming part of another person, or being directly silently

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1

RADICAL: Research Agendas Developed in Creative Arts Labs, a partnership of SMARTlab (UK), the BBC (UK), the WAAG Society for Old and New Media (Amsterdam), L’ecole Superiore d’Angouleme (France), et al. Funded under he Framework V IST (Interactive Society Technologies) Programme. See Goodman 2002b and 2003b.

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The original QTVR Globe is now a classic example of ‘old technology’ but as the first to be made on the reconstructed Globe, it remains as a marker in time. See: www.smartlab.uk.com/ QTVRShakesGlobe. Also see Owens and Goodman 1996; and the Theatre Games workshop video for the BBC OU, new Shakespeare course, discussed briefly in Goodman 2007. The interactive strategies developed by the BBC team are discussed in Goodman 2007 and in Goodman, Williams, Coe 1998 (transcript of our BAFTA awards lecture).

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VIP: staged at the Theatre Museum as an experimental workshop on puppetry, people and performances on stage and screen. BBC production crew, with footage gathered specially for the MA in Gender and Performance (Live and through the Screen), known as the Extended Body Project (course co-directed with Susan Kozel). See Goodman 2001b and 2002a.

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and in real time improvisation by the ‘flow’ of another person, deserves major consideration here: not only as a stage in the body of work under discussion but more generally, in terms of a larger argument developing about the liveness of improvised ‘being in space’, in the age of the digital. As part of another person’s body, the move back through the frame to live embodiment on stage did not seem so radical at the time, as it did not feel ‘like me’ on stage. At the same time, or in parallel, this body of work involved a large and very conscious element of translation between disciplines: as project director yet not only devising, choreographing and performing in the showcases, but also researching, writing, presenting, chairing, moderating the UK lectures, seminars and symposia – and this is the part that made the most lasting difference to the academic work and its phase shift – I also engaged in the academic and practical translation of the meanings, needs and intentions of the engineers and robotics experts to the dancers to the animators to the theatre directors to the visual artists to the medical teams and disability experts . . . The earliest experiment with stillness on a mainstage that set the path in this direction (of stillness and reflection) for the SMARTlab team was the Globe Theatre 3d render: the first widely available 3d (Quicktime VR, or QTVR) reconstruction of Shakespeare’s Globe, in which London Equity union actors were not permitted on stage. Therefore, the academic research team for the BBC Open University Project – the same team who still make up the core of the SMARTlab today – took up still positions at key places in the space, and held those poses for a full day of still shoots. In that work, there was plenty of time to think about the role of the body in space as a marker of presence.2 Through this work the idea of the body as a marker for others and as a vehicle of translation and imagination for others was developed, in many senses, at many levels. And in that time, invisibly even within the research team, our focus shifted from solo performance experiments single authored works in what was then still recognisable as Performance Studies, to multiply authored work by interdisciplinary teams with common goals: from the ‘art’ to the ‘science’ model. But here, discussion of a show which played out the theme – self replayed – brings us to the Flutterfugue: danced live with a paraplegic dancer, an able bodied dancer and virtual dancer (in this case a butterfly avatar in 3d controlled by a Midi slider/puppetry interface and also by early motion tracking technologies), in which the audience viewed the live show through 3d spectacles to take in the full effect of the image mix – all this gave a new frame to the notion of self in performance. Thus, Flutterfugue, along with the previous major experiment in limited movement (in the VIP Project, which positioned the sole living body on stage with massive great marionettes made by Forkbeard Fantasy: listening to choreographic calls from many but allowing my body only to make the same small movements that the puppets could make, and only to follow their lead3) marked a turning point in the research. This heralded a return to embodied work after years of considering the text and political contexts of performances. The shift happened in real time and I remember it vividly,

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as it marked itself in memory and on the body simultaneously: it occurred as I watched a time-shifted rerun of a BBC2 Theatre Workshop on late night TV. Watching myself in the TV frame, I wondered how this simulacrum of the academic speaking about performance had come from, and where I had left my own body, and why it had not occurred to me for so long that my body was no longer present in the performance studies work in which I had been engaged for so long. The wonder led to a major transformation in the work: a re-introduction of the body to the stage and screen as both a mover and a thinker about movement, but always already aware of the shifting state of both the body and the memory of its movements. Throughout this period, SMARTlab’s work (then operating under the name of The Institute for New Media Performance Research: INMPR) stretched and shifted between live experiences on stage with both the real and the virtual, the body and the simulacrum. The VIP Project evolved with more dancers and puppeteers engaging over time and across distance, while the group also extended its study of bodies as extended over time and space through the continued experiments with MA students in London, New York, Phoenix, LA, et al. These two parallel threads of work tested the limits of ‘ownership’ of a body image, a moment in time of any performance or indeed the ‘ownership’ of an original . . . The team created simultaneous moments, led by distant others. Thus the work raised issues about authenticity, presence and absence, multimodal and multi-located experience. As nearly all the participants were women, the work naturally extended into study of gender roles with regard to these states of being. Some of this research found form in the chapters of the book that was to be published under the name of Sexuality in Performance.4 At the same time, two key ideas, expressed as questions, emerged simultaneously: How did experimentation with limited movement if expressed carefully allow for accessibility VIP Project, (particularly through the research phase funded by the Gulbenkian Trust) and on through to current work with dancers, writers, musicians and film makers with severe cerebral palsy today;5 and How best to document and also share knowledge gained through embodied practice with technology: how to place oneself in the frame but on both sides of it too?

Re-embodying performance in the age of virtual reproduction – real TIME The shift in terms of considering research outputs from writing and publishing single authored work for readers of Performance Studies, towards preparation and moderation of joint publications on group trans-disciplinary work was, in retrospect, not just a practical choice but also a political one. It was in essence a shift in the means of mechanical reproduction, linked to a shift to understanding multimodal communications (including silent communications marked and monitored by biosensors and interpreted by people who spend enough time with the person attempting

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4

Sexuality in Performance was written as the results of an extended body of research and engaged practice on stage and on screen.

5

This early work marked the beginning of a research thread in creation of new media and assistive technology tools that enable people with severely limited physical movement to enable writing, speech and the making of live music. See Goodman 2007, and also see the full documentation of the Interfaces Project forthcoming in James Brosnan’s book for MIT Press http://www.smartlab. uk.com/2projects/ interfaces.htm

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The MINDtouch Project (SMARTlab & BBC R&D) addresses these issues with both technology and people. See http://smartlab.uk. com/2projects/ mindtouch.htm

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to communicate beyond the body6). While the engagement with ourselves and others whose bodies has been altered and whose understanding of body politics had thus also shifted was influential to the team’s work at this time, so too were the evolution of new design concepts in the parallel fields of architecture, product design and systems engineering. For in the models of user-centred design and participatory design, a good deal more about the body as part of a complex performance system became apparent. The work undertaken in this period with people who could not move or speak re-awakened an awareness of spending time as a method that was not valued in academic circles: that was not taken account of in practice-based work where rehearsal, production and documentation of live performances was included as but made invisible in academic timetabling for performance researchers. In the increasingly management-led structures of universities, it was hard enough to argue for reasonable timings for process-based courses and assessments, without bringing in the additional demands of what is often referred to as ‘disability time’, where site based witnessing of people’s own ways and means of interaction could take significant amounts of time beyond the rehearsal space. And yet this was the time that mattered, that led to multimodal understanding an awareness of the meaning of the term ‘presence’ in practical as well as theoretical contexts. So, if universities were unable to deal with the basic truth that some forms of user-centred design take considerable amounts of time, it seemed impossible that industry or business environments would consider these issues. It was with this new and frustrating sense that there would never be enough time to spend to make a real difference, nor an appropriate medium through which to enable a rich mix of performers and people to share their forms of expression equally, that the SMARTlab research shifted towards Assistive Technology tools creation: a research focus that drew engineers and haptics engineers to our core team, and that produced a more scientific style of writing for technology journals and conferences. That body of group work is now, after it has settled with time, the subject of study in performance terms once more: it now sits as an example of a form of interactive performance that demands embodiment in the system, and a simultaneous ability to look from both sides of the system, both sides of the frame, to translate the work to the participants and to audiences and readers alike. Much of the SMARTlab history (or herstory) has been written over the years, and that body of work has placed the evolving SMARTlab method in the context of performance theories and concurrent practices in new media art, from the earliest writings performance and its political and cultural contexts, to the later team articles about the interconnectedness of disciplines in the making of interactive works: see the short list of the most relevant publications below for entry to that work. Rather than recap that body of performance work here, this section will instead review earlier theories of performance and replay culture from the more up to date frame of a body that no longer plays as it used to, in an age of technology that replays before we even have time to play . . .

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So, the discussion below offers analysis and reflection, underpinned by examples from a range of performance media experiments and workshops documented on the web and Dvd materials that can be provided for interested readers.

Replaying replay The first articulations of theory of ‘replay culture’ (first penned, or written with digital ink back in the 1990s) was researched and written up in the old days of technology, when the ability to ‘time shift’ a television programme to video for viewing at a more convenient time was still a new and relatively important development. The published extracts that became best known from this period were first outlined in the wake of the death of Diana, and likened to the perceived mass-scale media developments impacting on the fields of performance and representation at the end of the last century. With numerous books already published, widely taught and translated, there was no perceived need to put yet more onto paper in those early years of this new century. Instead, the focus became reflective of that earlier output, and engaged in a practical and ethical debate about the value of trees as opposed to more print publications that could reach wider audiences for free, online, and without the destruction of the world’s resources. Much of the research output of those years was thus shared online, in what would now be called a wiki format. As the subject of the work was ‘replay’, and the multimedia innovations that could make a difference to our perception, documentation of the live, it seemed particularly important to take a stand of this kind while also respecting the needs of scholars, students and the publishing industry. The arguments of the book seemed to contradict the cultural trend towards publication in print, and were better supported – and more easily updatable and customisable by other scholars, performers and students internationally – when the work was made available for free, online. Each iteration of the argument has been reworked with the participating students and scholars offering feedback and new layers of performance material and case study footage. So, this section cites short extracts from a larger body of work that set up a dynamic of scholarly exchange that continues to this day: The set of Routledge Readers in Gender and Performance and Politics and Performance, first published in the years 1999 and 2000 respectively, and the writings shared in pre-wiki format, online: Many of the authors whose work appeared in those Readers took positions on the political aspects of the performative, some in relation to gender and the performance of sexuality and gendered role play, and others in relation to more ‘party political’ or historical issues around performance theory. A dialogue has thus developed over time between authors and practitioners who did not, prior to those publications, often converse directly about their work. While many other readers have been published before and since these, they are cited here as markers in the sands of time for a specific set of debates and collaborations arising from an early invitation to

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engage in constructively critical sharing of ideas, which was the framework for those books. In that work, Jane de Gay engaged in a good deal of what can now be thought of as the ‘translating between disciplines’ which is so much a part of any editorial work on trans-disciplinary subject, but that was particularly engaged in the late 1990s with debates about the uses of the digital to capture the live, and with the role of the page, in relation to the stage more generally. That work and process can, in retrospect, be seen as some of our earliest work in what is now a common SMARTlab practice: that of co-publication with teams of authors, in both ‘arts’ and ‘scientific’ formats, and for a wide variety of presses. However rigorously we encouraged debate and interaction prior to publication, the resulting books, while widely studied and set, still seemed limited as resources, due to the very nature of their status as fixed once they hit print, on paper. The process of putting together those books was as interesting as the final products. We invited each reader to respond and interpret, to select readings and reading strategies. Yet, as digital media was not so advanced: e-mail was relatively new and the electronic exchange of data files was a novelty, not the norm, in order to respond, readers had to write to me directly, or to respond in their own classrooms and rehearsal rooms. Thus, the attempt to involve a real conversation or dialogue once the book was in print raised an important issue: a similar framing of self as both performer and critic/audience: that is, what form would be most appropriate for engaged interaction, beyond the frame of the printed text? The challenge, seen in retrospect, was in rethinking the very act of writing about performance, with its inbuilt resistance to treating a text both as a finished thing, or an artifact, and a living document, or script for improvisation. Thus, that set of Routledge Readers can now be seen as both books and as artifacts of an age that aimed to evaluate and document the playability of their subjects: gender and performance, and politics and performance. The working techniques advocated for live performance workshops by Jerzy Grotowski can still be seen to overlap and enrich the digital performance practices experimentally and experientially designed by live artists and performance practitioners engaging with the digital today. Grotowski’s principles of ‘poor theatre’ with no sets, no props, no make-up or stage lighting are typical of mass produced digital performances, but also quite distinct from the higher tech mediated performance technology showcases that still challenge a performance paradigm, and that Grotowski did not code in his juxtaposition of ‘poor’, ‘rich’ and ‘total’ theatres. As argued in the second Reader: In dance and other types of performance, the live event now questions its own ephemeral nature; the moment of performance is complicated by asynchronous participation by audiences and collaborations, while any event is increasingly likely to be represented, shared, archived, and stored in digital form. The struggle of the performer and artist today, then, must include battles with the real and the virtual, with ways of making work which are informed by knowledge of ‘new media’ and respect for more traditional and visceral live art practices. The

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same might be said for those who wish to study ‘sexuality in performance’: the spaces in which our bodies and senses of identity are ‘performed’ and ‘replayed’ will influence the forms of representation as well as the types of reception. Sexuality is process; performance is process; to replay gender in theatre and culture is continually to reconsider the place of our bodies in many different kinds of space, and to replay our own embodiment(s) in both physical and intellectual terms, on a daily (performed but still ‘real’) basis. (Goodman 2000)

In her book on time-based arts, Andrea Phillips also argues that: ‘performance and technology have been intimately bound up since photo-mechanical means enabled firstly, static, and then, durational representation to turn around our notions of the real, literally re-focusing our idea of our bodies and, consequently, ourselves’ (Phillips 1998: 11). This statement, even when replayed nearly a decade after it first appeared in print, still summarises a number of the concerns addressed in my early writings on sexuality in performance (back in 1999), wherein Walter Benjamin’s notion of ‘the work of art in the age of mechanical reproduction’ was considered with reference to still images, video and live performance. But here, the aim is to replay that argument, considering the impact of embodied presence in the text and the image simultaneously. So – take two: Here is Benjamin on the actor and the image (citing Pirandello): a key passage, somehow overlooked the first time around: The feeling of strangeness that overcomes the actor before the camera, as Pirandello describes it, is basically of the same kind as the estrangement felt before one’s own image in the mirror. But now the reflected image has become separable, transportable. And where is it transported? Before the public. . . . Never for a moment does the screen actor cease to be conscious of this fact. While facing the camera he knows that ultimately he will face the public, the consumers who constitute the market. This market, where he offers not only his labor but also his whole self, his heart and soul, is beyond his reach. During the shooting he has as little contact with it as any article made in a factory. This may contribute to that oppression, that new anxiety which, according to Pirandello, grips the actor before the camera. The film responds to the shriveling of the aura with an artificial build-up of the ‘personality’ outside the studio. . . . Any man today can lay claim to being filmed. This claim can best be elucidated by a comparative look at the historical situation of contemporary literature. (Walter Benjamin 1936, web)

Years before I first trawled Benjamin for ways to frame the late 1990s page and stage debates, Peter Wollen took up a similar set of issues in his book Raiding the Icebox: Reflections on Twentieth-Century Culture (1993: 35–72). Wollen applied Benjamin’s ideas about art and mechanical reproduction to

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Lillo-Martin published a revised verion of her paper, based on work presented at the IV Congresso Internacional de LÌngua e Literatura do Mercosul, Universidade Luterano do Brasil: now available at http://web.uconn.edu/ acquisition/CLESS.pdf [Cited 28 September 2007].

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the development of cinema which, Wollen argued, ‘can be condemned as a simulacrum, a masquerade, a display’. These are among the core set of ideas investigated back in the late 1990s. But it was not until the research team had engaged, in embodied form live and onstage as well as on screen, in dance with severely disabled people that the arguments took on research meaning again, in the context of SMARTlab’s work. The research process itself took bodily shape and meaning in the process of standing still and then moving on stage, in the freeze frames of those first complex multi-camera shoots and live performances – wherein movement was literally frozen into frames: first for the QTTV camera modelling (wherein hundreds of still images were stitched together to make a deceptively simple 3d model that could be viewed from many perspectives), and then in a conscious modelling of bodily gestural language to match those of the puppets and robots that shared the stage spaces. And in that process, movement and stillness, sound and silence, became readable and choreographable, but most importantly, meaningful, in ways that the theorised study of movement and freeze frames’ had not shared. The focus in those early writings on Sexuality in Performance was not so much on the nature of that display, nor on any given aesthetic or philosophical questions, but rather on the content of the ‘display’ (sexuality, representations of gender) as always already at odds and yet engaged in a strange encounter with the context in which all such displays are replayed: that is, contemporary theatre and culture, in an age when we have all come to terms with the fact that we can, if we so desire, take control of the basic media of recording and replay so that we frame our own experiences of interaction as ‘theatre’. A text cited years ago still speaks to these key issues: Jeff Ross, in his book The Semantics of Media (1997) provided an engaging analysis of the ways in which we use spoken and written language to describe media, along with discussion of ‘possible worlds’ and semantics for analysis of implicit and explicit content in multi-media. Ross’s book included discussion of the ways in which we see, and describe what we see, in films and other performative and representational dynamics, paving the way for further exploration of the semantics of virtual performance. Intriguing work on sign language and the grammar of gestural communication (see for instance Lillo-Martin 1991, and her work – which seems more important now, reviewed with a decade’s hindsight on its first framing in my arguments about layered communicative gestures7) might be applied in exciting ways to the field of performance, while research bridging the fields of computers, ‘natural language’ and visual communications is opening up new areas of interest to those of us making and writing about live and virtual performance (see for instance McKevitt 1995). From the vantage point of late 2007, Lillo-Martin’s words sound out to different effect: . . . . Where two languages take opposite settings of a (binary) parameter, it will also be informative to see whether both languages show an acquisitional

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clustering of constructions related to the parameter, or only one language does. The latter outcome is what we might expect if one of the parameter settings has an ‘unmarked’ status, and is set correctly from the outset. (Lilo-Martin 1991: 5–6)

Here, Lillo-Martin and her colleagues discuss their CLESS Project, which studied learned communication patterns in control groups of deaf children from families where signing (ASL or American Sign Language) was or was not used at home, and/or was or was not used from birth. The links to my own practice with deaf children from different language backgrounds is highly relevant in terms of a comparative frame for my own work, and also harks to Peggy Phelan’s groundbreaking work on sign systems and the ‘unmarked’ body in the frame of representation. But there is another relevant frame to weave into this particular house of mirrors, or this particular funhouse of interpretation. It is the bridge to the virtual, or the linkages between spoken and written languages and the language of 1s and 0s which make up digital computer code. Here, Brenda Laurel led the way in her framing of the debates at an early stage of the development of ‘virtual theatres’. In Computers as Theatre, one of the earliest major comparisons between methods and models of trans-discipliinarity, Brenda Laurel argued that the intensity of contemporary response to and debate about VR (virtual reality): . . . mirrors the nature of the medium itself: by inviting the body and the senses into our dance with our tools, it has extended the landscape of interaction to new topologies of pleasure, emotion, and passion. A similar transformation occurred in the Middle Ages, when theatre exploded out of the textual universe of the monastery into the sensory fecundity that gave rise to Commedia Dell’Arte, . . . in a wave of sensory, passionate, and archetypal imagery. It was this coming together of text, body and narrative polyphony that opened the way for Shakespeare, Grand Opera, and all the vital permutations of the dramatic impulse that have come down to our day. (Laurel 1993: 213–214)

In the late 1990s when this ideas was newly coined, the response that seemed most appropriate was that VR could best be seen, not so much as a medium to mirror reality, but more as a type of performance, or a mode of presentation of the live. The term ‘computer-assisted performance’ was used a few years later, in the rich and evolving field of ‘CAD: computeraided design’. VR, then, was a form that differed mechanically and therefore functionally from other forms or modes of performance, whether on stage or in the streets and private spaces (however defined and limited) of daily life. And years later, students and colleagues including Jacki Morie (in this journal) have shown through both practice and theory just how complex and rewarding this journey through VR to virtual embodiment can be. But back to the hall of mirrors.

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Replay and the right to reply Over the years, it has of course proved more and more common, and therefore less and less controversial or difficult, to work acros disciplinary borders and media formats. For all of us who make theatre and write about it, who create new media programmes and analyse them or teach with them, these have been heady, busy, exhausting years. Many paths have crossed on any number of different stages, in various recording studios, media labs and in the pages of numerous texts. Inevitably, it is the work that has been most personally charged, and in which any of us has been deeply involved, that reflects back an image that is both imaginatively playful and enduring (because multiply layered), thereby allowing both an enjoyable sense of body memory in the telling or sharing in image-based form, or rewarding in terms of seeing the next generation picking up and taking further not only the ‘product’ but more importantly, also the process. So it will be for each artist, each reader, each critic. The work of our bodies informs the work of our minds. How we share that work with others remains a conundrum, a concern, for many of us as we move from solo to collaborative performance-making intended to include the audience, not only as ‘spect-actors’ (in Boal’s terms) but as creators of the work in progress. Yet there are many choices to make, each of them charged with issues of ethics, economics and politics: in what terms, in what media, in live or asynchronous performance contexts, in co-present or mediated spatial relationships, will any artist or academic choose to work? Which formats will allow for the energised exploration of ‘politics’ and ‘performance’ in the next century? The notion of the ‘spect-actor’ draws upon Boal’s politics as well as his knowledge of theatre and of what might now be called ‘serious play’. Boal’s games for actors draw heavily upon his brutal life experience and his translation of that embodied knowledge into a theory and method, documented and analysed in his work as a cultural activist as well as in his writings and professional practices of and for the Theatre of the Oppressed (1973). But in Games for Actors and Non-Actors, Boal went further to offer a way of seeing the spectator of a theatre performance as an engaged, embodied participant in a dynamic. This work has influenced the methods not only of theatre, but also of live art, and more recently, of game developers, whose work is deeply indebted to the role play analyses of early theatre scholars, as demonstrated in the continuing reference to Boal, Caillois, Barker and more recently Poulter, in studies of the ‘actor’ or ‘avatar’ in serious games and play. I closed Sexuality in Performance (the book that I did not publish in print but shared instead online, sections at a time as the sections then rewrote and reframed themselves over time, in what might mow be called a WIKI format), with a final question that led to the long debate about publication of this kind of work for me. The question was: ‘Can you really perform on the internet?’. In Leslie Hill’s words – from her work with Helen Paris on ‘I Never Go Anywhere I Can’t Drive Myself’

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Considering that futurists predict that the most profound shift to occur in the Twenty-first Century will be the shift from a place oriented to a ‘placeless’ society, this is something I want to know. As we conduct more and more of our communication, research and commerce on-line and as the world around us shifts from analog to digital, physical location becomes less and less of a determining factor in our ability to do our work, access information, keep in touch with friends and buy or sell. Having an email account, internet access and a computer, of course, become increasingly important to our ability to function as members of a community, to interact with our peers, to access and to make work. What does this mean for performance? It’s one thing to publish text on the internet, but how can one conceptually, atmospherically and emotively make the leap from atoms to electronic bits when it comes to Annie Sprinkle’s cervix? Scan the cervix, upload it and program it to blink on and off, create some roll-over text, embed an element of interactivity for the audience, forge hot-button links to other cervix-related sites? No doubt people would then say things like, ‘I went to Annie Sprinkle’s cervix last night’, because people tend to talk about sites they have downloaded as places they have ‘been’. (Curious 1998, web)

In applying Brenda Laurel’s ideas about computers as theatre, to the experiences of performance company Curious, whose co-creators Leslie Hill and Helen Paris’s work is stored in digital form on the web for continued replay and interaction by distant audiences . . . The possibilities and parallels abound for comparison of performance ‘engagement’ across media. The window into ‘Pandora’s Box’ which Laurel saw early on as opening with VR, can be seen all these years later as re-opening with replay culture. Indeed, the performance work experienced in the late 1990s framed the earliest writing about replay culture, whereas other students and colleagues have built upon this work and shown how VR and VE can open the window to experience in the house of mirrors, and equally, how the house of mirrors that is digital technology has framed our experiences and engagements with our own images, in ways and to an extent that could not have been predicted even a decade ago. In this final re-view or reframing as these ideas are about to be committed to print, Janet Murray’s ways of seeing and expressing the layers and deceptively reflective surfaces of new media come to mind – as penned in her influential book, Hamlet on the Holodeck. There, Murray studied the framings of digital technology as a tool that can and (now) has engaged in the continual process of reshaping the role and form of narrative environments in our culture, and in the funhouses of literary representations, or our frameworks for visual and imaginative representations as expressed in words. Digital environments are procedural, participatory, spatial, and encyclopedic. The first two properties make up most of what we mean by the vaguely used word interactive; the remaining two properties help to make digital creations seem as explorable and extensive as the actual world, making up much of what we mean when we say that cyberspace is immersive. (Murray 1997)

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And it is not insignificant that Celia Pearce also successfully defended her PhD ‘in game’ or in avatar form: demonstrating in real space and time that the role play of avatar presence is integrally related to the selfconscious craft of the performance of self in everyday life.

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Murray’s work, like Laurel’s, made an indelible mark in the sand of digital understanding. Both of these critics expressed early and deep understandings of the possibilities of the digital in relation to theatre, text, story, performance and replayable images. Looking back, it is possible to see a sense of premonition in their words: for what they recognised in the marking out of VR as a form of theatre, was a need for documentation of the live within the virtual, and also a need for individualised routes through the funhouse of VR. This is the very terrain that the SMARTlab team have explored and built in recent years, from the assistive technologies that have made both live performance and the communication spaces of the digital domain more accessible, to the through critical and theoretical explorations of these domains made by PhD graduates including Sher Doruff, Anne Nighten, Mary Flanagan, Jools Gilson-Elllis, Helen Paris, Sara Diamond, Axel Vogelsang, Chris Hales, Vesna Milanovic and Fiona Wilkie for example (see www.smartlab.uk.com/docsmarts for full details and abstracts), but also and perhaps most strikingly in the very recent PhD submissions of two previous students and long time contributors to the realm of ‘Replay Culture’: for example in the work of Celia Pearce, whose ethnography of self and avatar in the migratory worlds of online gaming and massively multiplayer environments broke new ground in the fields of experience design, game studies and performance studies simultaneously,8 and also in the remarkable work of Jacki Morie, who has invented a new theoretical framework for understanding gendered ways of making and using virtual environments based on years of work in creating archetypal virtual memories and testing these with audiences using botanical and synthetic scent triggers, sounds and visuals that encourage the viewer to re-frame herself again and again in the funhouse of what Morie calls VE (virtual environments, or virtual experiences) rather than VR . . . There is nothing ‘real’ about it. As Steve Anderson argued in his work on ‘Past Indiscretions: Digital Archives and Recombinant History’: . . . the narrative logics of the database and search engine have resulted in two divergent movements – one that seeks to articulate a ‘total’ history that is encyclopedic in scope and rooted in relatively stable conceptions of historical epistemology; another that exploits digital technology’s potential for randomisation and recombination in order to accommodate increasingly volatile visions of the past. . . . Both are enabled by the proliferation of digital information systems. (Anderson 2004)

What we do, how we choose to act and interact and ‘spect-act’, perform and play and replay, will differ for each of us, at each moment, and for many political and personal reasons. One thing only is certain: we will be faced with such choices in real life and in any number of digital or virtual performative spaces as well – even in our own imaginations and dreams: in the spaces of our own desires. So we return to the beginning.

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The replay/rebound: the final reframing (for now) Even ten years ago, the value of books as saleable commodities was still a major consideration in the process of academic publication. These days, when every thought is shared online before it hits the page, the controversy is largely removed from my belief that sharing work online was the best way to engage with updatable, viewable clips from performance. I realise on retrospect that the edgy nature of this decision a decade ago was to do with the times: the then-topical debates about the documentation of live performance colliding as they did with the period that saw the beginning of the end for major publications, as the status and role of publishing began to shift in the digital age. So today it no longer seems radical to suggest that it may be fairer, more collaborative and more appropriate to a real-time scholarly debate about the nature and value of both scholarly performance research and of theatre performance (which required audiences as well as readers to view it, even if in video-captured format, before they could respond) to share work online and to provide online space for responses too. Years on, the most striking aspect of this ‘debate’ about the page and the stage, reframed from the end of the era of ‘replay culture’, is this: the study of scripted plays as drama has retained its form and focus, as it should be. The study of live performances in various genres has been reviewed and reframed by scholarship published in the field of practicebased research and the documentation of performance. The alternative has indeed become the mainstream and as a result, a different kind of radicalism is required in thinking and writing about performance in the age of the digital. So while it now seems sensible, once again, to commit some words to the page, it also, simultaneously, seems wise to use the digital stages and online spaces at our common disposal, to encourage debate and to invite constant replay of ideas and performance, from many different points of view. As more of our theatres close down or give way to shred venues that house myriad forms and events, we may now consider the role of play, and of replay, in live culture generally. Each of us engages daily with a plethora of media and messages, and they do not always merge. In fact, the medium of the ‘chatbot’ defies the very idea of the medium as the message, by showing how new virtual environments and the AU creatures that inhabit them only appear to learn behaviours and languages in ways that can seem to respond to us, but are only, in effect, ‘acting’ (I refer here to the chatbot’ as developed for user interface and role play games that entrain the ‘bot’ or automated character in Second Life, for instance, to respond in a ‘learned behaviour’ to the speaker in the ‘real world’: see Burden 2007: 1). We have moved away from Artaud’s ‘theatre and its double’ not to ‘life and its double’ but rather, and beyond, to ‘life and its multiply mirrored others’. Within this new house of mirrors is reflected and re-reflected the grotesquely exaggerated, and minimally reduced, image of self in contemporary society. Each of us must measure out our own space in that ‘real news’ or ‘performance space’ as the case may be.

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Jack Hanna, Irish journalist, was the father of award winning poet Davoren Hanna, who died tragically young of Cerebral Palsy and related conditions, yet who left a legacy of strong words on paper that demanded, and still demand, a certain presence. The father described his astonishment of surviving the death of both the son and the mother and pondered his continuing existence and continuing ability to write words in The Friendship Tree: a remarkable book, and one that inspired some of the practical performances and also the return to writing marked in this paper.

10 Readers and encouraged to respond and to suggest future projects, collaborations and experiments via the wiki set up specially for this purpose on the SMARTlab site).

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I remain, at the end of this dive back into replay culture, as thoroughly engaged and immersed as I was a decade ago, yet also, in the words of Jack Hanna (expert survivor of life lived in time-shifted attentiveness to those whose speech came differently and in its own time), ‘astounded’ to be here,9 astonished at the major shifts in technology of recent years, and equally at the levels of commitment and energy that scholars, so many, clearly still have for reading words on pages rather than screens, at least sometimes. It is therefore a privilege to share these words, on paper as well as online, and to challenge thought leaders in many disciplines to share their own views, perhaps by responding online.10 The point of all research and scholarship is surely about keeping it alive, keeping thoughts relevant. The publication of this paper is part of a process of re-engagement, which begins with the publication but will now evolve as the ideas here are interacted with by others.

The Invitation And so to end at the beginning: this paper goes to press, to ink on paper, even as a new media experiment is about to be launched by the SMARTlab team. This piece will push the limits of the notion of an event in space and time by performing moments of self for multiple players in real and virtual space simultaneously. The team for the next performative research project, called GLAM (Games, Life and Media). has decided to continue with its dedicated open source and creative commons ethos, and in this instance, to share ‘ownership’ of the ideas of this project, and of the avatars, to the vast and as yet uncharted communities of East London: the people who currently live where the new Olympic City will be built and whose personal stories and journeys and histories will be mapped there. The GLAM team is thus drawing a massive to-scale 3d Pirate Map, to show the real treasures of the social networks embedded in the real spaces of these neighbourhoods. These can be analysed and experienced, and will be mapped and made manifest alongside more official government documents and strategies for the ‘regeneration’ and ‘build’ projects as the clock ticks on towards 2012. The team is interested in the legacy, in asking not what will happen for a brief period in 2012, but rather what will be left? Time will tell. And, as Benjamin predicted, the outcomes of the 2012 build, just like the outcomes of our next major performance experiment with people of mixed ability inter-acting in person and online in many languages and dialects, will challenge the very idea of ownership for this part of London, and for the traditions of its many people, which must ‘be traced from the situation of the original’. References Anderson, S. (2004), ‘Past Indiscretions: Digital Archives and Recombinant History,’ in M. Kinder and T. McPherson (eds.), Interactive Frictions, Berkeley: University of California Press.

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Artaud, A. (1958 [1936]), The Theater and its Double (trans M.C. Richards), New York: Grove Press. Austin, J.L. (1975 [1962]), How to Do Things with Words, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Barker, C. (1977), Theatre Games, London: Methuen. Barth, J. (1968), ‘Lost in the Funhouse’, first published Atlantic Monthly, 1968. Reprinted by Doubleday Books, 1968. Benjamin, W. (1968), The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction (essay originally published in 1936). Full English text available at: http://web.bentley. edu/empl/c/rcrooks/toolbox/common_knowledge/general_communication/ benjamin.html#top (cited 28 September 2007). Blakely, R. ‘Web Rivals Plot the Answer to Wikipedia’, The Times, Saturday 8 Septemer 2007, p. 13. Boal, A. (1979), Theatre of the Oppressed, London: Pluto Press. ——— (2002), Games for Actors and Non-Actors, London and New York: Routledge. Burden, D. (2007), ‘SLBots’, Daden Newsletter, Daden Limited. Available at: www.daden.co.uk. Cited 28 September 2007. Caillois, R. (1962), Man, Play and Games, London: Thames and Hudson. Castronova, E. (2005a), Synthetic Worlds: The Business and Culture of Online Worlds, Chicago: University of Chicago Press. ——— (1997), ‘Creative Imagination and Media-Assisted Learning’, in Literary and Linguistic Computing, Oxford University Press: Oxford (print and electronic forms). Goodman, L. and de Gay, J. (eds.) (1999), The Routledge Reader in Gender and Performance, London and New York: Routledge. ——— (2000), The Routledge Reader in Politics and Performance, London and New York: Routledge (later translated to Japanese). ——— (2002), Languages of Theatre Shaped by Women, Exeter: Intellect Books. Goodman, L. and Kuppers, S. (2002), ‘Virtual Interactive Puppetry’, in Leonardo, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Goodman, L., Tony, C. and Huw, W. (1998), ‘BBC – The Multimedia Bard: Plugged and Unplugged’, in New Theatre Quarterly, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, Vol. 14, No. 53, pp. 20–42. Goodman, L. and Perlin, K. (2002a) ‘The Butterfly Project: Summary Paper’ Lizbeth Goodman with Ken Perlin, in Ruth Aylett and Cañamero, L. (eds.), Conference Proceedings: Animating Expressive Characters, Imperial College London, pp. 43–44 with interactive DVD of project performance documentation available upon request. Goodman, L. (2002b), Creativity and Innovation: Ways Forward for the European Union in Cross-Sector and Interdisciplinary International Partnerships, EC final report for the RADICAL project. Goodman, L., et al. (2003a), ‘SPIRITLEVEL: Making & Using “SMART” Tools Integrating Intelligent Systems & Performance Technologies to Connect and Empower Creative Spirits in Shared and Distant Spaces’, in G. Craddock (ed.), Assistive Technology: Shaping the Future, IOS Press: Amsterdam, pp. 89–97. Goodman, L. and Milton, K. (eds.) (2003b), A Guide to Good Practice in New Media Content and Tools Creation (by and for artists in the cultural sector). Published online by HEFCE/AHDS in 2003, print edition following best practice citation for this volume published by King’s College London, Office for Humanities Communications Publications number 18, 2005.

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Goodman, L. and Brian D., et al. (2005), Anima Obscura, IBC Amsterdam. ——— (2007a), ‘Performing in the Wishing Tense: SMARTlab’s Evolution on Stage, Online and in the Sand’ – memorial issue for Clive Barker, in New Theatre Quarterly, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, NTQ92, Vol. 31, No. 4, pp. 352–375. Goodman, L. with Donegan, M., Kennedy, H., Palmer-Brown, D. Zhang, L. (2007b), ‘InterFACES: Affective Interactive Virtual Learning & Performance Environments for People with Physical & Cognitive Disabilities – Playing the Eyeflute’, Leonardo (MIT Press) special issue on Mutamorphosis, Conference Proceedings/publication, November 2007. Goodman, L. with Perlin, K., Duffy, B., Brehm, K., Castiglia, C. and Kollin, J. (2008), ‘The Butterfly Effect: Dancing with Real and Virtual Expressive Characters’ full project paper, in Ruth Aylett and Cañamero, L. (eds.), Animating Expressive Characters for Social Interactions, John Benjamins Press, ISBN 1 902956 25 6, pp. 182–207. Grotowski, J. (2002), Towards a Poor Theatre, London and New York: Routledge. Hanna, J. (1996), The Friendship Tree: The Life and Poems of Davoren Hanna, Dublin: New Island Books. Laurel, B. (1991), Computers as Theatre, Cambridge, MA: Adison-Wesley Press. ——— (2004), Design Research: Methods and perspectives, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Lillo-Martin, D. and William, S. (1991), ‘Cross-Linguistic Study of Early Syntax’, University of Connecticut and Haskins Laboratories, 1991. Murray, J. (1997), Hamlet on the Holodeck: The Future of Narrative in Cyberspace, Cambridge: MIT Press. McKevitt, P. (ed.) (1995), ‘Integration of Natural Language and Vision Processing’, Language + Vision: AI Review, 9: 5/6. Owens, W.R. and Goodman, L. (eds.) (1996), Shakespeare, Aphra Behn & the Canon, London and New York: Routledge, published with an original series of BBC TV programmes, audio and video cassettes. Phelan, P. (1993), Unmarked: the Politics of Performance, Routledge: London and New York. Phillips, A. (1998), Out of Time, Hull: Time- Based Arts Publications. Poulter, C. (1987), Playing the Game, London: MacMillan/Palgrave. Ross, J. (1997), The Semantics of Media, Dordrecth: Kluwer. Sudol, J., Duffy, B.R., Goodman, L., Brosnan, J. and Riedel, J. (2006), ‘PLAYBOX: A Flexible Framework for All’, VR and Motor Disorders, 8th International Conference on Virtual Reality, 27 April 2006, Laval, France. Wollen, P. (1993), Raiding the Icebox: Reflections on Twentieth-Century Culture, Bloomington: Indiana University Press, pp. 35–72.

Suggested citation Goodman, L. (2007), ‘Performing self beyond the body: Replay culture replayed’, International Journal of Performance Arts and digital Media 3: 2&3, pp. 103–121, doi: 10.1386/padm.3.2&3.103/1

Contributor details Lizbeth Goodman is Chair in Creative Technology Innovation at the University of East London, where she is also founder and Director of the SMARTlab Digital Media Institute and the MAGIC Multimedia & Games Innovation Centre. She is also

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Director of Studies for the UEL practice-based PhD programme in Performance & Digital Media: a large cohort of professional artists and engineers conducting collaborative research into the transdisciplinary fields of technology development and performing arts, e-health, e-inclusion, wearable tech, virtual environments, haptics and ‘artsci’. Her main field of speciality is the creation of performances, workshops and learning games developed WITH, not only for, people with disabilities and ‘nonstandard gamers’ including communities of women, children, and young people at risk in the ‘developed’ and ‘developing’ worlds. Contact: Professor Lizbeth Goodman, Chair in Creative Technology Innovation, SMARTlab, University of East London, 4–6 University Way, London, E16 2RD, UK. E-mail: [email protected]

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International Journal of Performance Arts and Digital Media, Volume 3 Number 2 & 3. © Intellect Ltd 2007. Article. English language. doi: 10.1386/padm.3.2&3.123/1

Performing in (virtual) spaces: Embodiment and being in virtual environments Jacquelyn Ford Morie University of Southern California Abstract

Keywords

This paper focuses on how the body has been recontextualised in the age of digital technology, especially through the phenomenon of Virtual Reality, and specifically on fully immersive VR environments made as art or performative installations. It discusses the progress\ion in form and function from other digital media or ‘cybermedia’ to fully immersive virtual environments (VEs). This paper attempts to explicate the specialised and intrinsic qualities of ‘Being’ in immersive VEs, and how it impacts both the experience of the embodied person in the virtual environment, and our thinking about everyday reality. The unique state of Being in immersive VEs has created a paradigm shift in what humans are now able to experience, and affects how we understand our embodied selves in an increasingly digital world. Because of this, the contributions of visual and performance artists to VE’s continued development is key to how we will know and comprehend ourselves in the near and far future as creatures existing in both the physical and the digital domains. The paper draws upon twenty years as a professional Virtual Reality ‘maker’ who has trained in both Computer Science and in Art, and finds fascinating affinities between these disciplines in the space of the VE where people and performers interact in new embodied modalities.

virtual reality virtual environments immersive presence performance art embodiment Being role play

Part 1. Rethinking the body in the digital age The body is the zero point of the world. There. Where paths and spaces come to meet, the body is nowhere. Michel Foucault Utopian Body. (2006: 233)

A number of late twentieth century theorists, as well as practitioners of digital art, have reconsidered the significance of the body in the digital age. For some, the ‘meat shell’ – or physical aspect – of the body is no longer relevant. Australian performance artist Stellarc, who accoutres his meat shell with numerous physical and digital devices, has proclaimed his desire to replace all the internal parts of his body with mechanical or electronic substitutes. Hans Moravec, a prominent roboticist at Carnegie Mellon,

PADM 3 (2&3) pp. 123–138. © Intellect Ltd 2007.

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promotes the concept of downloading the essence of the human mind into a computer, so one may live forever. However, technology is not infallible. Beyond the fact that most computers have life spans that do not even reach that of a half-grown child, what of long-term maintenance? Will there be an army of servant bodies left behind to tend to the machine-encapsulated brains? Or worse yet, human slaves? Or, will the machines simply be programmed to tend to themselves until the inevitable post-apocalyptic power failure? Then wither the no longer electrically sustained silicon-embedded minds? I believe, as Erik Davis has stated, that these ideas could be seen as ‘symptoms of an arrogant and deadly rift with nature’. Our meat shell is that which connects us to the natural world most directly. To deny it is to break not only with what we know but also with how we know. Body as meat can be contrasted with the concept of body as container for information, promoted by Katherine Hayles in How We Became Posthuman. As many feminist critics assert, Hayles maintains that body concepts reflect gender differences at their core and that the body is a female concept; disembodiment is a male one. Direct sensory input is messy, the ‘wetware’ limited and confining (which according to Hayles parallels the state of women in society), whereas the realms of thought and silicon are clean and noble. Yet, Hayles says that today’s situation moves us beyond this dichotomy, starting to fuse these ideas. Describing this as the age when we became posthuman, she recognizes that the body is an integral part of an ‘information/material circuit that includes human and nonhuman components, silicon chips as well as organic tissue, bits of information as well as bits of flesh and bone’. The virtual body needs both aspects: ‘the ephemerality of information and the solidity of physicality or, depending on one’s viewpoint, the solidity of information and the ephemerality of flesh’ (Hayles 1996). Neither has modern science lent much credence to the ‘arrogant rift’ of Stellarc, Moravec and their similarly minded colleagues. The cognitive sciences, strongly influenced by recent findings from neuroscience, is supporting and justifying a mind/body union, finding extreme interdependencies between our brain’s development and our embodied human state. In pointed terms, there would be no mind as we know it without the body that engenders, contains and nurtures it. This move away from mind as a computer where neurons equate to electronic circuitry, has begun to take hold in philosophy as well. Lakoff and Johnson’s foundational work The Philosophy of Mind brings this debate to a clear resolution, which echoes the neuroscience findings: There is no such thing as a computational person, whose mind is like computer software, able to work on any suitable computer or neurological hardware . . . Real people have embodied minds whose conceptual systems arise from, are shaped by, and are given meaning through living human bodies. (1999)

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Such arguments deflate the concepts of such notable philosophers as Kant (‘no autonomous person’), Frege (detached thought not based on mind or body) and Chomsky (language as pure form) and such movements as poststructuralism (no decentred monolithic self, whose meaning is only relevant to a particular milieu). Phenomenologists, from Husserl to Merleau-Ponty, have also brought the body back into the picture, and their concepts of embodiment have had tremendous influence on diverse areas of thought, from cognitive science to the arts. But only recently, with the bridge of cognitive science adopting empirically derived knowledge about the inner workings of our brains from neuroscience, has there been any means of vetting the philosophical theories. It seems clear that all prior philosophical schools of thought have been based on a priori assumptions, and not empirical data. Cognitive science, a continuum of related disciplines ranging from the more pragmatic computer and neurosciences on one end to psychology and philosophy on the other, now brings a degree of empiricism into philosophical discourse. It has itself gone through an evolution paralleling, in some sense, that of philosophical constructs that have to do with the mind. According to Lakoff and Johnson, the first generation of cognitive science was based on symbolic computational systems, such as computers. It is logical that this phase developed in the 1950s and 60s. They argue that such concepts were in synch with the ‘Anglo-American philosophy’ of the time, and were informed by the domains of ‘early artificial intelligence, information-processing psychology, formal logic, generative linguistics, and early cognitive anthropology’. Moravec was a first generation cognitive scientist. Succeeding generations of cognitive scientists subscribe less and less to the mind-body duality. When findings from neuroscience about the mind-body connection began to be published, it became evident that many assumptions on which early cognitive science was built could no longer be justified. Chief among those findings was the understanding that our brain and its functioning, structure and ability to reason is based on the actions of the body, and that absent such a body there can be no mind as we know it. Antonio Damasio and other neuroscientists (Edelman, LeDoux and Schacter) have shown how far from the mark the prophets of disembodiment are. The body and what it does, how it experiences the world, is responsible for the complicated interweaving of neuronal connections in our brain, out of which our mind – and perhaps consciousness itself – is constructed. Twenty-first century science has only confirmed that corporeal intelligence translates directly into our mental intelligence. More evidence from philosophy shows that even our most basic linguistic/mental concepts are built upon metaphors so deeply integrated into our embodied self that they are taken for granted. Phrases such as: life is a journey, these two names are close, face your problems, grasping the concept, I see what you mean, or weighed down by grief, all originate in a lived body experience. The discourse between science and philosophy is

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finding mutual benefit, and as Lakoff says, science promises to give us insight into philosophy in three important ways. It can provide conceptual analysis, critical assessment, and a means of constructive philosophical theorizing’.

Part 2. The body emplaced within the virtual The phenomenological discussion and its focus on the lived experience leads directly into one of the quintessential qualities of virtual environments (VEs). Because our bodies must be emplaced within the virtual space, VEs constitute a distinctive medium of embodiment. VEs engage the body as kinaesthetic input via the specialised interface devices that not only permit but require bodily actions to be performed sensorially, kinaesthetically, proprioceptively – within a full 3D spatial, yet virtual construct. When our perception is mediated by the VR equipment yet seems so real, we must reconsider what does and does not constitute a mediated environment. VR expert and psychologist Jack Loomis has equated this to the unaware state most people have of their everyday embodied existence: The perceptual world created by our senses and the nervous system is so functional a representation of the physical world that most people live out their lives without ever suspecting that contact with the physical world is mediated . . . (1992)

Now that we can experience technologically mediated experiences within virtual environments, the mediated nature of our natural world must be reexamined. VR philosopher Frank Biocca says that our previous complacency has been shattered by the onset of VEs. Yet this state allows us to better understand the basis of immediate experience. The relationship between the body and experience is direct and immediate, even entwined. Our body becomes the vehicle for sensory experience – that body which has itself been formed of experience. The body shapes who we become by compelling our neurons to form their intricate and scintillating patterns of connectivity. Experience affects how we think, feel and understand our place in the external world, and it does this by forming the mind by which we make sense of it. The body and the space it occupies are part of the full experiential equation. Merleau-Ponty describes it thusly: Experience discloses beneath objective space, in which the body eventually finds its place, a primitive spatiality of which experience is merely the outer covering and which merges with the body’s very being. To be a body, is to be tied to a certain world. Our body is not primarily in space: it is of it. (2002)

While virtual environment technology still suffers from lack of access by the general public (due to its historical roots in militaristic strongholds and

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concomitant high cost) those who have been fortunate to experience compelling virtual environments have been put in touch with something wondrous and expansive. An early, yet pivotal example is the Placeholder project, done in the early 1990s by Brenda Laurel, Rachel Strickland and team, which is arguably one of the most embodied virtual experiences ever to be created. Placeholder directly recalls Donna Haraway’s notion of our relationship to other gendered creatures. (Haraway 1985) In Placeholder you are embodied, but not as a human being. You take on the persona and characteristics of one of four totemic animals: spider, crow, snake or fish, performing from their point of view, speaking in their voice, seeing with their eyes and even leaving messages in the virtual world for others to find. The human body is thus transformed, or, as Hayles says, ‘resurfaced and reconfigured by its interface with the technology’. This reconfiguration, even if not directed at performing other species, is nonetheless necessitated by one’s emplacement within the virtual environment, in both the embodied and cognitive sense. The space and the ontological framework of the space we experience is an extremely seductive form of reality.

Part 3. The isochronic structure of emplacement In immersive environments we are embodied – this is one of their hallmarks – yet, we know little about the body that is experiencing the virtual environment. Any investigation into this dualistic phenomenon will surely raise more questions than it can answer. Where do we position the body that the participant leaves behind in the room? It is the living body, as it exists, breathes and continues working where it is situated, but it is not the lived body, which is experiencing the world within the virtual environment. The VE experient possesses knowledge of two simultaneous bodies. This is true whether there is a virtual body image or not, or whether there is direct or interpreted mappings of navigation and movement. The act of emplacing one’s body within the immersive environment signifies a shift to a dualistic existence in two simultaneous bodies. VR pioneer Marcos Novak (in Palumbo 2000) calls the body the ‘threshold between two worlds’ and there is much evidence to support this view. Many VR critics have described how participants enter into the world of the virtual and leave their bodies ‘behind’. I believe that participants do not actually leave their bodies behind, even though to a bystander or spectator the physical body may seem to be a form of shed detritus in the room. The body of the participant is synchronously subsumed into the virtual self that enters into the world within the screen, which is created in the mind from what the body experiences. Entering into a territory that is not quite imaginal, and yet not fully based in solid physicality, the self becomes subsumed, bodily, consciously and subconsciously – dancing with the created spacefor-becoming. Ontologically, simultaneous Being within the real and the virtual worlds is a situation humans rarely experience, even if one considers the phenomenal states shamans enter into in performance of their ritual duties. Much

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Presence is a specific term used by virtual reality researchers to indicate the state where one believes that the computer mediated world is real, to the exclusion of the physical world. Much work has gone into trying to find what induces a full state of presence.

Figure 1: The bifurcated self – existing isochronically in both the real and the virtual worlds.

of the intrinsic nature of Being in an immersive virtual environment underscores this profound phenomenological shift. In a virtual environment, our self exists within a space that in itself does not exist, but that our senses readily believe is there. In our lifetimes, no greater change of Being has taken place than this duality of existence at our command. The lived body has bifurcated and become two. What does this imply for the lived body? Does it inhabit both spaces equally? Do the isochronal embodiments affect our conscious Being equally? An actor ‘bodies forth’ (in performance terms) the character he or she is playing in a play or film. Does a VE participant ‘body in’ to the virtual construction? Are we semiembodied in a virtual environment, or dually so, ontologically speaking? Are these diacritical states of embodiment, or complementary? We are inside the virtual yet we are also aware that we are still in the physical world. I believe this is the quandary that makes the concept of presence1 so elusive. At some level we are aware of our dual perceptions, and because of this it takes an extraordinary amount of connection to the virtual experience to overcome, or momentarily forget, this dualistic state of Being. It is more than a simple ‘willing suspension of disbelief’. Such a feeling can happen in Csikszentmihalyi’s famous state of flow (Csikszentmihalyi 1997), but the conditions that can bring us to it are far from predictable. I believe that while this sense of presence is the ultimate goal of many virtual environments, the experient may also have meaningful experiences whilst still aware of the bifurcated nature of this self-ness (Figure 1). It is true that we have material bodies and that these bodies ‘think’ within their embodiment, yet, as Merleau-Ponty explains: ‘We actualise separately from the physical body, the body of the anatomists or even the organism of the physiologist, all of which are abstractions, snapshots taken from the functional body’ (1962). Experiencing the immersive virtual environment, our functional body is within, yet the physical body is not simply playing the role of a snapshot; it remains the context for our functioning. Kathleen Rogers, a United Kingdom-based artist whose immersive VR works include the series Sleepless Dreaming, describes this bodily displacement phenomenon within her work:

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Sleepless Dreaming is composed of computer model houses and interiors that a participant could navigate through to experience the gravitational paradox and the heart of VR. In this work a participant was in effect in two spaces simultaneously. In the real world of the gallery, and moving along a recurrent corridor of rooms navigating through doorways, along walls and into a void. (2006)

Experiencing a virtual environment provides what Maria Palumbo calls an opening for ‘a new interrogation of the world and ourselves, and, consequently, the possibility of imagining other possible kinds of space, other possible ways of being a body-that-becomes-space’.

Part 4. Representation: the imaged forms of embodiment Once we are in the virtual environment, what form do we take? In immersive VR the physical body itself is shielded from the view by the VR head mounted display. Early VRs at first made do with the simple representation of a disembodied hand, correlated to a physical hand encased in an instrumented glove. Within the virtual space, one saw this representational hand floating out in front of the computed ‘eye position’. Moving one’s real finger caused a similar motion to occur with the virtual hand. Later the image was expanded to a crude but full body image correlated to the physical body’s location in virtual space via a tracking system connected to the head display. These bodily representations, called avatars (a name borrowed from Hindu mythology, where it denotes the incarnation of a spiritual being into bodied form), are more graphically sophisticated today, though not yet to the level of photorealism. The question these visuals raise is not how real they look, but whether they are helpful or distracting to the experient in a VR world. VR practitioners agree there is no single answer to this question. In his foundational article, The Cyborg’s Dilemma (1997), Frank Biocca discusses evolutionary consequences engendered by the avatar concept and the way we perceive ourselves in a virtual environment. He contends that we have been moving towards ever-more digital representations of our ‘self’ – a ‘progressive embodiment’ of which virtual reality is the most advanced and sophisticated example. Michael Heim, noted philosopher of VR, asks what form the cyber body should take. He questions the range of representation, from a detached hand to a full body, to no image at all: ‘should users feel themselves to be headless fields of awareness, similar to phenomenological experience?’ How are users best immersed in virtual environments? I mean this from a technical-ontological point of view. Should users feel totally immersed? That is, should they forget themselves as they see, hear, and touch the world in much the same way as we deal with the primary phenomenological world? (We cannot see our own heads – just part of our noses – in the phenomenological world.) Or should users be allowed and encouraged to see themselves

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as cyberbodies? Should they be able to see themselves over their own shoulders? Should they be aware of the primary bodies as separate entities outside the graphic environment? Should they be able to see other primary bodies interacting with virtual entities? Or should they suspend physical experience? Should we see the primary bodies of others in virtual worlds, or does telepresence mean that we will never be certain of the society we keep, how much of it is illusory or artificial? Should we make up the avatars that represent us or be given various identity options by the software designers?

Most avatars in VR, if they exist at all, are not customisable, though the myriad representational possibilities inherent in digital games may exert a strong influence on future decisions about representational form in virtual environments.

(1998)

The selection of a body image within virtual environments is not simply an aesthetic choice; it incurs distinct effects on the structure of one’s perceptions within the experience, and therefore on the overall qualities of the encounter. Our experience is very much influenced by how we perceive our self, and yet, within most immersive environments, as they exist today, this choice is still made by the VE designer.2 Neuroscientist Antonio Damasio reminds us how acutely our thought processes are informed by our (real and now virtual) bodies: . . . the body as represented in the brain, may constitute the indispensable frame of reference for the neural processes that we experience as the mind; that our very organism rather than some absolute experiential reality is used as the ground reference for the constructions we make of the world around us and for the construction of the ever-present sense of subjectivity that is part and parcel of our experiences; that our most refined thoughts and best actions, our greatest joys and deepest sorrows, use the body as a yardstick. (1994)

Modern neuroscientists view the body as the primary shaper of neuronal connections constituting our brains, which, in some as yet-to-be-determined way, create our minds and even our human essence. It also contains the grammar of experiencing, rule bound by its sensory apparatus and neural underpinnings, networks and connections. It provides not only our spatial but also our temporal locus, and we may well question how alternate forms of experiential representations in the virtual domain will influence and perhaps change our mental development? Answers to these queries are the domain of future researchers as the numbers of virtual environments reach a critical mass; for now we can simply enumerate the forms of representations and how they are experienced. The primary modes of embodied expressions in contemporary VEs, delineated by Heim (above) and others, include no avatar, a mirrored self, a partial or full graphical personification and an observer’s view of a graphical avatar that represents the self. I will discuss aspects of these as they relate to our ontological nature as emplaced in the immersive environment. No avatar: The simplest means of representation is no representation at all. This is the first person point of view. The environment appears as though seen through our own eyes. The views in the virtual world are

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computed with the camera lenses situated at the approximate location of each eye (as there is a wide range in the actual physical parameters of each experient). This corresponds to the mental model we have of the self that inhabits the physical world, but in a virtual form within virtual space. While we are perceptually aware of our physical bodies (seeing the nose in our field of view as Heim mentioned, or even looking down and seeing our laps), not having a representational body is not usually disconcerting. The exception is when we consciously look to see ourselves and don’t, for example, when we look down to ensure correct placement of our feet upon a stair, and we see no corresponding virtual foot to place. As Bruce Wilshire explains, ‘. . . in perception it is only because the body is perceptually engaged with the perceivable world that the world is perceived at all, yet it is only because the body gives way to this world beyond it (it is not focally perceived itself) that perception of the world can occur’ (Wilshire 1982) (emphasis mine). Many immersive environments use this mode of (non)representation. Char Davies’ worlds fall into this category, as they are specifically designed to take one outside of the ordinary body, even while using aspects of the physical body (i.e. breathing) to navigate the environment. She says her work is meant to ‘. . . reaffirm the role of the living physical body in immersive virtual space as subjective experiential ground’ (Davies 1995). She believes having a body representation would interfere with the connection to the physical body. This type of (non)imaged embodiment can allow one to remain in touch with their inner conception of their own native, imagined self. This is the underlying premise for my own virtual environments, which also use this first-person point of view. Some VR critics have a very different view of the non-representational form of Being in virtual environments. Writing in the early days of VR, Nell Tenhaaf (1996) calls the human in concert with the VR experience a ‘bioapparatus’, and argues that the ‘absence of representation’ in VEs is what allows them to seem unmediated, and produces a ‘new order of transcendence’. The mirrored self: This form presents the participant with a view of himself as captured (typically) by video cameras or other devices that keep track of the body movements of an individual. Few VEs have yet to fully employ the mirrored self, with one prominent exception. Myron Krueger, pioneer of immersivity,3 believes the human body to be the ultimate interface between the mind and the machine. He insists the body of the participant be unencumbered, and has worked for many years to build interactive media based on this philosophy. In Krueger’s installations, the movement and actions of the body alone cause the desired results to occur, by integrating mirrored representations of participants. The body image presented in Kruger’s work is typically a single colour, flat field video silhouette of the participant, seen by him (and others) on a screen at the same time as he moves his own body(Krueger 1983). The mirrored image is intuitive, in that we have become accustomed to such representations of self since we first learned to recognise ourselves in a mirror.4 It is nevertheless a dualistic form, though,

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3

Krueger started working in unencumbered full body computer applications in the 1960s before virtual reality was named a concept. He coined his own term for his work – artificial reality – and later wrote a book by that name, espousing his ideas. His term never caught on, rather Jaron Lanier’s term, virtual reality, became the accepted designation for immersive environments.

4

Kreuger’s work brings to mind Lacan’s concept of the child’s first experiences with mirror, and how these encounters help form the image of self. Krueger’s work is extremely attractive to children and adults alike, not only for, I suspect, its playful qualities, but also due to the mirror image present during the interactions.

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5

This was a state I found myself in recently. In one demo world, I had an avatar representation that was a graphical human figure. When I looked down at my virtual body, however, I found I was a male figure, and a naked one at that!

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separating the representation from the physical body spatially, but not temporally. Such a representation is isochronic with the physical body. Graphical personification (partial, whole): When a body image is used, it raises a more ontological question concerning the nature of that image and its correspondence to the experient’s own body. Unlike Krueger’s video image that was a spatial translation of the ‘own body’ some VR creators elect to use a spatially coincident graphical avatar for the body representation. In other words, the avatar appears to be in the space occupied by the person’s mental construct of where they are in the VE. Designers are not yet able to create a specialised image for each individual without a great deal of advance planning, and therefore use a generic 3D model. The design of this model is up to the creator of the work who can decide to make it humanoid or not, or limit the representation to a single gender, whereby one could find their female self housed in a malemodelled body.5 Third person/observed avatar: In this form of embodied image the participant takes on an embodied image at an experiential locus that is outside their perceptual self. An avatar appears, at some distance out in front of the experient’s physical and imaginal locus. It is obviously related and connected to the experient, in that its motions and actions may be controlled by the participant’s actions and corresponding decisions. This is what Freud might call the ‘observer’ or third person view as opposed to the ‘field’ or self view. This form of body image is most common in games, where players control an avatar to move through the objectives of the game world, but it is far less common in immersive virtual environments. Rebecca Allen does use this form of representation in her Bush Soul series of virtual environments, allowing the participant to inhabit the 3rd person view/body of an intelligent virtual agent. The graphical depiction of this agent is not a human form, but a set of swirling geometric shapes that twirl and spin as the experient directs it, via a force-feedback joystick, across the colourful virtual bush landscape. In fact, however, Allen’s design allows the avatar some autonomy. While the experient provides suggestions to the character, ultimately it may not fully follow those directions. The avatar/agent has its own intrinsic behaviour set that can take precedence during the experience (Allen 2000). This situation sets up a phenomenal dichotomy that questions whether I myself, or another controls me. In fact, one of Allen’s stated research goals for this series was to investigate the relationship between the avatar and the human. Shared environments: In shared virtual realities, there is also the question of the representation of others in the environment with the experient. A representation of some form seems mandatory, for absent it, the worlds will appear empty. This poses a larger question: how are forms of self and other determined? Are there guidelines that might govern how we see representations of self and others in shared spaces? Benedikt maintains that participants should have a body representation. His Principle of Personal Visibility (1991: 177–179) actually addresses two 132

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rules of visibility: that you must project an image within the digital realm, and you must have the right to decide which others in the environment you want to see. (This strikes an odd note in the name of privacy. If I must be visible to everyone, but I can turn off representations of others, then others can turn off my representation. This seems to defeat the purpose of having a representation at all, and in any case it works only for realms of the virtual that are truly shared spaces). Part of his rationale for this is to foster accountability in cyberspace and to nullify voyeurism, but curiously, he suggests a ‘small blue sphere’ as a minimal presence marker for cyberspace denizens. In spite of a shared space, he argues for a way to be alone, by turning off the representations of others. What if that is done, but others can still see you? What sort of snobbery might they conclude is behind being ignored by that out-of-touch blue ball? Private, meaningful, immersive worlds are my primary interest here, so I will conclude with a few more thoughts on the subject of self-representation within them. A form and metaphor of my body icon that I cannot control may compete with my own inner representation of self in inhabiting this environment. In such cases, it may be better to have nothing at all. As Davies’ work shows, the virtual environment becomes a sacrosanct enceinte; a sacred, encompassing space, where mind transcends body even as it references the body, felt organism even in visual absence. This body, as felt phenomenon, is how we know the world, true as much within the virtual as in the real. To have no body icon might even be perceived as an antidote to the commodification of the body in our consumerist, product-saturated world. Finally, from the phenomenological standpoint, while Merleau-Ponty views the body as ‘the common texture of which objects are woven’ (1964), he never had to grapple with new forms of immaterial bodies beyond the phenomenal, nor with questions about how we might weave new forms of ‘common texture’ from them. This is up to us.

Part 5. Role playing and performance within VEs Role-playing is direct since it engages both the physical and cognitive elements of our psyche. Anyone entering into a virtual world is, by default, playing a role. At the most basic level, he is playing the role of one willing, or unafraid, to enter into a technically mediated environment. More importantly, the user is also playing the role that the virtual environment imposes on him by the VE. In Placeholder, as mentioned, each participant takes on an animal persona such as a snake, bird, spider or fish. To fully enter into the role, they must act like the creature whose form they inhabit. Josephine Anstey’s ‘Thing’ character in her VE work The Thing Growing (2000), compels you to play a starring role opposite itself: a strange and fickle creature you have freed from its prison, who is at first grateful and then becomes increasingly demanding. In any virtual environment that asks the participant to be other than his natural self, he must play along with the role to get the most out of the experience. What happens, however, if the person is at odds with that role? In my VE DarkCon, which had a military theme, the mission briefing gave Performing in (virtual) spaces: Embodiment and being in virtual environments

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some participants an aversion to playing the lead role of the scout directed to find information. We found people wanted to able to choose – even in an ersatz discovery mission – to play different parts. One participant wanted to be able to see the world through the eyes of a refugee; others thought it would be more helpful to achieving the mission’s goals to be inside the mind of one of the suspected rebels. Role-playing in virtual environments ties neatly into Brenda Laurels’ concept of computers as theatre (Laurel 1991) and relates directly to other performative aspects of virtual environments. The word performance conjures images of the theater, which itself comes from the Greek word theatron, a place for seeing, not simply in the sense of watching, but also as the deeper meaning to see – to behold, grasp or understand. Post-humanist theorists maintain that interaction with our technologies allows us to gain new understandings of our self. Immersive virtual environments proffer exceptional insights, through expanded concepts of body and identity and understanding of essence, agency and meaning in life. In real life we put on different personas to perform specific social roles. These are often referred to as masks. Within private, immersive virtual environments, we most often (though not always, depending on the maker’s intent) play ourselves. Viewed thus, virtual environments become not so much a mask waiting to be put on, as an enabling methodology, allowing us to cast aside the social masks that everyday conduct requires. Despite some having equated the HMD to a physical mask, it can actually serve in reverse, a mask that removes other masks. Because of this, I view the performance within the virtual environment more as a metaphorical door that leads to an understanding of a private and personal self. The view available to the observer of a person wearing VR gear is that of the physical body as a text, the body as performer of the virtual experience for the enjoyment of others. This is a very different kind of performance than the first person one from within the virtual environment. Many participants in virtual experiences are not aware they are performing in a dual mode. However, there are few instances where a participant is alone while in the environment; most often others are watching, listening and may themselves be involved with either facilitating or observing. At some level, the participant knows this to be the case. Such knowledge can engender actions that the participant intends to be seen. Yet, if the experience creates deep involvement on cognitive and emotional levels, then the experient may become much less aware of their body’s physical performance. If an experience is convincing and meaningful, the experient primarily performs the text of the experience, and not the reflexive meta-text of herself experiencing the VE. This private performance requires no audience save the performer, observing the inwardly focused experience. In many forms of new media, the performance aspects have a functional role. Grounding virtual environments in embodied performances gives rise to particular phenomenological issues, some of which may share philosophical territory with other forms of embodied performance, such as ritual, performance art, theatrical or social roles.

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Perhaps the most salient example of a private, performative experience is Char Davies’ Osmose. Davies says the ‘Osmose swallows the participants – suitably swathed in electronic gear – into a sensuous, luminous, and deeply enveloping dreamworld of cloud forests, dark pools and verdant canopies’. (in Erik Davis 1998). Yet Osmose is unique in that is promotes both public and private forms of performance. Not only is the experience itself so engaging that it ‘swallows’ the experient, Davies also allows an external audience to observe the Osmose participant behind a screen, as a silhouette engaged in her personal performance. Davies shrewdly imbricates both performative aspects in exhibiting her work, and resolves any speculative conflicts thusly: . . . Osmose is a powerful example of how technological environments can simulate something like the old animist immersion in the World Soul, organic dreamings that depend, in power and effect, upon the ethereal fire. Besides pointing to a healing use of virtual technologies, Osmose also reminds us how intimate we are with electronics, in sight and sound, in body and psyche. (ibid.)

Part 6. Performance, rituals and rites de passage Performances in general, and VE performative possibilities in particular, can have meaningful and significant effects on those who perform. Victor Turner (1979) cites experimental theatre evangelist Jerzy Grotowski’s concept of the theater as a platform for a modern rite of passage, where the stage is done away with, and the spectator becomes a participant in a liminal activity. According to Turner, Grotowski’s concept goes so far as to imply the participants in his theatre will discover their essential selves through these ritualistic performances without standard theatrical boundaries. Unlike Grotowski, noted performance researcher Richard Schechner does not disallow the separate audience within theatre’s ritualistic functions. In Ritual, Play and Performance (1976), he explains the ‘efficacy/ritual – entertainment/theater’ as a general form of performance that embraces the impulse to be serious and to entertain; to collect meanings and to pass the time; to display symbolic behaviour that actualises ‘there and then’ and to exist only ‘here and now’; to be oneself and to play at being others; to be in a trance and to be conscious; to get results and to fool around; to focus the action on and for a select group sharing a hermetic language, and to broadcast to the largest possible audiences of strangers who buy a ticket.

Virtual environments have much in common with Schechner’s form of theatre, but those that are meaningful and private are closer to Grotowski’s concept. For now these ritualistic forms of virtual environments are not common (Osmose and Ephémère excepted), but nonetheless important in what human needs they address. Phenomenology and semiotics are two ways of looking at a thing. The first embraces the corporeal body; the latter makes of it a sign, even within

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its lived state. The symbol and the experience cannot co-exist temporally. In living, in our direct experience, we are unaware of our meaning. It is only when we put on the distancing goggles with their semiotic lenses that we can observe the signs engendered by that experience. The views are complementary, but not congruent. We move back and forth between these modes, experiencing and assimilating, in an endless dialogue that informs who we are, and how we will respond to the next experience. Ritual action, with its intrinsic, socially construed meanings, may be an exception because it provides an immediate means of signification during the actual living experience, while at the same time, as Robert St. Clair says (1992), it predates and precludes any linguistic retelling of it. Instead we have a multisensory enclosure, a space apart that serves as a respite from the layers and simulacra (in Baudrillard’s sense) that confound our day-today existence. Immersive virtual environments, imbued with meaning, are opportunities for post ritual formulations, created by the shamanistic efforts of the modern, technologically savvy artist. The VE experience itself must precede and inform any narrative retelling of it. Our intimacy with technology – its pervasiveness – appropriates everything, from social activities to those that press deeply into our private selves. Where is there escape? What respite do we have? Paradoxically, immersive virtual environments may serve as an antidote to this constant flux of technology in our lives. It is hard to be alone in this day and age, and yet, within Char Davis’s work, in a museum full of people, and with spectators looking on, I could be alone with, and find myself at last.

In the act of concluding . . . In setting out the terms of embodiment in virtual spaces, this paper also places the subject of VE next to that of performance practice. It defines the terms: bifurcated body, presence and isochronal embodiments and discusses forms of embodied representation, including avatars, and the mirrored self. The paper notes the primacy of experience that must precede personal selfnarrative, and considers the correspondence of virtual environments to rites of passage and post ritual possibilities of virtual liminal states. Most importantly, this paper argues that there will always be a need for our bodies to develop our brains and, by the mysterious means of consciousness, our minds. The disembodiment of much of our day to day living may push us further into new and unique means of bodily involvement. The ‘segmented self’ engendered by Hillis’ ‘polyvocal polyvalency’ of our increasingly fractured lives may desire a place of unity, where the only self there is the one that is core to one’s consciousness. This argument takes forward my study of immersive experience whilst also contextualising the concepts of self (and particularly embodied ‘selves’) in relation to virtual environments. References Allen, R. (2000), The Bush Soul: Travelling Consciousness in an Unreal World. Available online at http://emergence.design.ucla.edu/. Accessed 7 April 2004.

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Anstey, J., Pape, D. and Sandin, D. (2000), The Thing Growing: Autonomous Characters in Virtual Reality Interactive Fiction, Proceedings of the IEEE Virtual Reality 2000 Conference, New Brunswick, NJ, pp. 71–78. Benedikt, M. (1991), ‘Cyberspace: Some Proposals’, in M. Benedikt (ed.), First Steps in Cyberspace, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Biocca, F. (1997), ‘The Cyborg’s Dilemma: Progressive Embodiment in Virtual Environments’, Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 3: 2. Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1997), Finding Flow: the Psychology of Engagement in Everyday Life. New York, NY: Basic Books, a member of the Perseus Books Group. Damasio, A.R. (1994), Descartes’ Error: Emotion, Reason and the Human Brain, New York, NY: G. P. Putnam’s Sons. Davies, C. (1995), ‘Osmose: Notes on Being in Immersive Virtual Space,’ Colin B., Lone M. and Masoud Y. (eds.), in Digital Creativity, Vol. 9, No. 2 (1998), The Netherlands: Swets & Zeitlinger, Lisse, pp. 65–74. Davis, E. (1998), Techgnosis: Myth, Magic + Mysticism in the Age of Information, New York, NY: Three Rivers Press. Garner, S.B., Jr. (1994), Bodied Spaces: Phenomenology and Performance in Contemporary Drama, Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press. Hansen, M.B.N. (2006), Bodies in Code: Interfaces with Digital Media, New York, NY and London, UK: Routledge. Haraway, D. (1985), A Manifesto for Cyborgs, Socialist Review 80: 65–108. Hayles, N.K. (1996), ‘Embodied Virtuality: On How To Put Bodies Back into the Picture, in M.A. Moser and D. MacLeod (eds.), Immersed in Technology: Art and Virtual Environments, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Heim, M. (1998), Virtual Realism, New York, NY: Oxford University Press. Krueger, M.W. (1983), Artificial Reality, Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley Publishing. Lakoff, G. and Johnson, M. (1999), Philosophy in the Flesh: The Embodied Mind and Its Challenge to Western Thought, New York, NY: Basic Books. Laurel, B. (1991), Computers as Theater, Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley. Loomis, J. (1992), ‘Distal Attribution and Presence’, Presence: Teleoperators and Virtual Environments, 1: 1: 113–118. Merleau-Ponty, M. (1962), Phenomenology of Perception (trans. C. Smith), London, UK: Routledge. ——— (2002), The Structure of Behavior, 7th Printing, (trans. A.L. Fisher), Pittsburgh, PA: Duquesne University Press (originally published 1942 in French as La Structure de Comportement). Moravec, H. (1998), Mind Children: The Future of Robot and Human Intelligence, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Morie, J.F. (1992), Personal Conversation with Stellarc, ISEA 1992, Sydney, Australia. Palumbo, M.L. (2000), New Wombs: Electronic Bodies and Architectural Disorders, Basel, Switzerland: Birkhäuser. Rogers, K. (2006), From personal website. Available at http://www.kathleenrogers. co.uk/2006/01/sleepless_dreaming_1.htm. Accessed 23 February 2007. Schechner, R. and Schuman, M. (eds.) (1976), Ritual, Play and Performance, New York, NY: Seabury Press. St. Clair, R.N. (1999a), ‘Cultural Wisdom, Communication Theory, and the Metaphor of Resonance’, in W.G. Davey (ed.), Intercultural Communication Studies, Special Issue on Language and Interculturalism, Vol. 8, No. 1, Institute for Cross-Cultural Research, USA, pp. 79–102. Performing in (virtual) spaces: Embodiment and being in virtual environments

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Tenhaaf, N. (1996), ‘Mysteries of the Bioapparatus’, in M.A. Moser and D. MacLeod (eds.), Immersed in Technology: Art and Virtual Environments, Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, pp. 51–72. Turner, V. (1979), ‘Frame, Flow and Reflection: Ritual and Drama as Public Liminality’, Japanese Journal of Religious Studies, 6: 4, pp. 465–499. Wilshire, B. (1982), Role Playing and Identity, Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.

Suggested citation Morie, J.F. (2007), ‘Performing in (virtual) spaces: Embodiment and being in virtual environments’, International Journal of Performance Arts and digital Media 3: 2&3, pp. 123–138, doi: 10.1386/padm.3.2&3.123/1

Contributor details Jacquelyn Ford Morie is a professional artist and computer scientist, widely known as a passionate VR maven. She is currently a Senior Scientist at USC’s Institute for Creative Technologies in Los Angeles, California. She has worked in both animation and visual effects entertainment (Disney, Rhythm & Hues Studios) and has spent two decades developing virtual environments in US government-sponsored research laboratories. She has recently completed her PhD with the SMARTlab, London. Contact: Jacquelyn Ford Morie, Senior Scientist/Project Director, University of Southern California, Institute for Creative Technologies, Los Angeles, CA 90089, USA. E-mail: [email protected]

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International Journal of Performance Arts and Digital Media, Volume 3 Number 2 & 3. © Intellect Ltd 2007. Article. English language. doi: 10.1386/padm.3.2&3.139/1

Being there: Heidegger and the phenomenon of presence in telematic performance Martha Ladly Ontario College of Art & Design Abstract

Keywords

The phenomenological tradition and Heidegger’s theory of Da-sein – literally ‘Being there’ – speaks with distinct resonance to virtual and interactive communication, games and telematic performative experiences. In fact, the notion of presence has greater currency, now that its correlate – absence, and virtuality supported by technology and the Internet – has become ubiquitous. Hermeneutic interpretation may be used as a lens for current technologically mediated performance, and the intoxicating idea of being in the world as a constant beginner is translated into a foundational construct for telematic practice.

phenomenology new media Internet community networks virtual communication

Presence is an insurrection against nothingness. (Martin Heidegger, An Introduction to Metaphysics, 1959)

Heidegger’s work represented a confluence of thinking within significant networks that altered the philosophical landscape of Germany in the 1920s. With the theories set out in his book Sein und Zeit (Being and Time) published in 1927, phenomenology became a significant force for intellectual change, with far-reaching effects in Europe, and to a lesser extent, North America (Collins 1998). I propose that the phenomenological tradition continues to have meaning and that this technologically mediated moment may be an opportunity to give Heidegger’s theory of Da-sein, literally ‘Being there’, another look. The central tenets of the phenomenological tradition have distinct resonance within telematic performance and virtual communication. In fact, the notion of presence has greater currency, now that its correlates – absence, and virtuality supported by technology and the Internet – have become ubiquitous. I believe that the hermeneutic interpretive method may translate as a lens for telematic performance practice. Telematic performance describes the process of engagement with the long-distance transmission of digital, visual or kinetic information, and the interaction of the mind, the body and the senses, with the information received. As such, telematic performance can act as a catalyst for understanding the wider social and cultural implications of digital technology (Kozel 2008). There is also a moment when telematic practice or process itself becomes a tool. This emphasises the

PADM 3 (2&3) pp. 139–150. © Intellect Ltd 2007.

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layers of connectivity that make up performance processes using networked technologies (Goodman, Lizbeth, Milton 2004).

Towards a phenomenological practice: being in the ‘Mood’ Edmund Husserl, the founder of the phenomenological tradition, built his philosophical theories upon the study of consciousness and its object. In the practice of phenomenology, Husserl required that all preconceived ideas of consciousness were to be set aside, so that one might observe what is actually taking place within consciousness; within the here and now. The great project of phenomenology was to disregard anything that had previously been said or written about consciousness or the world. Reality had to be given an opportunity to show itself as itself, uncovered and free from preconceived notions. Accordingly, once this veil was removed, the thing that was then revealed, and the way in which it showed itself, was conceived as the ‘phenomenon’. Phenomenology states that in order to observe and perceive phenomena directly, a sense of navigating the world as an absolute beginner is required. An impulse to be open to the evidence of apprehending things as though for the first time engendered the wonderful phenomenological battle cry ‘toward the things!’ (Safranski 1998). There is something entirely contemporary about this credo. What do teenage video gamers, Second Life online world inhabitants, participants in the current TV rage for home and lifestyle improvement, or families planning a trip to the mall for their weekend recreational shopping, not understand about ‘toward the things’? To be exact, Husserl wanted to demonstrate that the whole external world is actually present within us; that we are not empty vessels into which reality is poured (or more contemporaneously, into which ‘things’ can be poured), but that everything within us relates to something in the external world. ‘Consciousness is always conscious of something’ and ‘it is not inside but alongside’ that which it is apprehending. This is not in the manner of an inner explanation or an interpretation, but more of a description of what the actual phenomenon is ‘in itself’ (Smith 2003). The intoxicating idea of an ongoing experience of the evidence of things that continue to offer themselves up, as if for the first time, became a foundational construct for Husserl’s pupil, Martin Heidegger. Heidegger described this state as the phenomenological ‘Da-sien’ or ‘being there’. Heidegger reasoned that the natural and inevitable experience of being, merely existing in the world, is not understood by analysis or reduction, but more simply and directly, through Da-sien (Heidegger 1962). A relevant contemporary call to action (or perhaps more accurately, to inaction) is the idea of ‘being in the moment’, a strategy to slow down the frenetic pace of 21st century living, and to reflect on our current state. Phenomenologists muse on the loss of control that we feel when overwhelmed by our state of mind, and the role of mood: Mood determines our being in the world. We are always in some mood or other. Mood is a ‘state of mind’. Although we can drive ourselves into a

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mood, the essential characteristic of moods is that they arise, seep into us, creep up on us, pounce on us. We are not the master of them. In mood we experience the limits of our self-determination. (Safranski 1998)

This assertion seems contemporary, and pertinent to a loss of self-determination through artificially altered, elevated and anti-depressed mood states. We live in a frantic, bored, frenzied, mediated, medicated world. By consciously stepping off the treadmill of a present that is constantly reflecting on the past while looking forward to the future, one may take time, and create space in the inexorable progress. But Heidegger asserts that this process of examination may also require a measure of boredom, anxiety or even frenzy. Within an anxious state, the sufferer drifts because ‘the world has nothing more to offer him, nor has the Dasein-with of others’. But the drifting progress of boredom and anxiety may also force one to lift the veil and uncover a state of Being ‘. . . free for the freedom of choosing itself and taking hold of itself’ (Heidegger 1996). To be in the moment, to really be there, takes an individual effort of will, and involves a certain amount of risk. The trick is to be ‘mindfully’ present, to step outside of the constant whirl and buzz of cultural input and output activity. Although it may seem contradictory, (and there is of course an argument that any engagement with technology situates one directly in the space of input and output), never the less there are corollaries, and attempts to create or mimic stillness and mindfulness, in the history of telematic performance. In the early years, with technology as the major barrier, a simple, mindful recognition of human presence was often all that could be mustered (Diamond 2004). Artist Vera Frenkel’s String Games (1974) utilised teleconferencing technology to enact a ‘cat’s cradle’ string game over several hours, with five participants standing in for the fingers, while performing gestures, word games and improvised sounds, in studios in Toronto and Montreal. The two teams played back and forth, broadcasting to each other as playback; each was the audience for the other, in an agonisingly slow, simple, seemingly juvenile activity. Kit Galloway and Sherrie Rabinowitz formed the Electronic Café International during the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles, as an artist network, using analogue telephone lines, digital ISDN lines and then video and Internet networking, as a space of connection for dialogical performance (ibid.). The performers, who create simultaneous spaces in time to interact in various locations around the world, describe their practice as ‘casual’ and ‘conversational’ (Galloway and Rabinowitz 1992). In an effort to promote both situated and virtual mindfulness, and solidarity, the World Tea Party (1995–present) celebrates the slow ritual of tea drinking with performances, tea ceremonies and telematic Tea Parties, linked remotely (Diamond 2004). Mood is the shape-shifter of experience, and performance is its actor. Taking this one step further, performative act can foster a collaborative construction of new physical states, levels of consciousness and awareness. By sharing our moods and states through telematic and digital devices, we may reencounter ourselves, and others (Kozel 2008).

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The hermeneutic circle of interpretation as lens ‘The purpose of phenomenology is to demonstrate ontology by bringing together the phenomenon – “the self showing in itself” – with logos (scientific inquiry), a specific mode of letting something be seen’ (Martin Heidegger, Being and Time, 1996). Interpretation is central to phenomenological thinking; it is the active process we undertake when we assign meaning to our experiences. From a phenomenological viewpoint, interpretation cannot be separated from reality; it is an active process and as such, a creative act. Communication – one to self; one to one; one to many; and many to many – supplies the means by which we integrate and assign meaning to experience (Littlejohn, Stephen, Karen, Foss 2005). Leonard Hawes, in his 1970s treatise on the Phenomenology of Communication states: The relationships among ontology, phenomenology, hermeneutics, and communication are developed. Communication is both a resource of the social world and that which constitutes the social world. As such, communication is hermeneutic – the interpretive and critical scheme – and the ontological foundation of the social world. (Hawes 1977)

By what method do we distinguish and describe social phenomenon, and through interpretation, arrive at meaning? Richard Lanigan details a threestep phenomenological methodology for investigation, analysis and interpretation. Lanigan’s method was distilled from Herbert Speigelberg’s more elaborate seven-step method, described in his work The Phenomenological Movement (Speigelberg 1994). The first step in the method is to formulate a phenomenological description using phenomenological intuition, dealing with the capta, or conscious experience of the phenomena. The next step is to make a phenomenological reduction, whereby the observer determines which parts of the description are essential. The goal is to isolate the object of consciousness, the thing, situation, emotion or person that constitutes the experience. The description then becomes a reduction or a depicting definition, based directly on the experience, rather than on a conception of what the experience may be like. The final step is to produce a phenomenological interpretation, an attempt to signify meaning, using hermeneutic analysis. Lanigan describes it thus ‘. . . the use of hermeneutic is to uncover those pre-conscious structures of meaning that inhere in the conscious presence of phenomena’ (Lanigan 1988). The logical difficulty is how and where to interrupt the process, necessarily creating a fissure in the ongoing experience. But one must temporarily remove oneself from an ongoing synthesis of experience, in order to reflect, to create definition, and interpretation. The process of interpretation is an imperative creative process of the mind; it literally forms what is real. Interpretation emerges and is identifiable through the employment of a hermeneutic circle of interpretation. Within the hermeneutic circle the interpreter goes back and forth between experiencing an event or situation, and assigning meaning to the event; moving from the specific to the general, and back to the specific again, in a

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process of testing and refining the interpretation. The interpretation will always be subject to changes and shifts in nuance, as the interpreter continues to traverse the space between experience and interpretation (Littlejohn, Stephen, Karen, Foss 2005).

Applying hermeneutic practice in mobile communication I propose using the hermeneutic circle as a tool to reality check an ongoing understanding of what it means to be present in the world, while at the same time existing and communicating in a sort of parallel virtual world. Wireless technologies have added a new twist to the telematic, with dispersed theatrical performances, sequential dialogue-driven stories and discovery and adventure games being distributed over mobile phones (Diamond 2004). When engaging in a mobile phone conversation, we imagine ourselves into a situated interaction with the other person, picturing their face, their body movements and gestures and placing the conversation within a scenario that we must imagine. We often have no idea where, or in what situation, the person we are conversing with may be. This partially explains the dangers of driving while conversing on a mobile phone – it is not just the use of the device that distracts us; far more powerful and distracting is the focus of attention on active creation of the imagined scenario with the correspondent in our conversation (Kubose 2005). The use of the hermeneutic circle is instructive in imputing interpretation and meaning into the mobile phenomena. First, we must immerse in direct experience, or the capta, to understand the challenges that we face as disembodied communicators. Using mobile technologies, we communicate without facial expressions, body language and in the case of SMS (short message service, for mobile devices), tone of voice, to aid in the nuance of discourse. Short-form versions of conversations, salutations and greetings that occur in SMS modes are often open to interpretation. By reduction we perceive that our virtual communication can become muddled. Short forms, used for directness and speed, can be interpreted as shouting, offhandedness or even rudeness; acronyms abound that may be useful to the initiated but exclusionary to the novice (Plant 2001). When the short forms acceptable in disembodied communication bleed into the real world, further confusion results. There is an apocryphal belief that the ‘thumb generation’ (kids who grew up with cell phones and use their thumbs to dial) will become illiterate as they now write and even talk with SMS and IM (instant message) style short forms (Plant 2001). This bleed of modes from the virtual into the real world begs for interpretation, in the hermeneutic sense. It would seem that the telematic performance of reality has become reality indeed, and that the boundaries between performance of the real and the virtual have dissolved to the extent that they have become one act, at least in the minds of most young users of the technology. Hermeneutic analysis of the mobile phenomenon uncovers the problematic in communication within a space of relatively thin telematic mediation. This problem is amplified when the mediation becomes thicker, such as the immersion that occurs in virtual gaming environments.

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http://dictionary. reference.com/ search?q=virtual. Accessed 20 August 2007.

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Phenomenology and performance in virtual gaming The presencing (Anwesen) of presence (Anwesenheit) is difficult to detect. (Martin Heidegger, An Introduction to Metaphysics, 1959)

The term virtual is understood as ‘existing or resulting in essence or effect though not in actual fact, form, or name’; and ‘existing in the mind, especially as a product of the imagination’.1 The ability to re-construct oneself in virtual situations and places is a powerful and addictive activity, made possible through an extension of the body and imagination, essentially assisted by technology. When we perform in activities outside of our situated environment, we have to imagine ourselves into that virtual world. What is the nature of performance in the virtual gaming world? Communication played out in cyberspace supports the suspension of identity, place and time, within the virtual environment: Virtuality is a concept based on the relative transparency of a technological system that allows a user to experience a communicative event and to ignore the technology mediating the experience. (Downes 2005)

The allure of virtual gaming is the freedom to slip out of one’s skin and invent another persona in the game world; the ability to communicate and play with people one has never met, in places one may never visit; to be operating in a constructed fantasy environment; and the God-like potential to stand outside our bodies, and watch ourselves perform. All of these phenomena offer gamers a powerful form of immersion, and explain the tremendous popularity of ‘first person shooters’ such as Doom and the Halo series. These games, designed from the point of view of the player, place the participant as the star performer in the game scenario. The player takes on a persona, sometimes pre-packaged, sometimes more personalised, inside the virtual environment. In this way, ‘first person shooters’ emulate a sort of telematic fantasy experience, with the player as a disembodied interactor, able to control and navigate the environment. Without the direct use of our bodies we find it difficult to understand, interpret and have a modicum of control over experience, and so for virtual gamers, the interface device or ‘controller’ has become an important and elaborate performative device. The Nintendo Wii gaming console offers the best performance of any controller device to date, with a wireless remote handheld controller that can detect acceleration in three dimensions. Using one’s body to manipulate one’s virtual body affords the user an experience of heightened reality and resonance. Experiments in full-body movement within screen-based interactive environments, via sensors and/or triangulated cameras that translate body movement, have proven to be even more effective. This allows the player to use their whole body, not just their fingers, hands and arms, to control the movement of their character (or ‘avatar’), thus allowing players to become more embodied within the game activity (Morgenstern 2005).

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But even with enhanced control, are players able to savour their experience, and is this highly mediated telematic performance fulfilling and authentic, in the phenomenological sense? If authenticity is understood as the conscious self coming to terms with Being in the world, and within one’s own experience, then an authentic response to the pressure of says of Being in the virtual world, is to adapt one’s body for virtuality. How then to gauge authenticity, when the aim is to make the liminal threshold disappear?

A phenomenological praxeology: the embodied experience of ‘Savouring’ and ‘Fulfilling’ Heidegger devised the idea of formal notification in communication, as a demand that the other person (the one with whom we are communicating), when shown a thing, must look at it themselves. They must see for themselves what is notified (or shown) in order to fulfill that thing, with their own experience of it. With fulfillment comes the opportunity to savour the thing. We can only do this if we are present, and in the flow of temporal experience. The crucial part of this phenomenological transaction is that for it to be authentic, it must be carried out in person (Safranski 1998). On this point, Heidegger is adamant. If we cut ourselves off from our essential temporality, we evade the deepest part of reality, and the inevitability that Being must encounter loss of Being. Without this acknowledgement, our relationship with Being becomes inauthentic (Collins 1998). There is a sort of cheating of time and space, and even death, in the virtual world. How can a performer in the phenomenological tradition, reconcile the imperatives of being present, with the ubiquity of mediated experience? Do you need to be present, when you can communicate, work and play with people you will never meet, in places that you may never visit? This expansion of the limitations of time and place extends to even to the temporal life, in the sense that an on-line persona may even cheat death; living on, in a sort of virtual state of limbo. The Dead People Server,2 a virtual home for the recently deceased, and on-line services such as virtualmemorials.com3 along with the nearly 65 million individual memorial site citations on the Internet, attest to the virtual world as the home of choice, for the departed.

Phenomenology, technology and the end of distance In the inception of its history, Being clears itself as emerging and disclosure. From there it acquires the cast of presence and permanence in the sense of enduring. (Martin Heidegger, An Introduction to Metaphysics, 1935)

Heidegger did not condemn technology; but believed that it was instrumental, a means to an end, and hoped that it might also free humanity to return to the authentic task of Being (Heidegger 1977). Heidegger also noted the dangers of technology, with its ability to enframe authentic Being there: Heidegger and the phenomenon of presence in telematic performance

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http://www.dpsinfo. com/dps/index.html. Accessed 20 August 2007

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http://virtualmemorials.com/. Accessed 20 August 2007.

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http://www.flickr.com/. Accessed 23 July 2007.

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http://www.youtube. com/. Accessed 23 July 2007.

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http://www.myspace. com/. Accessed 23 July 2007.

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http://www.facebook. com/. Accessed 23 July 2007.

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http://en.wikipedia. org/wiki/Facebook_ (website). Accessed 23 July 2007.

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http://www. profilesnoop.com/. Accessed 20 August 2007.

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experience. His criticism of technology took the form of a warning against the perceived technological transformation of entities into essentially meaningless resources, intended only for optimisation. The enormous power of technology is in the conversion of Being into an undifferentiated ‘standing reserve’ of available energy, to be put to uses that ultimately subordinate the will of the human subject (Thomson 2005). Heidegger identified the distinctive problem with technology as ‘the end of distance’. Grant Kein, in his work on Phenomenology and Technography, identifies this phenomenon, and describes the affect of technology: The speed of modern technology leads to de-distancing of the world, both expanding and destroying the everyday world that surrounds. De-distancing is not only a spatial issue. Being is temporally grounded, in that time structures the world, ordering the everyday. The everyday is what is familiar, by which we interpret and estimate our worldly experiences, and it is this everyday experience that is problematised by the de-distancing of the world (Kein 2005). As the everyday is re-ordered by technology, so that distance evaporates, the process of Being in the world is internalised, so that one is left with the belief that all experience comes merely from oneself. Taken to its logical end, this takes the form of solipsism. This is a nihilistic view, and it is encouraging that most young adult users employ technology not so much as a place to get lost, but more as a highly effective form of social glue. In fact, the end of distance, for them, is highly desirable. It allows them to be here, there, and everywhere, in their social interactions (Rheingold 1993). Personal community networks and sharing sites such as Flikr4 called ‘the best online photo management and sharing application in the world’, YouTube,5 which allows users to broadcast themselves and share videos, MySpace6 ‘an online social networking service, allowing users to share messages, interests and photos with a growing body of friends’ and Facebook,7 ‘the social utility that connects you with the people around you’, have become the communication tools of choice for the ‘Echo’ generation (Baby Boomer’s kids). Facebook is one of the biggest success stories in the pack, with 34 million active members worldwide. Created by Harvard graduate Mark Zuckerberg, the site started out in 2004 as a digital version of an incoming freshmen’s photo guide. It expanded over two years to more than 2000 colleges and universities, and then high schools, and when, in 2006, the founder invited the rest of the world in, Facebook’s website became the most trafficked site for photo sharing in the world. According to ComScore Marketing, Facebook ranks as the 7th most trafficked site in the United States.8 Its popularity has no doubt been due to its functionality, but ubiquity also plays a big part, if you subscribe to the thinking that the larger your network is, the more effective your network becomes. As on-line social networks expand, self-regulation and effective official moderation becomes more difficult. As a consequence, opportunities for inappropriate activities, such as Internet stalking, flourish. MySpace users became so concerned, that a user-group called ProfileSnoop developed a snippet of code to embed into their profiles that takes a snapshot and allows them to view anyone who has been looking at their online profile.9

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Facebook’s unique differentiator was a constraint on membership that allowed only students who had registered email addresses at their college, university or high school to join, view and connect with others in their network. For parents as well as the kids who used it, there was some confidence in this feature embedded in the technology. Another distinguishing feature of Facebook is that, unlike MySpace and most other online social networks and communities, its hook is not its universality, but its locality. You can’t get much more local than your own high school or college community. And the people that use the site seem to really appreciate that about it. There is no doubt that as powerful social-networking tools, these sites have become indispensable. Providing the capta for this performative phenomenon, an 18-year-old High School student who used Facebook, reported: I check it everyday. It’s really easy. I use it for making plans online, it’s faster than calling, and you can plan things or share homework by IMing, in private or in public. Most people use the public messaging, and then you can see who is talking to whom, and about what. I think it’s also about popularity. Everyone asks each other ‘how many people do you have in your network? How many people have added you today?’ You can check out anyone’s profile in your school’s own network and also your friends at other schools, people who have accepted you into their networks. When someone adds you, it’s fun because you can check out their photos, see who has added them, and find out who they have been talking to. The only thing is that it’s pretty addictive; it eats up a lot of your time. I almost wish I hadn’t joined.10

So we can deduce that most students use their Facebook profiles for thin communication, as a support for such ordinary routine activities as sharing music, making plans, meeting up and socialising together, or sharing their latest experiences of social events, by exchanging photos. And, through hermeneutic observation, the reduction of this telematic social performance is found in the virtue of near-presence. An interpretation might be that virtual social networking and performative activities constitute a phenomenological sense of Being in the ordinary world, much as Heidegger would have described it (Collins 1998).

The place of place and conclusions on the bridge Towards the end of his life, Heidegger’s preoccupation with Da-sien did not abate; it was suffused with melancholy and a deep, hopeless, self-knowledge. Two days before his death Heidegger wrote a reflective greeting to his compatriot Bernhard Welte, a Freiberg professor of theology, and a native of Heidegger’s hometown of Messkirch. The occasion was Welte’s induction as an honourary citizen of the town, and Heidegger mused on this, and on the meaning of home. It was to be his final written communication: May this feast day of homage be joyful and life-giving. May the contemplative spirit of all participants be unanimous. For there is need for contemplation

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10 Interview with Rebecca Ladly Hoffnung, 24 April 2006.

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whether and how, in the age of technological world civilization, there can still be such a thing as home. (D, 187, Safranski 1998)

Da-sein, the phenomenon of presence – Being in the ordinary world – is a vital part of human interaction. Being there, in the virtual sense, is a crucial part of telematic performance, and carries with it the weight of phenomenological meaning. Put simply, the concept has power to rescue us from the philosophical abyss. Heidegger used the metaphor of a bridge, to show how sentient human beings can experience nothingness – the above, the below, the in and the around ourselves – as an extremely perilous place. In his masterwork on Martin Heidegger, Rüdger Safranski puts it eloquently: Thus Da-sien is a Being that looks across to itself and sends itself across – from one end of the bridge to the other. And the point is that the bridge grows under our feet only as we step on it. (Safranski 1998)

And so now, in these technologically mediated times, there is perhaps the risk of non-presence in the world, the loss of Da-sien. This is where the phenomenological tradition may continue to have usefulness, and meaning. When we are actively constructing the bridge of existence, we may suddenly apprehend the enormous nothingness within which we are lightly, but perilously, balanced. If we hesitate or loose confidence, we may stop believing in the bridge, and so disappear, into the abyss. To save ourselves, we must keep going. Throughout our lives we build the bridge with our presence, and traverse the abyss, in order to continue Being. This is so that we may get on with the great project of communication, with ourselves, and each other, and with the performance of our daily recreation of the world. References Collins, R. (1998), The Sociology of Philosophies: A Global Theory of Intellectual Change, Cambridge: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. Diamond, S. (2004), ‘Hello, Hello! A Short History of Networked Performance Art.’ HorizonZero, Issue 13, Perform: the stage is everywhere. http://www. horizonzero.ca/textsite/perform.php?is⫽13&file⫽1&tlang⫽0. Accessed 27 September 2007. Downes, D. (2005), Privileged Play Spaces, Interactive Realism: the Poetics of Cyberspace, Montreal: McGill-Queens University Press. Duffy, M. (2006), ‘A Dad’s Encounter with The Vortex of Facebook’, New York Times, 27 March 2006, Vol. 167, Issue 13. Fuentes, R. (2006), ‘Could Someone Be Stalking You on MySpace?’ E-Zine Articles. http://www.ezinearticles.com/?Could-Someone-Be-Stalking-You-onMySpace?&id⫽157988. Accessed 20 August 2007. Galloway, K., Sherrie R. and Linda J. (eds.) (1992), ‘Welcome to Electronic Café International’, in Cyberarts: Exploring Art and Technology. San Francisco: Miller Freeman.

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Goodman, L. and Katherine M. (eds.) (2004), A Guide to Good Practice in Collaborative Working Methods and New Media Tools Creation, Oxford: Oxbow Books. Hawes, L.C. (1977), ‘Toward A Hermeneutic Phenomenology of Communication’, Communication Quarterly, 25: 3. Heidegger, M. (1959), An Introduction to Metaphysics (trans. R. Manheim), New Haven, Con.: Yale University Press. ——— (1996), Being and Time (trans. J. Stambaough), Albany: State University of New York Press. ——— (1977), The Question Concerning Technology and Other Essays (trans. W. Lovett), New York: Harper and Row. Husserl, E. (1960), (trans. D. Cairns), Cartesian Meditations: An Introduction to Phenomenology, The Hague: Nijhoff. Kien, G. (2005), ‘Phenomenology and Technography: Theorizing How To Gather In A World Without Distance’, New York: International Communication Association; Annual Meeting. Kozel, S. (2008), Closer: Performance, Technologies, Phenomenology, Cambridge: The MIT Press. Kubose, T.T., Kathryn B., Gary, S.D., Susan, M.G., Arthur, K. and Jeff, M. (2006), ‘The Effects of Speech Production and Speech Comprehension on Simulated Driving Performance’, Journal of Applied Cognitive Psychology, 20: 1. Kroker, A. and Kroker, M. (eds.) (2002), ‘Hyper-Heidegger’. Ctheory.net. http://ctheory.net/printer.asp?id⫽348. Accessed 26 April 2007. Kushner, D. (2006), ‘The Web’s Hottest Site: Facebook.com’, RollingStone Magazine website. http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/9597735/the_webs_hottest_ site_facebookcom?rnd⫽1146427176600&has-player⫽true. Accessed 20 July 2007. Lang, B. (1996), Heidegger’s Silence, Ithaca: Cornell University Press. Lanigan, R.L. (1988), Phenomenology of Communication: Merleau Ponty’s Thematics in Communicology and Semiology, Pittsburgh: Duquesne University Press. Littlejohn, S.W. and Karen, A.F. (2005), Theories of Human Communication, Toronto: Thomson Learning Inc. Mann, S. and Hal, N. (2001), Cyborg: Digital Destiny and Human Possibility in the Age of the Wearable Computer, Toronto: Doubleday. Pattison, G. (2000), Routledge Philosophy Guidebook to the Later Heidegger, London: Routledge. Plant, S. (2001), From Stone Age to Phone Age – Evolutionary Psychology and Cellular Telephones, Motorola Media Center. http://www.motorola.com/mediacenter/ news/detail.jsp?globalObjectId⫽534_308_23. Accessed 20 August 2007. Rheingold, H. (1993), The Virtual Community: Homesteading on the Electronic Frontier, New York: Harper Perennial. Safranski, R. (1998), ‘Martin Heidegger’ (trans. E. Osers), Between Good and Evil, Cambridge: Harvard University Press. Smith, A.D. (2003), Husserl and the Cartesian Meditations, London: Routledge. Spiegelberg, H. (1994), The Phenomenological Movement: A historical Introduction, Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers. Thomson, I. (2005), Heidegger on Ontotheology: Technology and the Politics of Education, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. World Tea Party: collaboration by Daniel Dion, Bryan Mulvihill, Marc Patch and Su Schnee. http://www.presentationhousegall.com/worldteaparty.html. Accessed 28 September 2007.

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Suggested citation Ladly, M. (2007), ‘Being there: Heidegger and the phenomenon of presence in telematic performance’, International Journal of Performance Arts and digital Media 3: 2&3, pp. 139–150 , doi: 10.1386/padm.3.2&3.139/1

Contributor details Martha Ladly is an Associate Professor of Design at the Ontario College of Art and Design (OCAD) specialising in interactive communication, a Registered Graphic Designer (RGD), a faculty member with the Canadian Film Centre’s Media Lab, and a senior researcher with the Mobile Experience Lab, in Toronto, Canada. Martha worked for ten years as a designer and producer with Peter Gabriel’s Real World organisation, in the United Kingdom. As Principal Investigator, Martha led the Mobile Nation International Conference in Toronto in March 2007, and is editing an anthology on current mobile research and design practice. Contact: Associate Professor of Design, Ontario College of Art & Design, 100 McCaul St. Toronto, ON, Canada, M5T 1W1. E-mail: [email protected]

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International Journal of Performance Arts and Digital Media, Volume 3 Number 2 & 3. © Intellect Ltd 2007. Article. English language. doi: 10.1386/padm.3.2&3.151/1

Ersatz dancing: Negotiating the live and mediated in digital performance practice Helen Bailey University of Bedfordshire Abstract

Keywords

This paper will focus on the practice-led research of dance–theatre company, Ersatz Dance and how the Company has negotiated and defined the relationship between live and mediated performance in their work. It will track the evolving relationship the Company has with a range of technologies. It will focus on the impact of recent research using virtual research environments (VREs). It will consider the ways in which VREs can provide a new context for practice-led research in dance. It will focus on the role VREs have played in defining new methodological approaches to composition and the contribution to the ongoing debates concerning ‘presence’, ‘liveness’ and ‘virtual embodiment’ in performance.

dance choreography access grid stereoscopic video digital performance

Introduction In the last year there has been a flurry of new publications that address, from a range of perspectives, the interface between live performance and digital technologies. These publications Broadhurst (2006), Popat (2006), Dixon (2007) are timely and demonstrate the plethora of recent professional arts and academic research practice that investigates what has been variously termed ‘digital performance’, ‘mediated performance’ or ‘performance and new technology’. This discussion will make a contribution to the development of this recent discourse by considering specifically the relationship of practice-led research in dance to a range of digitally mediated environments through the choreographic practice of Ersatz Dance. It will explore the ways in which the work of the Company has shifted its concerns from an exploration of projected pre-recorded video through to the integration of digital animation, virtual reality and stereoscopic video within live performance, and more recently the use of the Access Grid as a telematic performance context. This article will consider how these technologies enable new forms of practice through the development of new research methods as well as new practice-led performance outcomes. It will go on to consider how collaborative research environments, made possible by Grid technologies, can contribute new knowledge and understandings to the debates concerning ‘liveness’ and virtual embodiment in performance.

PADM 3 (2&3) pp. 151–165. © Intellect Ltd 2007.

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A term coined by Dr. Angela Piccini as part of the AHRC funded PARIP: Practice as Research in Performance project, University of Bristol, to describe practiceled researchers in the performing arts. The Place is one of several National Dance Agencies in the UK. It has, for a number of years, provided an extensive professional artist development programme that is internationally recognised. The Choreodrome scheme is part of this programme. It is an annual process-orientated choreographic research scheme for professional choreographers who are selected to participate.

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Ersatz dance and digital performance As an Artist-Scholar,1 I have been undertaking practice that straddles various thresholds for the past ten years with dance–theatre company Ersatz Dance. As Artistic Director of the Company, I create work at the intersection between professional arts and the academic research context. For a number of years, I have been based in the university sector, where I have received both Arts Council and Research Council grants for practice-led choreographic projects that fulfil concurrently both professional and academic research aims. The ongoing focus of my practice-led research is an exploration of the notion of ‘interdisciplinary choreography’. In other words, I have a continuing interest in the application of choreographic methodology, compositional approaches and aesthetic sensibility to a range of different media in the context of live performance and beyond that to fields of research that are not necessarily located in the arts or humanities. In particular this focus on ‘interdisciplinarity’ has led to an engagement with visual technologies and their integration into the live performance context. I will now outline practice-led research undertaken by Ersatz Dance that highlights the evolving use of technology within the work of the Company. In particular this will focus on identifying the shifting relationship between notions of the live and the mediated in performance and how this has been articulated through the practice (Figure 1). In 1998 Ersatz Dance undertook research as part of the Choreodrome professional research and development scheme at The Place,2 London, UK. This research focused on the use of CCTV within the context of live performance. In particular the project explored the use of site-specific, guerrilla performance in locations that were under surveillance from CCTV systems. The resulting live performance work, Hyperbolic (1998), was a quartet that

Figure 1: 2:Moving by Ersatz Dance, 2005. Performers: Amalia Garcia, James Hewison. 152

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integrated the performance footage from the CCTV surveillance cameras as projection within the live performance context. This work explored the production and re-production of space and visio-spatial relations of power in terms of spectatorship and voyeurism. Central to this work, from both an aesthetic and political perspective, was the use of CCTV as a form of video ‘ready-made’ that questioned notions of fiction and reality in the relationship between the ‘live’ and the mediatised in performance. From 2000 to 2001 the Company toured Save the Last Dance (2000). Again, this work explored the integration of pre-recorded video material into live dance performance. However in this work the Company also explored the non-linearity of digital media as a compositional approach for the construction of the narrative aspects of the work. Save the Last Dance took the mediatisation of the then recent Kosovan war as a thematic starting point. This dance–theatre quartet explored notions of ‘placelessness’ and the ‘nomadic’ and was set in a non-destinational space that referenced a waiting room (Figure 2). Pre-recorded video material was back-projected onto a door that formed part of the set, however the door was not opened or used for entrances or exits by the performers, thus becoming the potential ‘entrance’ to a narrative, allegorical space. The use of the door in this way foregrounded and delineated a mediated representational space within the work, whilst drawing attention to the concept of mediatisation as a critical principle driving the work thematically. The video material provided a further layer of thematic commentary and a continuous narrative strand throughout the structure of the work that was compositionally interrelated with the live material. In 2002 the Company premiered 24 Acts of Arson (2002) at the South Bank Centre, London, UK as part of the international performance programme. This work marked a shift in emphasis for the Company away from video to the use of digital animation. For this project the Company collaborated with Animator and Dance Film-maker, Rachel Davis. This project explored the integration of digital animation into the live performance context to create an ‘interactive environment’. It focused on the construction

Figure 2: Save the Last Dance by Ersatz Dance, 2001. Performers: Marcus Capell, Amalia Garcia, Lisa Gunstone, James Hewison. Ersatz dancing: Negotiating the live and mediated in digital performance practice

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of a critical space that explored the concept of narrative from an intersubjective, intertextual perspective. The starting point for the work was an exploration of various narrative forms, in particular the construction of the self through auto-biographical narrative and the parallel activity, in the context of performance-making, of the narrative of process; or process of narrative; in other words the reflexive, performative construction of ‘the work’ and ‘the self’. The set design for the piece comprised a white wall and floor, contained within a larger black-box space. The white wall and floor were used throughout the piece as projection surfaces for the animation. The animated material covered the white surfaces of wall and floor, the projections on the two surfaces were synchronised so creating the illusion of a coherent single projected image across both surfaces. The animation was constructed alongside the live choreography during the creative process, so that although the animation was pre-recorded, the high-degree of integration between the animation and live performance material created the illusion of interactivity within the final work. For example a leitmotif in the piece was the projection of an animated network with which the performers directly interacted. As the performers moved from position to position in the space, the network grew and extended. The performers described a series of autobiographical memories and the animated network built spatial connections between these memories as the performers moved. This matrix took on the image of a set of synaptical connections, visualising the process of remembering. As one performer, James Hewison remembered, as a child shouting – ‘I’m a fairy’, a large pair of animated wings appeared to grow out of his shoulders, the subsequent solo extended his real body into the virtual space through the closely choreographed interconnection of the live dancer’s movements and the movement of the digitally animated wings (Figure 3). Animation and choreography were integrated in this project in order to consider the concept of inscription: the inscription of the performative space and the bodily inscription of the performers. The aim was to create a graphic rather than representational space (Figure 4).

Figure 3: 24 Acts of Arson by Ersatz Dance, 2003. Performers: Amalia Garcia, James Hewison. 154

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Figure 4: 24 Acts of Arson by Ersatz Dance, 2003. Performers: Amalia Garcia, James Hewison. To this end the hand-drawn style of the animation consciously highlighted the two-dimensional, inscription surface of the set, whilst attempting to challenge the slick, coolness of the CGI aesthetic made familiar through various big-budget Hollywood movies. In 2006 Ersatz Dance created A Part/In Parts (2006) a new media/performance installation as a result of a commission by the BCA Gallery, Bedford UK. This site-specific performance was created for the gallery environment and performed daily over a two-week period. It explored the use of Particles, a motion-tracking system, created by New Media Artists Ziemovitz Maj and Piotr Kowalski, in the context of live performance. The challenge with this work was to create a live performance work that fully articulated the interactive capacity of the new media installation to a viewing spectatorship. The Particles software had originally been created as a participatory, interactive new media installation. The performance work therefore had to compositionally and thematically move beyond a presentational display of the pre-existing technological capabilities of the installation and provide a further hybrid located performance. The work took ‘partiality’ and in particular, subjective spatial positioning as its thematic focus. The site-specific dance-theatre work, A Part/In Parts was generated through a series of task-based improvisations using both movement and text, whilst interacting with the Particles software. The interplay between the literal and the metaphorical became important in terms of highlighting the corporeal experience of the mediated space generated by the Particles installation. The literal, functionality of the software was Ersatz dancing: Negotiating the live and mediated in digital performance practice

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Figure 5: A Part/In Parts by Ersatz Dance, 2006. Perfomers: Amalia Garcia, James Hewison, Diccon Hogger.

fore-grounded through the improvisatory nature of certain parts of the live performance work, thus providing the context from which the audience perspective of the interactivity of the system could be vicariously (and viscerally) experienced. For instance, at one point in the piece, a performer attempted to count the particles as they collected around her hand. As she moved to count them, they dispersed and reformed elsewhere, thus providing an ongoing improvisatory cycle of interactive activity (see Figure 5). At another point in the piece one of the three performers delivers a textual monologue that explores, from a narrative perspective, notions of subjectivity and partiality. Whilst the performer was still, delivering the monologue, the particles coalesced on his body and face, so that he as a ‘live’ representational entity was erased by the technology; he became ‘partially’ obscured and mediatised, in this context the technology took on both a metaphorical and performative role. Through the discussion of these examples it is possible to discern a shift in emphasis in terms of the relationship between live dance performance and various digital technologies deployed within the practice. In the earlier experiments such as Hyperbolic (1998) and Save the Last Dance (2000) a multi-disciplinary approach characterised the relationship. The technology provided a mediatised component to the live dance theatre work, enabling a critical interplay between the two idioms. In more recent examples such as 24 Acts of Arson (2002) and A Part/In Parts (2006) an integrated approach to the relationship of technologies within performance has been adopted. The technologies have been integral to the live work both compositionally and thematically. The aesthetic focus of this evolving interrelationship has also changed. In the earlier works the multi-disciplinary interrelationship was facilitated through a cinematic or filmic sensibility that was applied to both the compositional organisation of the live and mediatised material. In the later work, in which a more integrated approach was adopted, the aesthetic concerns drew on a visual arts/new media

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frame of reference. From a research perspective there are themes that have remained consistent in terms of driving the various experiments. Each example discussed, from a research perspective, aimed to explore conceptualisations of space, spatialities and embodiment within hybrid live/mediatised performance contexts. However the key constraining factor to these experiments was the professional arts funding imperative to create a product for public performance. From 2004 the Company decided to shift emphasis methodologically, to a less product orientated approach by locating the practice-led activities exclusively within an academic research context.

Ersatz dancing in virtual environments In 2004 Ersatz Dance began collaborative interdisciplinary research with Howell Istance and Martin Turner at De Montfort University’s Virtual Reality Environments Centre. Between 2004–2005 Ersatz Dance were resident at De Montfort University, this collaborative, interdisciplinary practiceled research was formalised as the DIRAViS (Dancing in Real and Virtual Spaces) project as part of De Montfort University’s Institute of Creative Technologies. The project aimed to explore the ways in which live choreographic practice might integrate and exploit immersive, virtual reality environments. Dance technology writer, Scott deLahunta (2002) comments that dance has been at the cutting edge of experimentation with interactive technologies, however the results have been largely presented in conventional proscenium-arch spaces, and the potential of virtual reality environments for dance has been largely unexplored. He suggests that this might partly be for practical reasons concerning the prohibitive cost of such technology and the limited access to it for artists. However he also suggests that even the most radical choreographers often seem to be limited by a fixed sense of performance space and time (deLahunta 2002). At De Montfort University the immersive environment was produced through the use of a large curved projection screen and multiple projectors that facilitate a three-dimensional panoramic viewer experience. In order to experience the 3D projection, viewers wear polarised glasses. Virtual environments are projected onto the curved screen and a computer operator navigates the viewer in a first-person perspective through the simulated environment (Figure 6). The DIRAViS project began by creating a simulated environment in which to locate live dancers. An abstract ‘world’ of static sculptural forms made from digital ribbons that created helix-like formations, was designed. As the computer operator navigated through this simulated environment, the flight path moved in close proximity, around and within the helix formations. From the spectatorial position, the helix structures appeared to move out beyond the screen into the shared actual space. The dancers were placed within this computer generated environment and an improvisatory structure was established where the dancers, who were also wearing polarised glasses, were asked to avoid the sculptural

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Figure 6: Ersatz Dance in 2004 undertaking practice-led research for the DIRAViS project at De Montfort University’s Virtual Reality Environments Centre. forms as they moved in the shared space. The improvisation score initially focused on physically avoiding the virtual structure and generating movement responses in relation to that task. During these early experiments, it became clear that the performers had to predict the relative spatial position and motional trajectory of the helix forms, as the three-dimensional image was calibrated for the spectatorial perspective and not from that of the performers, who were literally immersed in the environment. As the dancers became more in-tune with these aspects of the environment, the improvisation score increased in complexity. The score developed to focus on the movement of the performers extending, extruding and reiterating the motional trajectories established by the helix formations as the computer operator’s flight path navigated in and around them. ‘Improvisation’ took on a trans-disciplinary function and provided a score for not only the dancers’ actions but also the actions of the computer operator. Thus these improvised performances became a ‘trio’, comprising two dancers and one computer operator driving the VR simulation. All of the ‘performers’ (the computer operator and the dancers) adopted a generative role in the motional production of a hybrid real/virtual space (Figure 7). The function of ‘motion’ as a means of establishing this meshing of the real and the virtual was further developed through the improvisatory structure. As the improvisations developed the motional properties of the different performers became overlaid with a subtle feedback loop of dynamic movement qualities. This aesthetisisation of the environment through the performative interplay of the virtual and the real was particularly provocative. However the computer generated, simulated environment although ‘animated’ by the computer operator in terms of spatial orientation, proximity and motion, was still pre-constructed, it was not ontologically dependent on the improvisation and therefore not truly interactive. Rather the live performers (both dancers and computer operator) could only ever be reactive to the simulated environment. The constraints of the system meant that the flight paths navigated through the simulated environment could not be documented and repeated, therefore the relationship of the dancers

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Figure 7: Ersatz Dance performers improvising in a VR environment, DIRAViS project, De Montfort University, 2005.

to the environment could not develop compositionally or hierachically, and could only remain reactive and improvisatory (Bailey et al, 2006). Troika Ranch, the New York based dance and technology company comment, on their website, about their view of digital dance and the software developments they have made – ‘. . . most electronic media is dead, in the sense that it is precisely the same each time it is presented – quite different from what happens when a dancer or actor performs the same material twice. We want the media elements in our performances to have the same sense of liveness as the human performers it accompanies. We impose the chaos of the human body on the media in hope of bringing it to life’.3 The DIRAViS project provided a useful initial set of experiments that established the choreographic research ideas that went on to form the basis of the Stereobodies project. One of the most interesting areas of interdisciplinary discussion that arose was around the concept of ‘presence’. Within the VR and e-science context, ‘presence’ is understood as referring to the ability of the user/spectator to experience convincing perceptual immersion within a simulated environment, therefore enabling the user to understand data or the setting to a higher perceptual level.4 In other words ‘presence’ as a concept is used as an index of its own reproduction or simulation. On the other hand, the term has quite a different and more essentialist significance in the context of performance. Steve Dixon, in his recent publication (2007) suggests – ‘. . . cultural commentators have used presence to distinguish the material, auratic, proximal “real”; and in performance studies, to denote the flesh-and-blood performer, there with you in the same shared physical space’. This highlights the diversity of useage and understanding of the term across the various subject domains for which the concept is relevant.

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3

Coniglio, M. Troika Ranch website, www.troikaranch.org

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Turner, M. SAGE website, http://www.kato.mvc. mcc.ac.uk/rsswiki/SAGE

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JISC VRE Virtual Research Environments programme, http://www.jisc.ac.uk/ whatwedo/ programmes/ pogramme_vre.aspx

6

This refers to Rudolf Laban’s concept of ‘actual body design’ as the physical embodiment of shape, for example a dancer places her hand on her hip and creates a triangle shape between her arm and torso, the shape is literally delineated by the materiality of her body.

7

Laban refers to ‘virtual spatial pathways’ as spatial traces that are perceived as a result of the body or a part of the body in motion. For example a dancer could trace the shape of a circle in space with her hand. It is through the dancer’s motion that the virtual shape of the circle is made manifest to the spectator.

8

This refers to the technique of Contact Improvisation that was originally developed by American Postmodern Dance Practitioner Steve Paxton. It is a duet form that requires performers to use the momentum and weight of each other’s bodies in close physical contact with one another to create movement.

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The Stereobodies project arose in part, out of considering these very different definitions of ‘presence’ and how we might develop a further understanding of these divergent, yet necessarily interrelated, concepts through practice. The initial concern was to explore ways in which a representation of the ‘real/live’ performer’s body could be directly intergated into the virtual/simulated environment without having to undergo the disembodiment and translation of motion capture and the creation of avatars. We began work, in June 2006 with the CSAGE project at Manchester Computing, University of Manchester, where Martin Turner had developed a system of integrating stereoscopic video into the access grid context, as a virtual research environment (VRE).

Stereobodies and the dancer’s double CSAGE is a VRE project that is funded by the Joint Information Services Council (JISC). A definition of what might constitute a VRE has been provided by JISC – ‘A VRE comprises a set of online tools and other network resources and technologies interoperating with each other to support or enhance the processes of a wide range of research practitioners within and across disciplinary and institutional boundaries. A key characteristic of a VRE is that it facilitates collaboration amongst researchers and research teams providing them with more effective means of collaboratively collecting, manipulating and managing data, as well as collaborative knowledge creation’.5 CSAGE was originally designed for scientific purposes and in particular the sharing of visualisations for collaborative research projects. The stereoscopic environment has the ability to utilise a large, curved projection screen and multiple data projectors, modified to provide stereoscopic projection. The user wears polarised glasses in order to experience the effect of three-dimensionality created by the stereoscopic projection. The use of two synchronised video cameras is necessary to generate stereoscopic video. The research focus for the Stereobodies project was concerned with the concept of presence, and how the interrelationship of the virtual and actual dancing body in live performance that this technology offered, might provide new understandings of this relationship. From a choreographic perspective this broad aim was clarified into two compositional approaches; firstly to explore the interrelatonship of bodies in space both in terms of actual body design6 and virtual motional spatial pathways7 across and between the virtual and real contexts, and secondly, to explore physical ‘contact’,8 or rather the illusion of touch between performers in the real and virtual contexts. We began by creating a short duet that included five points of contact between the two performers. The choreographed duet movement material emphasised virtual pathways in space. We then removed one of the performers, Amalia Garcia, from the duet material. James Hewison, the second performer then reworked his part of the duet as a solo, which he danced with an imagined, absent partner. This solo version of the duet was videoed stereoscopically. This stereoscopic recording of the solo version of

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Figure 8: Pre-recorded stereoscopic video of virtual performer is back-projected and live performer dances choreographed ‘duet’ in the Stereobodies project, Manchester Computing, University of Manchester, 2006.

the duet was then projected within the CSAGE virtual research environment. The virtual representation was projected in life-size. Amalia Garcia then performed the duet with this virtual partner (see Figure 8). The performance of this hybrid real/virtual duet reproduced the points of contact that were apparent in the ‘live’ version of the duet. Because the virtual performer was reproduced stereoscopically the virtual representation appeared to literally inhabit the same space as the actual dancer. From the spectatorial position they appeared to move on the same planes in space, at one point in the duet the virtual reproduction of the dancer, James Hewison, traced a virtual pathway with his arm through space that seemed to pass over the top of the live dancer’s head and also reach beyond her into the space between her and the audience. This use of stereoscopic video challenges the spectator’s pre-existing frame of reference (the twodimensional projected video image), and allows the perception of the spectator to draw on the kinds of responses usually associated with the viewing of live performance (Figure 8). In this sense the experiment tested the scientific notion of presence within an asethetic context. As with the DIRAViS project, the use of a pre-constructed virtual environment, in this case a prerecorded video representation, provided the illusion of physical interconnectivity and interactivity. Steve Dixon (2007) suggests ‘when the body is “transformed,” . . . into digital environments, it should be remembered that despite what many say, it is not an actual transformation of the body, but of the pixilated composition of its recorded or computer generated image. Virtual bodies are new visual representations of the body, but do not alter the physical composition of their referent flesh and bones. Virtual bodies may appear to be bodily transformations to the (receiver’s) eye and mind, but no actual metamorphosis takes place within the (sender’s/performer’s) actual body. The

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Also see Coyne, R (1999) Technoromanticism: Digital Narrative, Holism and the Romance of the Real, MIT Press Cambridge, Massachusetts, London, England.

10 Access Grid is the next generation of video-conferencing. It uses large-scale display, typically a whole wall. Multiple video streams from each location involved in the interaction are projected onto the wall, full-duplex audio with echo cancellation provides a natural audio environment in which non-co-located participants can talk to each other without wearing headsets. The environment can integrate a range of open source software.

Figure 9: Ersatz Dance Performer, James Hewison dances with his virtual double in the Stereobodies project, Manchester Computing, University of Manchester, 2006.

virtual body is an inherently theatrical entity, and there is an enormous amount of suspension of disbelief going on in relation to it’. The ‘theatricality’ of the virtual body in the context of digitally mediated performance is a significant idea. As Dixon and others9 have clearly articulated, the romanticism of the digital and that it’s tansformational capacity can be over stated theoretically and that therefore the actual practice can seem to ‘fall short’ of these theoretical (metaphorically imbued) claims. The illusory status of the virtual body in the context of stereoscopic video projection underlines the inherent theatricality of virtual embodiment per se in the performance context. However in this experiment the fracture or disconnect between the live and the virtual was also maintained through the illusory nature of the ‘interactivity’ between the actual and virtual performers. The actual performer could not truly interact with the virtual dancer as the virtual dancer was a pre-recorded representation. Only the actual dancer was ‘live’ and therefore had agency within the performance (Figure 9).

e-Dancing and distributed choreography Within recent theoretical discourse on technology and performance, the meaning of the term ‘presence’, has been redefined to include ideas of telematic or online presence, relating to the concept of the agency of the participant rather than simply the efficacy of the spectatorial position. In order to challenge this disconnect between the virtual and the real bodies in live performance, the project relocated the experimentation into the Access Grid10 environment. The Access Grid (AG) is an e-Science development initially produced for collaborative research in the natural sciences. It was designed essentially as a virtual meeting space (Figure 10). The duet was placed in the Collaborative Stereoscopic Access Grid Environment. Each performer was located in a different AG node. Multiple stereoscopic video streams from video cameras placed throughout each node were projected as individual windows within the other AG node. So we were presented with multiple and fragmentary images of the two

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Figure 10: Access Grid node at the University of Manchester participating a in a 12-node meeting of UK-based academics.

Figure 11: Stereobodies distributed performance by Ersatz Dance using the Access Grid and associated grid-based software, University of Manchester, 2006.

dancers bodies from a range of different angles. Figure 11 is a photograph of the projection wall within one AG node at the University of Manchester. It is possible to see that the various windows, representing video streams from other nodes, have been arranged in such a way as to provide a central image and several further images from different perspectives from the other two nodes. The central image is a stereoscopic video stream from the node in which performer, Amalia Garcia was located. Within that image, it is possible to see a window projected in her space of James Hewison, the second performer from within his AG node. Within this distributed environment the performers were able to view each other stereoscopically from the context of each other’s location. The duet was then performed within this interactive, telematic context. The two performers shared the virtual space, yet both performers were ‘live’ and therefore able to engage interactively with their virtual ‘other’. They were

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both present, yet absent simultaneously. Performance theorist, Nick Kaye (1994) describes the ontology of postmodern performance as contingent and unstable, suggesting it ‘. . . vacillates between presence and absence, between displacement and reinstatement’. Within the AG environment it was also possible to employ a range of grid-based software tools that have been developed to annotate AG activities. For the Stereobodies project two such tools were integrated into the CSAGE environment: Memetic and Compendium. The Memetic system allows AG sessions to be recorded and annotated, thus providing a framework for meaningful playback of the multiple recorded video streams. Compendium is a dialogue mapping system that was used in this context to document and support reflection and analysis, retrospectively, whilst replaying video streams using Memetic. Graphic interfaces from both systems are visually represented within the image of the AG node in Figure 11. From the various stages of research undertaken as part of the Stereobodies project it is possible to say that ‘presence’ in relation to ‘liveness’ or ‘live performance’ has an inextricable link with participant feedback or interactivity within the shared, social space of performance. However from this project it is also evident that ‘shared space’, no longer refers to a co-located physical space, but can also refer to the distributed and on-line collaborative environments that are emerging from the e-Science research context.

Implications for practice-led research The collaborative research potential provided through the e-Science development of virtual research environments such as CSAGE and Memetic has significant implications for practice-led research in dance as well as the broader arts community. The Stereobodies project has provided the initial context for a brief exploration of this emerging environment as a creative, performance context, as context for methodological development and as an environment in which the documentation and analysis of practice and the creative process can be pursued in profoundly new ways. The author of this paper, together with academics from the University of Manchester, University of Leeds and the Open University have been awarded a two-year AHRC-EPSRC-JISC e-Science grant to continue and develop on the research initiated through the Stereobodies project. The project, entitled Relocating Choreographic Process: The impact of collaborative memory and grid technologies on practice-ld research in dance will begin in September 2007. References Bailey, H., Hewison J., Garcia A. and Turner M. (2006), ‘Stereobodies: Choreographic Explorations between Real and Virtual Spaces’ at Digital Resources in Humanities and Arts conference, Dartington College of Arts, UK. Broadhurst, S. and Machon, J. (eds.) (2006), Performance and Technology: Practices of Virtual Embodiment and Interactivity, London, New York: Palgrave MacMillan. deLahunta, S. (2002), ‘Virtual Reality and Performance’, Performing Arts Journal 70: pp. 105–114.

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Dixon, S. (2007), Digital Performance: A History of New Media in Theatre, Dance Performance Art and Installation, London: MIT Press. Kaye, N. (1994), Postmodernism and Performance, London: MacMillan. Popat, S (2006), Invisible Connections: Dance, Choreography and Internet Communities, London: Routledge.

Suggested citation Bailey, H. (2007), ‘Ersatz dancing: Negotiating the live and mediated in digital performance practice’, International Journal of Performance Arts and digital Media 3: 2&3, pp. 151–165, doi: 10.1386/padm.3.2&3.151/1

Contributor details Helen Bailey is a dance artist and academic. She is Artistic Director of dance theatre company, Ersatz Dance and Principal Lecturer in Dance at University of Bedfordshire, UK. She has toured nationally and internationally and receives funding from both research and arts councils. She has taught in UK, Europe and USA. Her research focuses on the interrelationship between dance, visual technologies and e-Science. Contact: Faculty of Creative Arts and Technology at University of Bedfordshire, Luton Campus, Luton, LU1 3JU, UK. E-mail: [email protected]

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International Journal of Performance Arts and Digital Media, Volume 3 Number 2 & 3. © Intellect Ltd 2007. Introduction. English language. doi: 10.1386/padm.3.2&3.167/2

Introduction Part 2: First, second and third spaces: Digital narratives and the spaces of performance Introduced by Lizbeth Goodman

In this second section of issue 3.2/3.3, the focus of the work shifts from ‘real’ bodies in space and time – as viewed through a variety of lenses and screens – to virtual bodies and imagined or invented bodies as rendered across a range of disciplinary spaces. This is a cartography of virtual performers and their journeys. Here, the questions addressed range from spatial mathematics and the notion of the copy, to the mapping of the artefacts of real people who have imagined better spaces in performance and cultural art forms, through to the interwoven narratives of avatars in their invented spaces, to the ‘warfare of imagination’ in second life, and finally to the construction of art-based games based on solid design principles. In each discipline, in each paper, the solid outline of the human body dissolves a bit further into the mediated frame of technologised states and depictions of being. David Fenton’s paper opens this section. His study of ‘Hotel Pro Forma’ considers some of the same questions about authenticity and the role of the ‘copy’ addressed in the opening paper on replay culture. But just as that piece framed each section with arguments regarding the body in space and time (as represented by words on paper and images on screen), so this paper is framed through the addressing of the role of the original and the copy in the domain of intermedial performance. In terms of ‘The algebra of place’, the author positions the subject of performance in relation to the relatively stable frame of the stage as compared to the destabilising frames of complex multimedia formats. In the next paper, by Deborah Barkun and Jools Gilson-Ellis, the mapping of cultural impact is given a new frame altogether, in the context of a folk art/craft project of major proportions. The Knitting Map was made not only by performance company half/angel but also by scores of volunteer knitters in the city of Cork: women who wove the stories of their lives into a woollen design symbolising and encapsulating the pulses and flows of each day of the weather and movements of real bodies in the real spaces and weather patterns of the city. This paper raises questions about art and craft, creation and design, collaboration and direction, and also about the

PADM 3 (2&3) pp. 167–168. © Intellect Ltd 2007.

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presence of the designed object as both a product of performance and costume and cartography for community engagement. A further reorientation of the concept of performative presence is woven by game play and game theory expert Esther MacCallum-Stewart in the third paper in this part. In this piece, the work of the emergent virtual environment Second Life is compared to that of other mediated forms including World of Warcraft: massively multiplayer games that show how players and ‘users’ engage creatively in each choice of avatar or virtual representation of self, and how the forms of interaction that theatre makers recognise as role play have been woven into these new forms, which involve dress up, deliberate choices about self-representation, and the possibility of reinvention of he self and self image in each new frame. The paper raises issues about identity when players are not necessarily trained performers but are engaging in performative play on a massive scale. The fourth paper takes this theme forward, and delves into the world of Second Life in a dialogue staged by two artist-scholars whose narrative and visual journeys through the field of gaming and online worlds crossed paths at the intersection of theory and practice. Denise Doyle and Taey Kim engage in a fictional performative crossing of paths that calls to mind the house of mirrors in John Barth’s funhouse once again. For these young scholars, however, the journey from art and performance to virtual environments is not so challenging, as they see themselves riding on a second wave of experience into Second Life as a performative play space. Finally, Axel Stockberger’s article explores a new play space, which he defines as a ‘third space’ in the domain of spatial modalities and contemporary game environments. Trained as an artist and experience designer, Stockberger’s reflections help to reposition the frame around play as a tool and method, to consider play as space in itself.

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International Journal of Performance Arts and Digital Media, Volume 3 Number 2 & 3. © Intellect Ltd 2007. Article. English language. doi: 10.1386/padm.3.2&3.169/1

Hotel Pro Forma’s The Algebra of Place; destabilising the original and the copy in intermedial contemporary performance David Fenton Queensland University of Technology Abstract

Keywords

This paper examines two questions that emerged from a viewing of Hotel Pro Forma’s contemporary performance The Algebra of Place. It questions how and why the viewer’s perception altered when observing the convergence of live and mediatised performance, with particular reference to an altered perception of original and copy. It also questions the perception of space, time and the performer’s identity in the performance. In an endeavour to address these questions two examples from The Algebra of Place are examined. Theoretically the paper applies intermediality as a conceptual framework to assist in the examination of these concerns. Then the paper reviews in more detail theories of space and time in contemporary performance, and theories of performative identity. The result of this theoretical exploration, in conjunction with the examples from The Algebra of Place, is a provisional concept – digital mimesis. By articulating a contemporary repositioning of mimesis beyond imitation, mimesis is proposed in an attempt to articulate the complex power relations between the original and the copy in live and mediatised performance. As such, the paper ventures to provide a lens for theorists and practitioners who examine and create intermedial contemporary performance that destabilises the original.

contemporary performance Hotel Pro Porma intermediality mediatised mimesis The Algebra of Place

Introduction In early 2006 I was invited to observe the creative process of Kirsten Dehlholm. Kirsten is the Artistic Director and founder of Hotel Pro Forma, an internationally renowned contemporary performance company based in Denmark. The new work that I observed from bump-in to opening night was The Algebra of Place. Dehlholm describes this performance work as ‘. . . a filmic arabesque . . . an art installation, a film, a performance, seen from above. An architecture with optical illusions. A filmic narrative that, like an arabesque, winds its way through many spaces’ (Dehlholm 2005). Throughout the eighteen days that I observed her process, Kirsten deftly juggled the technical demands of three video installations, the mechanics of a revolving screen and the fusion of a DJ and live performer. The result was a one hour work viewed with a bird’s eye view from the five landings above the central foyer of Axelborg Tower – Copenhagen. The Algebra of Place proved to

PADM 3 (2&3) pp. 169–181. © Intellect Ltd 2007.

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be a curious and mesmeric work which served as a site specific response to the architecture of the tower and a provocative inquiry of Arabic culture. The dramaturgical structure of The Algebra of Place was created in response to the floor-plan of a hotel. In a moment of inspiration the rooms of a Canadian hotel, found on a website, formed the perfect structure for a performance/tour of the work’s concerns. The performance started in the Main Lobby, which paralleled the actual lobby of Axelborg Tower. Then the space was transformed through mediatised images to other sites, the Gift Shop, the Heritage Ballroom, the Summit Ballroom, Club Room, Stage and finally the Phones, to name a few. Each room in the hotel had a different style and conveyed different content. However, the content of the work was not the primary concern of my observation. Rather, it was the experimentation with the convergence of live and mediatised performance (Gattenhof 2004) which provided potent examples for my research. In particular, when I observed the work two questions came to mind, first why does my perception of the original performance and the copied performance become confused? From this question it is easy to discern that at the time I equated the original performance as being the ‘live’ performance, and the copied performance as being the ‘mediatised’ one. The second question however attempts to breakdown this somewhat simplistic binary. More specifically, I asked myself what was the status of the space, time and the performer’s identity in The Algebra of Place? By examining these two questions I hope to draw some conclusions which might be of use to other theorists and practitioners engaged in intermedial contemporary performance. There are two examples which I want to use to illustrate how The Algebra of Place provoked a change in my perception of original and copy, and provided ample opportunity to examine the status of space, time and the performer’s identity. The first example is called The Summit Ballroom. Figure 1 below includes two photographs which illustrate this particular section of the performance. They show the performer lying on the floor with a field of red projected around her, giving the illusion that she was floating in abstract space. There was no particular narrative for this moment, or any moment throughout the whole work, rather the performance seemed to be a collage of thematic responses to Arabic culture. As I observed, the performer’s animated shadow moved out from underneath her and the performer stretched out as if to retrieve it. Then, in response, the shadow stretched out as if attempting to return to the body. Understandably, in description this moment does not hold the mesmeric appeal of the event. Yet I provide this example to assist in answering my two questions, as it provides a succinct illustration. Figure 2 is the second example from The Algebra of Place. This example is called The Club Room, and shows the live performer wrapped in a towel as if in a sauna. Here she floats in a space dominated by large projections of Arabic men who are in negotiation. When I encountered this example the initial conclusions I had drawn about live and mediatised performance required expansion. Later in this paper I articulate how these two examples are different yet similar, and how they provide a potential answer for my questions.

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Figure 1: The Summit Ballroom from The Algebra of Place (2006), photo by David Fenton.

An intermedial conceptual framework First it is necessary to articulate how intermediality forms a conceptual framework for my investigation. Intermediality is a term adopted by the Theatre and Intermediality Working Group (Chapple and Kattenbelt 2006). The working group’s task was to construct theories of media and performance primarily from performance theorists, Figure 2: The Club Room in The Algebra of instead of constructing a Place (Fortuna 2006). framework from theorists outside of the field. As a result, they adopted the term intermediality because it best summed up the interrelationship of different media in performance. Accordingly, I apply intermediality as a conceptual framework to this investigation because it destabilises the binary position of media through convergence. Intermediality proposes a change in the position of the media, the performer and the audience. Intermediality is a powerful and potentially radical force, which operates inbetween performer and audience; in-between theatre, performance and other media; and in-between realities – with theatre providing a stage space for the performance of intermediality. (Chapple and Kattenbelt 2006: 12)

With these three levels of interpretation for intermediality – between performer and audience, performance and media, and in-between realities –

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this conceptual framework destabilises the fixed position of the performer, the performance and those who receive it. In particular, intermediality is not exclusively governed by the interaction of technology; instead a base interpretation is the convergence of media in performance. As such, the live performer and the audience in contemporary performance are part of that media. Therefore, when the performer and the audience are incorporated into the interpretive framework of intermediality, perception becomes the focus. ‘Thus, intermediality is not reliant on technology but on the interaction between performance and perception’ (Chapple and Kattenbelt 2006: 21). In summary, when an intermedial framework is applied to contemporary performance it privileges the altered perceptions of reality created inbetween the media, the performers and the audience. Consequently, an intermedial framework challenges the fixity of the contemporary performance form itself, which has implications for my question concerning my altered perception of original and copy when viewing The Algebra of Place.

Space and time in contemporary performance Specifically, Chapple and Kattenbelt’s intermedial framework challenges the fixity of the form by examining it through several well-established theoretical pathways. It’s their privileging of the theoretical pathways equally and exclusively from performance theoreticians that confirms their original contribution to knowledge. At first they commence with the semiotic coding of theatre that is the concepts of body, space and time. Then, to encompass different theoretical positions on performance, they expand the model from the semiotic, to the textual and then to the performative. Recognition of the textual, the semiotic and the performative models in the same space, irrespective of whether or not one model or the other is dominant in a particular performance, is an important part of intermediality. (Chapple and Kattenbelt 2006: 22)

In particular the semiotic codes of space, time and ‘the body’ are privileged in my investigation, however and unavoidably, this initial theoretical position inevitably becomes enmeshed in theories of the performative and the textual. When considering of space and time in contemporary performance practice, Chapple and Kattenbelt’s intermedial framework appears to be complementary to David E. R. George and Alan Read’s theorising on space and time in performance. George and Read theorise on the potentiality of contemporary performance generated by its ambiguity. Provocatively, George asserts that ‘To create one version of a performance is simultaneously to evoke others’ (George 1996: 20). Here George is addressing the ambiguity of meaning created by multiple potentials evoked in a contemporary performance. His comment agrees with Read’s understanding of impotentiality, in what he refers to as Live Art. ‘It is the exposure to an equivalent state of impotentiality, shared by performer and audience within Live Art acts that mark out the experience for me as remarkable . . .’ (Read 2004: 247).

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To clarify, Read and George are asserting what does not happen in contemporary performance is just as potent as what happens. In this way the ambiguity of contemporary performance generates possibilities which imaginatively evoke other versions of the work for the viewer. This notion of ‘potential versions’, supports George’s assertion that space and time in performance is doubled. ‘A performance is “present” in a spatial as well as a temporal sense, it is happening here. That “here” however, is similarly doubled and ambiguous . . .’ (George 1996: 21). Accordingly, both Read and George contend that space and time in contemporary performance is destabilised because of a change in the audience’s perception provoked by the work’s potentiality. Similarly, Chapple and Kattenbelt contend that it is also the observer’s response to the work, positioned as they are in-between media that manipulates the space and time of the performance. In post-dramatic theatre,1 manipulation of space and time is often, but not always, accomplished through other media operating ‘as performers’ in the performance space . . . The arrival of the post-structuralist debate opens for intermedial analysis the gaps and fissures in-between the text, the signs, and the performance, and provides a location for intermedial discourse through the body and mind of the performer and receiver. (Chapple and Kattenbelt 2006: 22)

By applying a poststructuralist perspective Chapple and Kattenbelt’s ‘gaps and fissures’ in the work are similar to Read and David E.R. George’s potentialities of performance. Both the fissures, gaps and the potentialities of the work are in this case created by intermedial form, which is located inbetween the media, altering a perception of space and time. These theoretical assertions clarify my experience of Hotel Pro Forma’s work. With their application a clearer picture of the status of space and time in The Algebra of Place emerges. I consider the ambiguity created by the many potential performances evoked by the work confused my perception of space and time. This was particularly evident when the live performance denoted one space and the mediatised performance evoked another. However, what was even more exhilarating, yet also confusing, was when these two spaces and times vibrated and converged creating yet another potential performance in-between the form. However if we continue to apply Chapple and Kattenbelt’s framework, the performer is also considered media in the work, and as such I still require clarity on what was happening to the live performer’s identity when she interacted with the mediatised performance.

Performative identity For decades performance theorists have considered contemporary work from the perspective of space, time and the body. Conversely, this investigation does not utilise ‘the body’ as a theoretical concept to answer my questions concerning contemporary intermedial performance. Instead of

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Chapple and Kattenbelt are utilising Lehmann’s contentious term for contemporary performance, Postdramatic Theatre (Lehmann 2006).

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‘the body’, identity is used as a theoretical construct, derived from the performative theories of Butler (1990), and influence by the poststructuralist theories of Derrida (1976), to create an alternate theory complementary to Chapple and Kattenbelt’s framework of intermediality. The distinction between ‘identity’ and the ‘body’ is understandably a subtle one, however ‘identity’ has been chosen to circumvent the dialectic of gender, which for the most part leads the investigation into a binary discourse on performance from a somatic perspective. Paradoxically, to understand Butler’s theories of performativity, gender is the first construct she questions. Butler’s theories on performative identity challenge the fixity of gender. In her investigation of the body as a site of socialisation Butler writes, ‘There is no gender identity behind the expression of gender . . . gender is performatively constituted by the very “expressions” which are said to be its results’ (Butler 1990: 25). Butler is significantly influenced by the renowned socio-historical postmodernist Michel Foucault. She subscribes to Foucault’s notion of ‘subject intentionality’, where the subject considers they are the origin of their intent, and yet have no way of knowing the extent of their actions upon other events, political or otherwise. . . . the effects of the instrumental action always have the power to proliferate beyond the subject’s control, indeed, to challenge the rational transparency of that subject’s intentionality, and so subvert the very definition of the subject itself. (Butler and Scott 1992: 10)

Simply put, the proliferation of our performative acts is what progressively constitutes our identity. This goes to the heart of Butler’s theory of performative gender. Her theory of performative gender is based upon a repetition of socially acceptable styles and gestures, which when combined, create the ‘illusion’ of a fixed identity. Gender ought not [to] be construed as a stable identity or locus of agency from which various acts follow; rather, gender is an identity tenuously constituted in time, instituted in an exterior space through a stylised repetition of acts. The effect of gender is produced through the stylisation of the body . . . [and] constitute[s] the illusion of an abiding gendered self. (Butler 1990: 140)

Butler theorises that if gender is performative, then the performance can and does change. She argues that ‘. . . the possibility of, indeed even a tendency towards, alteration and modification exists within the process of repeating the performance’ (Butler in Carlson 1996: 62). At this point in her theorising Butler acknowledges poststructuralist theories of the textual. With deference to Derrida, Butler adds that performance is ‘citational’, and ‘. . . like all citation, never precisely repeats the absent original . . .’ (Butler in Carlson 1996: 62). To clarify Butler’s application of citationality ‘Derrida

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argues . . . that every sign can be “cited, put in-between quotation marks” and made to signify in unintended, unexpected ways’ (Salih and Butler 2004: 141). These ‘unintended, unexpected ways’ is where Butler takes her cue for reframing citation from the textual to the performative. This theoretical pathway eventually leads us to Butler’s most relevant assertion for this investigation. Butler contends that gender through reiterated performance is ‘. . . a kind of imitation for which there is no original’ (Butler 1998: 1520). This has significant implications for the performer’s identity in contemporary performance, for Butler’s assertion calls into question not only the stability of gender but the fixity of original identity. To summarise, Foucault asserts that the subject’s actions proliferate beyond their control, and as such this challenges the definition of the subject (Foucault in Butler and Scott 1992). In addition, Derrida asserts everything is text (Derrida 1976: 156); the performance of our gender and therefore our identity is a text that can be cited. This citation can change and therefore Butler is suggesting that gender and identity are fluid constructs predicated on performance. Not, as we commonly consider them, stable constructions. With this field of theory in mind, my question as to what was happening to the performer’s identity in The Algebra of Place has clarified. I have used ‘identity’ instead of ‘the body’ to frame my question, because I consider identity avoids traditionally fixed notions of gender. In so doing, I have concentrated on the performativity of identity rather than Butler’s theories of gendered performance. As such, when investigating a live performer from an intermedial perspective, the performer’s identity can be considered as unfixed media, or a media continually under reconstruction through performative citations. This answers, to some extent, why my perception of performer’s identity altered when viewing The Algebra of Place. The performer’s identity was replicated through the mediatised form, which ‘re-cited’ her identity, creating her instability.

Repositioning mimesis Fundamentally, the question about my altered perception of the original and the copy in The Algebra of Place, as well as the status of the space, time and the performer’s identity, are questions about the meaning of representation. Notions of the original and the copy are bound up in traditional understanding of imitation through mimesis. Equally, in a fictional context, space, time and identity are also bound up in our understanding of mimesis which we attribute to Aristotle. But is mimesis purely about imitation? Can mimesis serve in a performance context without fiction? And as such, does mimesis have a fixed meaning? Halliwell states, ‘All disciplined arts follow procedures which Aristotle takes to be analogous to the workings of nature: but only the mimetic arts have as their specific purpose to produce representations or fictional renderings of the world’ (Halliwell 1990: 11). Halliwell understands from Aristotle’s Poetics 25 that mimetic acts can represent one or a combination of three things, ‘actual reality, past or the present, (popular) conceptions of,

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or beliefs about the world; or normative ideas of what the world “ought” to be . . .’ (Halliwell 1990: 11). Therefore, considered with its traditional meaning, mimesis is imitation, or more simply ‘. . . where something stands in for something it is not’ (Piem 2005: 75). However, contemporary theorists have expanded upon these traditional understandings of mimesis and the concept is now being repositioned in consideration of contemporary performance, where fiction and imitation are not governing poetics of the work. With this in mind Egbert J. Bakker identifies the principle of mimesis as ‘what people do’ and explains . . . mimesis is an action noun informed from the verb mimeisthai (to represent or imitate) . . . Mimeisthai is what people do, not what things are. Thus mimesis originally does not denote a relation between the text . . . and its referent, but between an action (i.e. a process) and its model. (Bakker 1999: 13)

Further to Bakker’s assertion that mimesis is an action, ‘a process’, Lehmann, while acknowledging the traditional understanding of mimesis also acknowledges that there are different interpretations: ‘Adorno’s idea of mimesis – which he understands as a presymbolic, affective “becominglike-something” . . . rather than with mimesis in the narrow sense of imitation’ (Lehmann 2006: 39). This is an important concession, for ‘becoming-like-something’ is also the process to which Michael Taussig frames his theory of mimesis from a postcolonial perspective. He credits mimesis as ‘. . . the magical power of replication, the image affecting what it is an image of, wherein the representation shares in, or takes power from the represented . . .’ (Taussig 1993: 8). Here Taussig defines mimesis through performative replication, where power is taken and or shared. In these contemporary interpretations the process of mimesis is an exchange of power, a process where the copy changes or comments upon the original, creating a confusion between both. Taussig’s understanding of the process of power exchange through mimesis is provided by examples between pre-technological and technological cultures. However, Kathryn Rosenfeld uses gender to provide a clear example of the power process of contemporary theories of mimesis. In her discussion on drag kings she asserts they are ‘. . . socially “weak” but performatively strong operatives . . .’ (Rosenfeld 2002: 206). She sees drag ‘kinging’ as taking on the representational trappings of maleness, in order to explore alternative masculinities. ‘It may be that the general culture offers more ways of being male than female. Yet drag king macho, when it appears, tends to be more layered and nuanced than macho in the mainstream’ (Rosenfeld 2002: 206). Consequently, through a mimetic act, drag kings relocate the power of the centre to the margin. She argues ‘. . . in such a performance, the copy “poses as” the original, in some ways becomes it, but also not ceasing to be itself, remaining, in a case such as the present one where the margin undertakes a mimetic performance of the centre . . .’ (Rosenfeld 2002: 206–07).

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Digital mimesis

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How does a contemporary understanding of mimesis illuminate my two questions? Especially when Taussig’s contemporary understanding of mimesis is explored through culture and Rosenfeld’s contemporary example of mimesis is explored through gender. What is needed is a theory of contemporary mimesis from an intermedial perspective, a theory that encompasses the destabilisation of space, time and the performer’s identity, which causes the destabilisation of original and copy in contemporary performance. And to do that mimesis needs to be theorised through a technological paradigm. Therefore I propose the concept of digital mimesis,2 a contemporary interpretation of mimesis coupled with theories of digital technology, as a potential contribution to discussions on intermediality in contemporary performance. This concept incorporates both form and process, where the digital is the form, and mimesis, the process. This theoretical coupling is affirmed by Auslander’s assertion that the live and mediatised are not ontologically dissimilar. Auslander attributes performativity to both and posits that their difference has been predicated on the potential of their use, which is primarily an historical and contingent one (Auslander 1997: 3–4). Ironically, Auslander notes that the digital, based upon binary technology, has the capacity to ‘. . . dismantle cultural binaries, including the distinction between copy and original’ (Auslander 1999: 106). In this way the digital form, which as Auslander (1999) asserts has the capacity to dismantle copy and original, reinforces the process of mimesis, where there is an exchange of power that destabilises copy and original. The concept of digital mimesis assists in explaining what was happening to my perception when witnessing Hotel Pro Forma’s work – The Algebra of Place confused original space, original time and original identity. The performance did this through digital mimetic process that exchanged power back and forth very quickly between the live performance and the mediatised. Accordingly, I propose a provisional definition of digital mimesis as a process where space, time and the performer’s identity are simultaneously dispersed and coalesced in intermedial contemporary performance, destabilising the perception of the original and the copy. The words ‘simultaneously dispersed and coalesced’ in the definition are included to describe the destabilising vibrations created by the intermedial form – a flirtation, perceived by the viewer, concerning the fluctuating separation and unity of space, time and identity. Essentially, this provisional definition of digital mimesis is an attempt to qualify the complex power exchange between the media which alters perception. To some extent the definition answers both of my questions and brings to my attention that they are connected by causality. As such, it was the potentiality of the unfixed space, time and the performer’s identity within The Algebra of Place which destabilised my perception of original and copy.

Examples from The Algebra of Place To clarify and expand this provisional definition of digital mimesis I’d like to examine more closely the two examples provided earlier. Figure 1 illustrates

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Digital mimesis, although a term already in publication, has not been proposed as a theoretical process between live and mediatised performance. Its current use is to describe a process photographer Dieter Huber employs in his digitally manipulated photographic works (Huber 2000). It also describes a digital archive project created by Willamette University, (Anon 2005). The term also used to describe a process in 3D printing which is theoretically closer to my interpretation. And the most recent publication using the term digital mimesis concerns how Spielberg in collaboration with Industrial Light and Magic have created computer animations of animals for Jurassic Park using motion capture of real animals. However, this article does not fully articulate a contemporary theory of the power exchange of mimesis, but rather the purely imitative, (Delliquanti 2006).

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Virillo frames the continual flux of space and time in the virtual similarly to the way David E.R. George explains the ambiguity of space and time in live performance: ‘we are seeing the beginnings of a “generalized arrival” whereby everything arrives without having to leave’ (Virillo 1997). As such, time in both the live and the virtual is associated with the performance of space, in as much as both are ambiguous and doubled in intermedial performance.

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how space and time are fractured in this live and mediatised performance, for performance cannot exist without space, whether it is real or virtual, and space cannot be performed without time.3 However, in order to understand how the performer’s identity is fractured it is necessary to acknowledge Butler’s theory of performative identity. In Figure 1 the performer’s identity is re-cited by the live body performing in juxtaposition to its mediatised identity. In this way Figure 1 is a somewhat literal moment of praxis in accord with Butler’s theory that identity is not fixed but continually reconstituted through performative citation (Salih and Butler 2004). Therefore Figure 1 affirms my concept of digital mimesis, where space, time and the performer’s identity are dispersed and yet simultaneously flirt with potential coalescence. This is not a traditional performance of mimesis, one based upon imitation. Rather, it is an example of a contemporary theory of mimesis, a process where ‘. . . the image affecting what it is an image of, wherein the representation shares in, or takes power from the represented . . .’ (Taussig 1993: 8). In this example the live and mediatised forms create an intermedial in-betweeness of perception for the audience. The performance literally confuses the space, the time and the performer’s identity, provoking the question, `which is the original and which the copy?’ So far Figure 1 limits the interaction of a live performer to a scale avatar, but not all examples in The Algebra of Place were this clear. For instance, in Figure 2 the live performer was placed in a digital field which did not produce a mimetic imitation of her. Rather, a man was represented, whose scale varied significantly. Could this be considered an example of digital mimesis? Figure 2 includes live and the mediatised forms, and as a consequence space and time are fractured, yet once again with regard to the performer’s identity this example is complex. The digital image in this example is mimetic because it represents one or a combination of these three things, ‘actual reality, past or the present, (popular) conceptions of, or beliefs about the world; or normative ideas of what the world “ought” to be . . .’ (Halliwell 1990: 11). Yet if the digital field is not mimetically specific to the live performer how then does her identity fracture? Equally, how can a contemporary definition of mimesis, the power exchange between copy and original, be applied in this example? I propose that the key is the fracturing of space and time, that when a live performer interacts with a clearly representational digital image a translocation of identity occurs. This translocation of identity simply means that the identity seems to be in several places at once (Giannachi 2004). One place is the live performer in the corporeal world, the other is the performer located in the virtual, where her scale, proportions and even her interaction with gravity can vary. This is of course an optical illusion. Nevertheless, what it provides is a fracturing of the performer’s identity because of the fracturing of space and time. Accordingly, the notion of translocal identity in performance engages our contemporary understanding of mimesis. A confusion of perception is created in the viewer through

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the mimetic exchange of power, where the copy changes or comments upon the original. As such, I propose that space, time and identity can fracture even if the digital representations are devoid of scale avatars, because the identity continues to be translocal.

In conclusion What then is similar and or different about these two examples? Figures 1 and 2 are similar in as much as they both provide an example of the fracturing of space and time because of the convergence of live and mediatised performance. However, this is the minimum of my criteria for digital mimesis. Figure 1 advances the illustration of digital mimesis through its content, which demonstrates a literal split of identity. Nevertheless, Figure 1 is limited with regard to the destabilisation of the performer’s identity as it does not provide a convincing translocation of identity by mimetically representing another space and time. Instead it provides an abstracted field of light, rather than a representational one. The only mimetic quality we can attribute to Figure 1 is the content, the performer’s literal split through the mediatised image. Whereas in contrast to Figure 1, Figure 2 demonstrates the fracturing of space and time through other locations. And as such, it is the translocation of the identity, appearing as it were in different space-times, which offers a more convincing illustration of the concept of digital mimesis. If digital mimesis can be succinctly defined as a process where space, time and the performer’s identity are simultaneously dispersed and coalesced in intermedial contemporary performance, destabilising the perception of the original and the copy, how then do these examples collectively contribute to a better understanding of the concept? Together they illustrate that once a performer’s live performance converges with a mediatised performance, their identity fractures because of their translocation in different space and times. However, and more importantly, the examples affirm that both aspects of the performance must be representational, that they must have a mimetic relationship, but not strictly one governed by imitation. Rather, in this case the mimetic replication must supersede a traditional imitative understanding of mimesis, to embrace a contemporary understanding which creates an altered perception of original and copy. With this regard the concept of digital mimesis answers both of my initial questions concerning the confusion of original and copy, and the perception of time, space and the performer’s identity in The Algebra of Place. I contend that there is a causal relationship between the two questions. And that space, time and identity were in flux when I observed The Algebra of Place, which led to my altered perception of copy and original. Consequently, the concept of digital mimesis answers both questions, it is chiefly concerned with unpacking what appears to be an ontological destabilisation of original and copy between live and mediatised performance, where the fixity of the original is challenged through intermediality. As such, I propose that since the intermedial practice of Hotel Pro Forma is not uncommon in contemporary

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performance practice world wide, that digital mimesis may be a concept of use for the analysis of other intermedial works which deliberately, or inadvertently, destabilise the ontology of the original. References Anon (2005), ‘The Digital Mimesis Project’, http://library.willamette.edu/ project/index.html. Accessed 30 February 2005. Auslander, P. (1997), ‘Ontology vs. History: Making Distinctions between the Live and the Mediatized’. The Conference Archives, http://webcast.gatech.edu/ papers/arch/Auslander.html. Accessed18 May 2005. ——— (1999), Liveness: Performance in a Mediatized Culture, London and New York: Routledge. Bakker, E.J. (1999), ‘Mimesis as Performance: reading Auerbach’s first chapter’. Poetics Today, 20, (Spring): pp. 11–16. Butler, J. (1990), Gender Trouble, London: Routledge. Butler, J. and Scott, J. (1992), ‘Contingent Foundations: Feminism and the question of “Postmodernism”’, in Feminist Theorize the Political, New York: Routledge, pp. 3–19. Carlson, M. (1996), ‘Resistant Performance’, in Goodman, L. and Gay, J. (eds,), The Routledge Reader in Politics and Performance, London: Routledge. Chapple, F. and Kattenbelt, C. (eds.) (2006), Intermediality in Theatre and Performance, Amsterdam: International Federation of Theatre Research. Dehlholm, K. (2005), ‘Information about Hotel Pro Forma’, http://www. hotelproforma.dk/information/eng_index.html. Accessed 13 February 2005. Delliquanti, D. (2006), ‘Commercialized Captivity: Theme Park Animal Performances in Jurassic Park and Disney’s Animal Kingdom’, http://modernmask. org/film/Commercialized_Captivity.html. Accessed 20 January 2007. Derrida, J. (1976), Of Grammatology, Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press. Fortuna, R. (2006), The Algebra of Place, Hotel Pro Forma [Photograph]. Gattenhof, S.J. (2004), ‘Young People and Performance: the Impact of Deterritorialisation on Contemporary Theatre for Young People’, PhD Thesis: Queensland University of Technology. George, D.E.R. (1996), ‘Performance Epistemology’, Performance Research, 1: pp. 16–25. Giannachi, G. (2004), Virtual Theatres an Introduction, New York: Routledge. Halliwell, S. (1990), ‘Aristotelian mimesis re-evaluated’, in Cooper, D.E. (ed.), Journal of History and Philosophy, 28: p. 11, Cambridge, Massachusetts: Blackwell Publishers. Huber, D. (2000), ‘Klone #92’, http://www.medienkunstnetz.de/mediaartnet/. [Photograph] http://www.medienkunstnetz.de/artist/dieter-huber/biography/. Accessed18 May 2005. Lehmann, H.T. (2006), Postdramatic Theatre, London: Routledge. Piem, N. (2005), ‘Spectral Bodies: Derrida and the Philosophy of the Photograph as Historical Document’, Journal of Philosophy of Education, 39:1, pp. 67–84. Read, A. (2004), ‘Say Performance: Some Suggestions Regarding Live Art’, in Heathfield, A. (ed.), Live: Art and Performance, London: Tate. Rosenfeld, K. (2002), ‘Drag King Magic: Performing/becoming the Other’, Journal of Homosexuality, 43:3/4, pp. 201–219.

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Salih, S. and Butler, J. (eds.) (2004), The Judith Butler Reader, Victoria, Australia: Blackwattle Publishing. Taussig, M. (1993), Mimesis and Alterity: A Particular History of Senses, New York: Routledge. Virillo, P. (1997), Open Sky, London and New York: Verso.

Suggested citation Fenton, D. (2007), ‘Hotel Pro Forma’s The Algebra of Place; destabilising the original and the copy in intermedial contemporary performance’, International Journal of Performance Arts and digital Media 3: 2&3, pp. 169–181, doi: 10.1386/ padm.3.2&3.169/1

Contributor details David Fenton is an Australian contemporary performance maker, theatre director and academic. Currently, he is lecturer in Performance Studies at the Creative Industries Faculty of Queensland University of Technology, where he completed his Phd, ‘Unstable Acts’ – a practice-led investigation in Performance Innovation – 2007. David has been a freelance theatre director in Australia for seventeen years. His theatre works have toured nationally and internationally. From 2000 – 2002 David was Festival Director for Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras Festival; and from 1996 – 1999 he was Artistic Director of Riverina Theatre Company. Contact: 8 Moriac Street, Moorooka, Queensland, Australia 4105. E-mail: [email protected]

Hotel Pro Forma’s The Algebra of Place; destabilising the original and the copy . . .

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International Journal of Performance Arts and Digital Media, Volume 3 Number 2 & 3. © Intellect Ltd 2007. Article. English language. doi: 10.1386/padm.3.2&3.183/1

Orienteering with double moss: The cartographies of half/angel’s The Knitting Map* Deborah Barkun Millersville University of Pennsylvania Jools Gilson-Ellis University College Cork

Abstract

Keywords

This article analyses The Knitting Map, a large-scale, durational textile installation by the performance production company half/angel. It examines the ways in which technology was used in The Knitting Map to connect the weather and the levels of busyness in Cork City (Ireland) to a community of knitters, and a year-long process of hand-knitting. The article focuses on processes of translation as a fundamental operation within this ambitious work; translation of digital data into knitting patterns, as well as technology into something familiar to a community of knitters. The article suggests that by contextualising The Knitting Map’s digital technology, the processes and language of ‘knitting Cork’ became dialogic across generations. The Knitting Map is then framed within a broader history of radical textile projects, and community art works. The article closes with an analysis of a year-long series of knitting performances by Jools GilsonEllis, staged in public sites in Cork City and used as a performative strategy of engaging participants both actually and symbolically in the project.

performance digital media knitting craft art women data

In half/angel’s project The Knitting Map, software was written to translate information about how busy Cork City was, into knitting stitches, and what the weather was like, into wool colour. This information was uploaded to digital screens as a simple knitting pattern (knit this stitch in this colour), and volunteer knitters sat at twenty knitting stations in a wooden amphitheatre in the crypt of St. Luke’s Church and knitted. And they did this every day for a year . . .

*

Jools: Introduction The Knitting Map was a large-scale, durational textile installation commissioned by the executive of the European Capital of Culture: Cork 2005. As a completed textile sculpture, it has also been exhibited at the Millennium Hall in Cork, Ireland (2006), and at the Ganser Gallery, Millersville University in Pennsylvania (2007). The project was always an audaciously ambitious one; half/angel 1 rehearsed for it by spending ten years making contemporary dance and installation works, which involved various

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half/angel: half/angel has been making performance and visual art work for theatres, galleries and outside spaces since 1995. The company works across disciplines and sites, as well as across a range of urban and rural contexts. These have included an urban dock, a rural headland, a university quadrangle and a community of knitters. We are interested in how to take your breath away. We have projected poetry onto falling rice; threaded

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40,000 sewing needles with red thread and hung them from a ceiling; we have made air ghosts for dancers to tangle with in performance; we’ve asked you to take off your socks and walk on grass inside the gallery, and we have dissolved reveries in water for you to find again. www.halfangel.ie. 1

Directed by Richard Povall as well as Jools Gilson-Ellis. All software and digital environments were designed by Richard Povall.

Figure 1: The Knitting Map on exhibition in The Millenium Hall, Cork City, June 2006. motion-sensing digital technologies, and by honing a poetic sensibility that aspired to ‘trick’ computers into being able to see the ache of emotion. During this decade, our model of motion was the dancer’s body, or the body of the individual gallery visitor. In The Knitting Map, we exchanged an individual corpus (often a highly trained one), for the shifting turning energies of a city. We monitored its movements, and its weather, and we knitted it.

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2

Richard looked at this information over many weeks, and averaged the data, and then programmed the system to upload this number to our central processor every 5 minutes. He then integrated the information from the four city centre locations by collating and averaging their numbers again, to give a single number between 1 and 25 to represent just how busy the city was every 5 minutes. He then did more averaging, and the city’s level of motion generated a single number every day. We made a graduated list of stitches from 1-25 that moved from simple to complex, and we mapped this onto the levels of busyness generated by the city.

3

His idea was to give a sense of how a particular day might ‘feel’ by mapping combinations of information, in a similar way that we apprehend a sense of a day when we step out into it.

Figure 2. Knitters knitting on The Knitting Map, Cork 2005.

We are translators. Our performance and installation practice had always involved the translation of one gesture into another. I wanted a satellite to provide the data about how busy Cork city centre was, but no one would loan us one, and we couldn’t afford our own, so we settled for four city centre CCTV cameras, and became signatories to promises to the Gardai (the Irish police) that we wouldn’t publicly broadcast or display the images we captured. Richard Povall was the only person to look directly through the eyes of these cameras, and he did so not to witness the events they captured, but to use software to analyse just how much movement was happening in front of their eyes. Through processes of averaging and collating2 the data from these cameras, Richard programmed the system to translate how busy the city was into one of 25 knitting stitches of equivalent complexity. How do you knit the weather? In his design of the software used to average copious amounts of data produced by our weather station, Richard attempted to capture a sense of the phenomenal experience of the elements. His programming combined a range of different data streams including temperature, precipitation and wind speed, and scaled them to produce a number between 1 and 26 for every day of the year.3 Our palette of colours for the map were a muted range of mauves, blues, greens, greys, creams, and other earth tones, (but no reds, oranges or yellows), and we mapped these colours onto Richard’s 26 gradations of Cork weather. So that every day our system generated a single stitch/colour combination

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Figure 3. Knitters knitting on The Knitting Map, Cork 2005.

Knitting for a year Before we open, whoever is on duty checks the knitting from the previous day, picks up any dropped stitches, finishes any rows, and turns on all the digital screens. If the weather has shifted the colour, then all the wool needs to be changed and brought in baskets from our shelves of coloured wool, and attached to the knitting. Someone is sent over to the corner shop to pick up fresh scones for elevenses and bread for lunch. We open at 10 am and in come the knitters sometimes in gangs, sometimes one at a time. And alongside our regular knitters are visitors of all kinds, come to view the installation, to see the wonder of a year of knitting beginning to emerge. We leave whatever we are doing – knitting, or teaching to knit, or making tea to welcome these visitors, and to explain the work, and what we are trying to do. We always invite visitors to knit if they would like, to learn if they don’t know how, and if not to take their time to watch our knitters at work. We are translators. But our greatest interpretive challenge was not to do with technology, but with opening the work in a profound way to a community of knitters, mostly unfamiliar with the discourse of contemporary arts. We worked hard to recruit and develop this community in the years prior to 2005, but a bigger challenge was explaining a complex conceptual art project before it had begun. Many people thought it was going to be a literal map of the city, and whilst this felt like anathema to us, it was a lesson in the apprehension of contemporary art and technology projects for the uninitiated. When knitters were finally welcomed into St. Luke’s, and sat down in front of their screens, lifted their needles and began to knit (as more than 2000 volunteers did during 2005), they began to take possession of both the space and the project, as well as their engagement with technology. What was such a challenge to explain before its actuality became more straightforward once it was materially present before us. Once we could see it (and once it was seen to be beautiful) its participants came to understand its nature as abstract cartography, as a simple and gorgeous abundance of knitting, somehow connected to the city and its weather by themselves.

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Figure 4. The wooden amphitheatre/coptic circle in St. Luke’s Church, Cork City, Ireland.

Caroline and Julia Caroline rings the bell bang on 10 am, sometimes earlier. She and her colleagues from the Cope Foundation are regular knitters. Every Monday they arrive with their hats and coats and bags and their big grins. In they come and like good children hang up their coats before they come into the kitchen to have their tea and scone. Julia comes on other days, a tiny gentle earnest nun, who knits for a morning once a week. School teachers and children, mums and aunts and grandmothers. Of course there are some men, dads sometimes and brothers, but they are generally visitors from overseas, or some other kind of novelty. Every interviewer who interviewed us during several years of focus on The Knitting Map asked if men also knitted, and of course they did. But this is hardly the point. The point of all these questions was to rattle the intransigence around identity that culture holds so dear, that’s why I so often talk of femininity rather than women. But let’s not beat around the theoretical bush here: this was women’s work. But that doesn’t mean that it couldn’t have been otherwise. Indeed this work is absolutely based on re-working meaning around femininity. Caroline and Julia knew this in their own ways. The interaction of these knitters with technology was a deceptively subtle one. Whilst the pattern and the wool colour depicted on the knitters’ screens had the guise of an ordinary knitting pattern, this familiar code concealed its origin in a digital system which captured the geographies of weather and city busyness. The collective gesture of communal knitting was one which gave cartographic authority to middle-aged women, and their

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Figure 5. Jools Gilson-Ellis performing in Merchants’ Quay Shopping Centre, Cork City, April 2004. Copyright for all images belongs to half/angel.

language of care (which is what knitting mostly is). The Knitting Map enabled the dynamics of community – both synchronous (a community now together) and diachronous (over a calendar year – communities need time to develop and sustain themselves) to engage directly with technology through a process of knitting. Knitting in this project was clearly both a

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literal as well as a metaphorical labour. Most of the women regularly involved with The Knitting Map were unfamiliar with technology in any form, and this was mostly generational. The Knitting Map installation space was made from elements familiar and essential to the generation of community. Knitters could choose to sit beside their friends, or meet new participants. It was easy to chat whilst knitting. There were regular breaks for scones and tea and a sandwich at lunch time. The actual physical use of technology whilst knitting was relatively minimal – a screen, on which was displayed the generated stitch/colour, and an easy alternative for beginners, or those with learning difficulties. But the technology that generated these stitches was inherent in these knitting patterns, and the fusion of the ordinary and the extraordinary was part of its power. These women were knitting the weather through their use of yarn colour; the normality of choosing one’s own wool colour was given up in favour of an openness to what the wide and close skies of a year of weather might bring. Such a communal gesture brought frosts and floods, and heat into the domestic and ordinary act of knitting. It opened its close, domestic and feminine associations to the literal and metaphorical sky. It allowed the mathematical complexity of knitting difficult stitches to be brought into proximity to a frantic city, clogged with traffic and queues, and crowded streets. In keeping track of shifting numerical combinations to produce (for example), an open honeycomb cable4 these women re-worked the actual digital information about busyness being sent up to them from the city,5 and they did so, by integrating this data with their hands (their digits) in processes of communal hand knitting. The Knitting Map allowed the prevailing cultural peripherality of middle-aged women to make a collectively original and beautiful thing and in doing so re-mapped their own apparently tangential geography.

Deborah: poetry in translation To communicate The Knitting Map’s poetic and conceptual premises, half/angel first addressed a dilemma of language: how to effectively translate digital displays that correspond to stitches and colours to participants unfamiliar with the aesthetics, technology, and vocabulary of contemporary art. Indeed, producing a technologically mediated conceptual portrait of Cork required trust in and comfort with the technology integral to the project. Ultimately, to create an environment conducive to knitting, the technology that collected, collated, and transmitted data itself needed an interpretive apparatus to be comprehensible. Towards this end, half/angel translated their technology into familiar and purposeful forms and materials, thus mitigating feelings of intimidation that technology so often engenders. In effect, half/angel gently introduced digital technology to The Knitting Map’s largely Irish, middle-aged, female participants by enfolding it in wood and wool. Povall and Enrika Bertolini Cullen outfitted the crypt of St. Luke’s Church, in which The Knitting Map was headquartered, to facilitate the translation of urban milieu to stitch and colour. The crypt was faced in wood, emphasising architectural contours and encasing the monitors in digital ‘pulpits’, each one its own quiet yet industrious mode of address.

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4

Open Honeycomb Cable (knitting pattern where K = knit, and P = purl): The pattern begins on the wrong side, so work 1 row knit before starting. Row 1: K2, p8, k2; rep to end. Row 2: P2, C4B (slip next 2 sts onto cable needle and hold at back of work, k2, k2 from cable needle) C4F (slip next 2 sts onto cable needle and hold at front of work, k2, k2 from cable needle), p2; rep to end. Row 3: As 1st Row 4: P2, k8, p2; rep to end. Row 5: As 1st. Row 6: As 4th. Row 7: As 1st. Row 8: As 4th. These 8 rows form pattern. Repeat’ (Matthews 1984: 63).

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St. Luke’s church is on a hill overlooking Cork City.

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Double moss was one of the knitting stitches used regularly in the map – it was placed towards the quiet end on the levels of city busyness.

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Seated at these digital knitting stations, below a bank of Romanesque arched windows, the twenty knitters resembled a choir, voices materialised in rivulets of knitted wool, spilling over a wooden embankment and merging at a confluence of expanding colour, pattern and texture. half/angel conceived The Knitting Map as a secular project that wedded technology with handwork, blurring the boundaries between masculine and feminine, labour and leisure, art and craft. Yet, for so many of the participants, themselves practicing Catholics, the crypt of St. Luke’s implied the communal experience of worship. Cullen, a devout Catholic, labelled the design of the knitting stations a ‘coptic circle’ for its visual affinities to a Coptic cross (McCarthy 2005: 36–38). Regardless of the participants’ religious convictions, these contours transformed the wired and cavernous space into a place of intimacy, in which knitting became a communal experience. By effectively contextualising The Knitting Map’s digital technology, the very processes and language of ‘knitting Cork’ becomes dialogic across generations. Here, digital media is rendered meaningful to participants previously unfamiliar with its codes. Likewise, knitting, a traditional art form, is passed to young participants, more conversant with technology than textile. Here, half/angel deploys digital media in the service of art to perform poetry in translation.

Jools: voicing interpretation Our knitters then became translators. We encouraged our regulars to take part in the process of welcoming visitors – getting them knitting if they so wished, and teaching them if they needed it. This process was one in which women who often had absolutely no experience of digital processes, were explaining a conceptual digital art work to visitors of all kinds, from families to international arts practitioners. Sometimes I eavesdropped these explanations from the back room. These were not the perfect presentations of the gallerist or the city guide, but were an owned articulation of what was happening. This was much easier to do once the map itself had begun to appear. Once I heard it explained that the knitted cables were the traffic, and the double moss6 the people; a scenario in which our software (which only sees movement) was able to distinguish between the kinds of motion generated by pedestrians and by traffic. All translations have their stumbles – ours had similarly been a process of partial translation. Each of us told different stories about how the map was made, how it worked, and what it might become. In these spoken narratives, such acts of translation came to be lodged corporeally in the bodies of these women who had knitted and chatted their way into voicing interpretation.

Duet This essay is a duet between the Director of half/angel Jools Gilson-Ellis, and the art historian Deborah Barkun. We are orienteering, using The Knitting Map as compass as well as map. We are hunting for curious stitches in the millions before us; we fly skywards and gasp at the topography;

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we sweep sideways and see the map from a different perspective – there it is amongst so many other collaborative art works, and there it is again, this time amongst the traditions of Textile Art. Finally we sit down exhausted, and wonder at how ordinary geographies are made extraordinary by such an object; how the exhibition in the Ganser Gallery reverberates between rural textile communities in two countries. And finally we stay very quiet, and watch as one community takes the pulse of another as silent figures take time to witness the pleated complexity of billions of stitches; a complexity brought together to make a single thing.

Deborah: the map at Millersville In March 2007 Millersville University welcomed half/angel’s The Knitting Map to the Ganser Gallery. As a region steeped in a rich history of fibre arts, Central Pennsylvania was an especially appropriate site for The Knitting Map’s US debut. Like the quilt, a textile inseparable from Central Pennsylvania history, The Knitting Map evokes a cultural moment in Cork, Ireland that led to the city’s selection, in 2005, as the European Capital of Culture. When faculty and staff in the Art Department at Millersville University were introduced to The Knitting Map, they felt an immediate affinity for Cork residents’ desires to ‘fabricate’ their experience of place. The understanding of place, affected by colour, climate and community, is intimately connected to one’s relationship to and traversal of space. Indeed, one’s visual and social landscape transforms identity. Likewise, people shape place, suffusing streets and architecture with vitality and character. By translating traffic flow and weather patterns into representative stitches and colours, more than two thousand volunteer knitters generated a conceptual topography as diverse as Cork’s nearly half-million residents and their respective relationships to the urban fabric. Knitting can be solitary or communal, mindless or contemplative, visual or tactile. For the knitter, the intricate choreography of needles and yarn can yield both text and textile. Whether a stitch takes the form of a simple garter or a complex cable, its calligraphic lines can be read in tones amplified or hushed. Thus, the language of knitting is a shared language. Like quilting bees, ‘knit-ins’ and knitting guilds provide instruction, community, and conversation. In 2005, in Cork, half/angel coordinated a rotating group of knitters who congregated around their knitting stations in the crypt of St. Luke’s Church, Summerhill, chronicling city traffic and weather according to computer-generated patterns. In practice, this communal activity encouraged mutual exchange and united disparate individuals in a collaborative fabric and collective yarn. The Knitting Map’s vast scale attests to this multiplicity of voices. The result is a panorama that uniquely captures a city and its community. When four large wooden chests containing The Knitting Map arrived in the Art Department, the scent of cedar, a fragrance that evokes anticipation and nostalgia, filled the air. Like scent, textiles and needlework can trigger associations and memories. Memory quilts, friendship quilts and mourning quilts, such as the NAMES Project AIDS Quilt, parts of which were exhibited

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at Millersville University in November 2006, typically incorporate meaningful scraps of cloth, while handwork may aid the quilter in the ritualised work of memory, chronology, or grief. Cultural historian and critic Marita Sturken has noted the significance of quilting for women as a means of fabricating cultural memories from which they were formally excluded (Sturken 1997: 193). Similarly, art historian Rozsika Parker has written about the traditional role of needlework for women in performing the work of mourning. According to Parker, the ‘time taken to complete a memorial sampler or picture allowed a period of mourning, and possible acceptance of separation and loss’ (Parker 1984: 38). Like quilting and embroidery, the art of knitting may function as a treasured heirloom handed down to friends and family. By blanketing their environments, works like The Knitting Map and the AIDS Quilt evince the power of collaboration to produce objects of security, solace and comfort. Intertwined in The Knitting Map’s complex fibres are the received traditions of past generations. Like textile generally, knitting has the ability to transmit to future generations the experience of a unique time and place. The influence of this may be seen in the adaptation of knitting and crocheting as a contemporary art medium. Rosemarie Trockel’s ‘knitted paintings’, Oliver Herring’s sculpture, knitted from wool, tape and mylar, and the mixed media installations of Xenobia Bailey exemplify the move by contemporary artists to embrace and re-articulate textile art forms. Recent exhibitions such as ‘Radical Lace and Subversive Knitting’ at the Museum of Arts and Design in New York attest to the contemporary use of fibre and textile arts to challenge conventional understandings of issues such as globalisation, gender, ethnicity and environmentalism. As contemporary artists devise ways to translate their memories of traditional needlework into an innovative visual language, they add to the ongoing project of memory. The Knitting Map stands as a crucial, collaborative example of this. When exhibited, The Knitting Map’s orientation varies according to the site in which it is installed. As The Knitting Map draped and flowed over and through the space of Millersville University’s Ganser Gallery it achieved a unique confluence of two places normally separated by distance and national boundaries. Transporting a conceptual and dialogic work such as this from one cultural, national, and geographic context to another is not without its own translational challenges. To be sure, the dialectical intricacies of our shared language must themselves be knit together to be readable. Similarly, prior to The Knitting Map’s formal and physical inception, half/angel had to make the concept of the nascent project decipherable to Cork’s residents. They did so through a series of introductory knitting performances, which in their own way, engaged in a process of mapping the city with knitting through a rigorous engagement with pubic space. These early performances read the activity of knitting with and against notions of alchemy and feminised labour, thereby demonstrating how The Knitting Map endeavours to transform the private and disenfranchised into the public and empowered.

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Jools: the pleasurable trespass The Knitting Map was one of the cornerstone projects of Cork’s year as European Capital of Culture during 2005. It was one of the first projects to be commissioned by the Cork 2005 Executive (in mid 2003) and half/angel began work in earnest in the autumn of that year. During 2004, the company held monthly performance/knitting events which gave us a public presence even before the 2005 year. These performances took place in different public sites within Cork city. They gave us our trespasses, as I climbed onto tables of sweaters in Blarney Woollen Mills; asked for help to be lifted into one of the high stained glass window alcoves in the Crawford Gallery; as I knitted perched on a rubbish bin in Merchant’s Quay shopping centre. This was work about irreverent trespassing, about insisting city space as a space for ideas. It was also work about invigorating the urban and the public sphere with a discourse of revolutionary femininity. Knitting was both the metaphor and the material for these performances. Knitting was my attendant wickedry as I persuaded, and cajoled and teased and sang my way through a year of performances. Knitting was my weapon, as well as my clothing. Knitting was a slipping metaphor, just as I slipped sometimes, on stairs and streets, on the back of motorbikes, or into passers by. Knitting also slipped between tenors. I was knitting meaning. For some of those who witnessed these events, I was a strange knitting comedian, who could persuade the unpersuadeable to join me in my games of performance. To others, I was an alchemist of an altogether different kind. To those, I knitted beyond but also because of the immediate. In my very present tenseness, time slipped sideways. In such moments of connection, knitting became refracted and meaning multiplied. I was a harridan exploring how textiles might be other than passive, gentle and domestic. I wielded my knitting needles like swords, and funny as this might have been, it belied the serious labour of re-working metaphors of femininity.7 If we play assuredly and irreverently with such metaphors, femininity might be twinklingly unleashed. Such an unleashing is linguistic, visual, corporeal and temporal: It is a pleasurable trespass. All of this was a prelude then, to our year of knitting. This was our performative invitation to partake of a communal knitted sorcery. Such a call to knitting was of course, a recruitment drive as well as a way to have a presence in the public imagination, but it was also, importantly, an incitement to wonder about the meanings of knitting, community and femininity. As I played with meaning in a year of performances, so I hoped to model imaginative pathways in my audiences. I wanted to stretch and turn this association of femininity and knitting. I wanted to do this, not because of knitting, but because of the ways in which the processes of care, gift-giving, mathematical complexity, and chat are marked by the ways in which women have knitted in their homes as an act of familial and community cohesion. Knitting is a domestic feminine trope whose mechanics and operation I want to celebrate, but also radically re-work. Knitting complex cables requires a mathematical dexterity that astounds me. Its models of patterning are similar to early computer programming.8 It develops extraordinary

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7

See fr example, Freddie Robins’ 2002 work ‘Craft Kills’ illustrated in the catalogue for Cosy (Robins 2002). And see some of the textile texts written for the 1997 CD-ROM mouthplace, for example: ‘In war, the women would embroider the faces of their captors slowly closed. Although they selected colours that befit the time of year, and spent time on their designs, their silk would clot into a sewn frieze of black red. These bodies were sent back across the border, strapped to floating biers’. (Gilson-Ellis and Povall 1997).

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See Sadie Plant’s Zeroes and Ones, for a discussion of the relationship between femininity, technology and textiles (Plant 1997).

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complexity from the combination of two stitches, just as digital information is only ever a combination of zeroes and ones. Such a skill, unfortunately, also remains redolent of feminine cultural disenfranchisement. It is hard work for our cultural, social and political imaginations to give value to the private, domestic, maternal and feminine. It is this resistance to value that is the territory of this work. The Knitting Map is a strange and compelling cartography. It maps a city by using the labour of the disenfranchised. It brought the digitally innocent into daily contact with a speculative technology, that they were able to call their own. It mapped time by locating private activity as both participatory event, and installed performance. The Knitting Map is a cartography of care; its folds and turns hold all kinds of ghosts. Here they are shifting and turning before you. And if you chase them, they will play at obedience, and then laugh and run giggling into fields of knitting. References Gilson-Ellis, Jools and Richard Povall (1997), mouthplace (CD-ROM), Hanover, NH: Frog Peak Music. Matthews, Anne (1984), Vogue Dictionary of Knitting Stitches, London: David & Charles. McCarthy, Kieran (2005), Voices of Cork: The Knitting Map Speaks, Dublin: Nonesuch Publishing. Parker, Rozsika (1984), The Subversive Stitch: Embroidery and the Making of the Feminine, London: The Women’s Press. Plant, Sadie (1997), Zeroes and Ones: Digital Women and the New Technoculture, London: Fourth Estate. Robins, Freddie (2002), Cosy (catalogue), Colchester: Firstsite. Sturken, Marita (1997), Tangled Memories: The Vietnam War, The AIDS Epidemic, and the Politics of Remembering, California: University of California Press.

Suggested citation Barkun, D. & Gilson-Ellis, J. (2007), ‘Orienteering with double moss: The cartographies of half/angel’s The Knitting Map’, International Journal of Performance Arts and digital Media 3: 2&3, pp. 183–195, doi: 10.1386/padm.3.2&3.183/1

Contributor details Deborah Barkun is an Assistant Professor of Modern and Contemporary Art History at Millersville University of Pennsylvania. She holds a B.F.A. from Carnegie-Mellon University in printmaking and an M.A. and Ph.D. in History of Art from Bryn Mawr College. She is the recipient of a series of research and teaching awards including a Whiting Fellowship in the Humanities (2004 – 2005). She has presented papers at Vanderbilt University, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, and the Philadelphia Art Alliance. Her essay “Four-letter Words: LOVE and AIDS in the Age of Appropriation and Proliferation” will appear in the forthcoming Eros and Ambiguity: Essays on Love throughout the Ages. She is currently working on a book entitled Art, AIDS, and Collective Identity: The Collaborative Body of General Idea. Contact: Deborah Barkun, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Art History, Department of Art, Millersville University of Pennsylvania , Pennsylvania, USA. E-mail: [email protected]

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Jools Gilson-Ellis is a choreographer, poet, performer and installation artist. She is the Director of the performance production company half/angel and Lecturer in English at University College Cork. Her work has been performed and exhibited internationally, and she has received bursaries and awards from the Arts Council of Ireland, Arts Council of England, RESCEN (Centre for Research into Creation in the Performing Arts), the Ésmee Fairbairn Foundation and others. Her work has been co-produced by the Banff Centre for the Arts (Canada) and the Institute of Choreography and Dance (Ireland). Jools holds a PhD in Theatre & Performance Studies from the University of Surrey, and has taught performance internationally. She publishes in the fields of feminist theory and performance studies. Contact: Jools Gilson-Ellis, Ph.D., Director of half/angel & Lecturer in English, Department of English, University College Cork, Cork, Ireland. E-mail: [email protected]

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International Journal of Performance Arts and Digital Media, Volume 3 Number 2 & 3. © Intellect Ltd 2007. Article. English language. doi: 10.1386/padm.3.2&3.197/1

The warfare of the imagined – building identities in Second Life Dr. Esther MacCallum-Stewart SMARTlab, University of East London

Abstract

Keywords

Much has already been written about the potential of Second Life as a virtual space, but this paper examines the tensions created by its disparate population, one which has that has grown with incredible swiftness. By examining the history of protest in the game, from large scale events to individuals who have publicly left the game, a fundamental difficulty is unearthed. This is the disharmonious nature of a world where residents are told that they are the producers, rather than the customers. The virtual freedom of action granted to residents within Second Life clashes with the real producers of the worlds, Linden Labs. As the population has grown, this has led to increasing media attention, forcing Linden to take steps contrary to its own ethos, and threatening the already unstable communities within the virtual world.

Second Life virtual world game studies protest online communities

Introduction [A nation] is an imagined political community – and imagined as both inherently limited and sovereign. [A community] is imagined because the members of even the smallest nation will never know most of their fellow-members, meet them, or even hear of them, yet in the minds of each lives the image of their communion. (Anderson 2006: 6)

In considering the status of ‘play’ in online performance, it is important to note that many members of the online gaming community choose to engage with other players by ‘presenting’ in the form of avatars, and often multiple avatars, that are empowered with all manner of characteristics that the people themselves many not have. This extends beyond the rather linear view that many people outside virtual worlds may have of stereotyped avatars with rippling muscles and slender figures. Increasingly, as players are able to alter their appearance in accordance with their own wishes, this can include a huge variety of embodied presences within games, which are then commanded by players who may be of any gender, shape or physical ability. So if play is the thing, the place for play is, increasingly, online. The politics of performance are equally relevant to, but take different shapes in, the spaces of online theatres.

PADM 3 (2&3) pp. 197–208. © Intellect Ltd 2007.

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The potential of games to reflect this is something which I have already investigated at the Women in Games conference of 2007, but is something which finds particular form in a world like Second Life, where the players can appear as anything, and potentially express anything within the confines of the game. It is this latter conflict that this paper investigates. At the time of writing (17 May 2007), Second Life (SL) had over 6 million residents. Of these, 33,350 were online, although only 1.7 million were recorded as having been active in the last 60 days. Over $1.mill had changed hands within the world in the previous 24 hours. The world was feted throughout international media for drawing in big companies such as Reuters, Adidas and IBM; numerous suppositions about its mercantile potential had spawned sub-industries such as companies dedicated to providing business plans and market research from inside Second Life, and over 127 universities owned spaces within the world. Second Life’s population explosion is the cause of tremendous disaffection in an already violently shifting community. At the root of this is a common problem to virtual world – and perhaps a symptom of humanity itself – its inability to decide on how to control that world, what form this control should take, and where the power lies between users and creators. These issues cause huge tension between the active residents, especially through the formation of unstable communities struggling to create, often literally, their identities in this world. I intend to examine this through the development of personal identity within the world, the history of protest in the game, and culminating with the departure of various well-known SL residents and a series of moral panics and protests that mushroomed in May 2007. Benedict Anderson’s Imagined Communities (1983/2006), on the formation and dangers of creating communities, is key to understanding these frictions, reflecting the difficulties of creating such a world This friction also arises through the implementation (or not) of a governmental system where residents are encouraged to regard themselves as producers, yet is run through exterior mechanisms as a corporate state. It seems somewhat ironic to justify the actions of the Second Life population in terms of digital performance. The fact is however, that in many ways their existence within this world is entirely a digital performance. All of their actions are premeditated; performed through their avatars by users on the other side of the screen. Avatars are designed, dressed and activated originally by their owners – their outward show may be purchased from designers within the world, but it is unique and individual. For many, it is this personal representation that gives Second Life such meaning – the ability to reinvent and roleplay oneself as ‘other’ – to perform or act different (or the same) as one might in the real world. Second Life allows the player to user themselves, and it is this action that means that much of the behaviour that can be seen within the world is a result of acted out personas. The actions of protest documented within this article all detail extremely stagy performances, some requiring considerable organisation and co-ordination. In this respect they are an extreme, but intensely

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pertinent case-study of ‘outward show’ within virtual worlds, demonstrating how these can be turned into performance/protest sites for different ends.

Identity and place Communities are to be distinguished, not by their falsity/genuineness, but by the style in which they are imagined. (Anderson 2006: 6)

In Second Life you can create anything you can imagine with powerful, highly flexible building tools, using geometric primitives and a simple, intuitive interface. Building is easy to learn, yet robust enough to inspire your creativity. And once you’ve built something, you can easily begin selling it to other residents, because you control the IP Rights of your creations. What if you want something but don’t quite have the time or skills to make it? Just do a quick search to find and buy what you want. (Linden Labs 2007a)

A core aspect of Second Life involves forming ones identity within the social space available. Residents can look like almost anything that can be designed from the sandbox development tools,1 from a floating brain to a Napoleonic soldier, but transforming ones default figure into an original masterpiece (or masterpieces, since residents can change appearance at will) of sculpted pixels is not easy. One of the largest industries within the game revolves around creating a virtual self, with designers selling clothes, accessories, and body parts from hair to genitals to foxtails. Given that the user is represented to others through their manufactured embodiment, there is an emphasis on looking good; an aspect which gains kudos within communities: I stumbled into a place called ‘Shemale Gardens’ where a notecard appeared in front of me titled, “No Lame Cock Zone!” The card warned that anyone displaying their ‘stupid Q-tip freebie cock’ would be ejected. Then I saw a giant sign that had a picture of my very cock in a red circle with a red bar across it. (Trilling 2007)

Here, identity is granted when effort has been put into appearance (the author needs to find a penis that is not the popular version he has been given!). And since, like all communities, first impressions count, the ability of Second Life to make an avatar look like anything is vitally important. Conformity is inherent within this formation; to fit in with a community, residents must dress the part. At the same time, the demands for specific appearances – only the right type of penis is allowed into the area above – are specific to a type of community which may not exist elsewhere in the game. Since walking naked into a casino or educational classroom is not socially acceptable, whereas in ‘Shemale Gardens’ it appears to be mandatory, this causes a natural segregation of SL into disparate communities.

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1

Residents in Second Life can use areas called ‘sandboxes’, which allow them to use ‘primitives’ or ‘prims’ (the name for the building blocks of the world) to create objects such as buildings, clothes, machines, art installations and new bodies.

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Second Life is not only not a game (although one can play many games within it), but in terms of Game Studies, it cannot also be viably called an online world, since this term has a specific meaning that involves a shared mythos, worldspace and ideology; something which definitely does not exist cohesively within SL. In acknowledgement of this I have deliberately used the term ‘resident’, rather than ‘player’ throughout the paper. This is the term give to members of SL by Linden Labs. However, I have found that the term ‘social space’ is too clumsy to continuously substitute for ‘world’, and so, for want of a better term, have let this remain. Linden retains the right to remove content under End User License Agreement clause ‘User Content 5.1.v. Content as determined by Linden at its sole discretion that is harmful, threatening, abusive, harassing, causes tort, defamatory, vulgar, obscene, libellous, invasive of another’s privacy, hateful, racially, ethnically or otherwise objectionable’. (Linden Labs 2004). By 2007 this had been changed to ‘5.3 All data on Linden Lab’s servers are subject to deletion, alteration or transfer. When using the Service, you may accumulate Content, Currency, objects, items, scripts,

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Anarchy in the . . . Despite, or perhaps because it is a social space built solely for leisure purposes, Second Life is one of the least homogenous communities online. Unlike many online spaces, which have immediately apparent themes or objectives, Second Life is not a game; it is a virtual space which I have previously somewhat blithely described as ‘MSN with legs’ (MacCallumStewart and Parsler: 2006).2 The primary objective, if it can be counted as such, within the world is socialisation, although other factors are also at play. Therefore locating oneself within this place is more difficult than say, a Massively Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Game, where the objective is to fulfil the criteria of the game itself (quests, levelling, etc.), or a themed chatroom where participants discuss like-minded subjects. New entrants to Second Life are unceremoniously deposited on ‘Orientation Island’ upon arrival, and must therefore seek out the communities they wish to associate themselves with. As the population has grown, this has become more difficult. The main facets of Second Life are socialisation through education, leisure, sexual activity and other activities ranging from balloon rides to roleplaying events to shopping for a new body. All of these activities are facilitated and maintained by residents. Again these vary hugely; boat races, music concerts, universities and sex clubs all jostle for place within the world. Second Life has many micro communities, but it does not have a centralised one; indeed Linden pride themselves in allowing residents to maintain the copyright on their own creations, using the ubiquitous claim that ‘Second Life is a 3-D virtual world entirely built and owned by its residents’ (Linden Labs: 2007b) to sanction most activity within the worldspace. Counterpoising this is the End User Licence Agreement, but like many online worlds, the rules as to how people should behave are nebulous. Linden ultimately have control over content, largely through their statement in the EULA that they have the right to withdraw anything they wish and that they do not tolerate unacceptable content.3 The developers also ask residents to abide by ‘The Big Six’,4 but all of these caveats are something of a moveable feast, as we shall see. The most important differentiation between these two aspects is the separation of ‘in-world’, where there is no dominant state, there are no authoritative police or law courts with authority, and the all-encompassing resolution of the EULA, which residents agree to be bound by but which largely governs their entry into the world as users rather than the residents they then become. Crucially, Linden Labs tries to absolve itself of practices within the world by users, by allowing them to create the content (Indecency, for example, is largely in the eye of the beholder, especially in a leisure world where much of the activity is sexual in nature). Thus, there are no concrete rules within the game of how people should behave – this is almost entirely down to social agency. This lack of specific behavioural guidelines is an aspect of online worlds that is problematic; when rules of behaviour are not established, conflict arises (MacCallum-Stewart and Parsler 2007, 2008). Whilst this is not

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something that can be resolved – humans are, after all, individuals – it is not always recognised by players (or in this case) residents, who not only wish to be integrated into society, but also want others to conform in order to reinforce their own sense of belonging. There is a fundamental confusion between the rules of content, and the rules of behaviour, with residents/ players often (wrongly) expecting content managers to supply them with answers. Thus, Second Life is an anarchistic state in which most people crave utopia, and because everyone’s utopian ideals are different, there can be no accord. Castronova identifies this in his discussion of online world states when he argues that the enforced absence of authority means governmental systems set up by players/residents have no impact (Castronova 2005a: 213–218). He argues that ‘while in principle governments could exist in synthetic worlds, in practise they do not’, since there is a fundamental clash between ‘government’ as coding authority and players/residents as ‘customers’ (213). The perception that the designers have divine authority (End User License Agreements, the ability to change the world) prevents players from ever successfully establishing their own governmental systems as ultimately their actions will have no agency over the design and implementation of the world. If you buy into a world, you cannot therefore be its ruler. The result is therefore an anarchistic state where players are often profoundly unhappy with their lot, but have little ability to change it. This can be seen through the rise of protests such as Cristiano N. Diaz’s Project Open Letter, which calls for Linden Labs to address the problems caused by population growth and an overburdened server (Diaz 2007). His requests include moves to address such concerns as items lost from personal inventories, to the instability of the server ‘grid’ itself. In this respect, Diaz’s grassroots organisation echoes similar protests in other online worlds – from the infamous Ultima Online strike in 1999, to The Gnome Tea Party (Foton 2005a, b), to early protests in Second Life such as the War of the Jessie Wall (see below), but they all exhibit a profound tension between user and producer. It is to these protests that I shall now turn.

equipment, or other value or status indicators that reside as data on Linden Lab’s servers. These data, and any other data, account history and account names residing on linden lab’s servers, may be deleted, altered, moved or transferred at any time for any reason in Linden Lab’s sole discretion. You acknowledge that, notwithstanding any copyright or other rights you may have with respect to items you create using the service, and notwithstanding any value attributed to such content or other data by you or any third party, linden lab does not provide or guarantee, and expressly disclaims (subject to any underlying intellectual property rights in the content), any value, cash or otherwise, attributed to any data residing on Linden Lab’s servers. You understand and agree that Linden Lab has the right, but not the obligation, to remove any content (including your content) in whole or in part at any time for any reason or no reason, with or without notice and with no liability of any kind (Linden Labs 2007c).

Protest within . . . the nature of these political events and their replication under different circumstances in different worlds suggests that they reveal something fundamental. Running a virtual world is a service, as we are often reminded, but it is more than running a BBS or a shopping mall or an amusement. There’s a nascent politics. There’s policy. There’s speech and assembly. There’s terror and reaction. If destroying the world and banishing people are not terror and reaction, respectively, I don’t know what would be. (Castronova 2005b)

Anderson’s Imagined Communities argues that shared identities create a sense, if not an embodiment of nationalism. In virtual worlds, his writing not only seems to apply in a literal manner, but is directly pertinent to the

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4

The Big Six are Intolerance, Harassment, Assault, Disclosure, Indecency and Disturbing the Peace. For more information see Linden’s ‘Community Standards’ page (2007d).

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ways in which people use online spaces to negotiate their identities through the expression of protest and dissolution. Whilst protests within Second Life are numerous and varied, they all reach towards what Anderson finds so distressing in the formulation of nationalism – aggressive attempts to promote homogeneity within the community. As the world grows, so does the discontent with its perceived lack of homogeneity. In online gaming, this can often be witnessed by players flaming or grieving each other for not roleplaying or otherwise playing the game ‘incorrectly’. In virtual worlds, where the ludic does not exist so strongly, there is no set way in which to ‘play’ (Caillois 1962). In virtual worlds, the identity of the resident is far more strongly tied into the identity of the user. Thus protest has far more personal nuances. These often relate to real life concerns which are expressed through avatars, or demonstrate a discontent with the tension outlined previously between game designer and frustrated customer. Most importantly, however, as the community has grown, protest has moved from in-game squabbles, to real world ethical concerns which in many ways have little to do with the virtual world, and more to do with ethics in real life. The first real conflict in Second Life is characteristic of this tension, expressing discontent with colonisation. In 2003, ‘The War over Jessie Wall’ broke out after a group of WWII Online (WWIIOLers) gaming enthusiasts moved into SL’s Outlands area (Au 2003a/b, Carr and Pond 2007: 79–82). Previously, Second Life had had little gun culture, although the Outlands was a place where combat was allowed. Almost immediately a Mexican Standoff developed. Pacifist posters and confederate flags were plastered all over the Jessie Wall area behind which the WWIIOLers had been moved, and the residents both inside and outside began to shoot and ‘kill’ each other. The WWIIOlers were criticised for bringing aggressive elements into Second Life at a time where the Gulf War was reaching its initial apex, the WWIIOLers responded by asking why they had not been welcomed for adding significant numbers to the community as a whole, and the place became ‘a battleground where people with differing opinions about the real life war antagonized one another’ (Carr and Pond 2007: 81–82). The protest is symptomatic of a disrupted community as it demonstrates several things. The emergence of substantially greater gun culture in Second Life, was counterpoised by the existing residents on both sides who felt that the WWIIOlers were ‘poaching’ their territory, including existing Outlands residents who felt that the WWIIOlers were intruding on their space. The WWIIOlers highlighted an obvious intrusion of violence into an allegedly peaceful world. They brought a far more serious series of issues to bear on the flippancy of the Outlands (which had a rather baroque Wild West Outpost atmosphere), including the identification with the ongoing Gulf War. At the same time, their actions were perceived as an aggressive act of colonisation since they represented a significant population increase in a minority area. All of these latter aspects render the arguments over guns and violence redundant – in fact this was a classic territory dispute. The intrusion of real life (Gulf War) into a virtual one also destabilised the community, forcing it to recognise its ‘false’ roots.

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Small fish, bigger pond

5

In 2006/2007, several ‘well known’ residents of the game publicly left the game and made statements to the Second Life Herald stating their reasons for leaving (Wayfinder in UrizenusSklar 2006; Massiel 2007). Largely, this related to Linden’s inability to control such a huge population, as demonstrated by frequently downtime on the grid, lag, inventory loss and other technical problems, but it also related to what many saw as Linden’s inconsistent policies towards freedom of action within the world. Once again, the conflict between customer and service provider underscored protest. Second Life’s expanding world had pressed many people into what they felt were untenable situations. Like many pioneers, early residents felt that Linden ‘owed’ them something, even if this was simply the right to access the Grid when they wished. Amongst other things, they protested that the integrity of the world as a space for design and for experimentation was being lost. It is perhaps understandable to see why Linden accorded these people little weight, struggling with a burgeoning population and with issues of which they were well aware. For Linden, the thousands of potential new developers landing in their world on a daily basis could easily replace the dissenting voices (Vielle 2007). Furthermore, these dissenters were able to locate Second Life’s problems far more easily through their familiarity with the world, spotlighting the issues of overpopulation. Second Life encourages development, but its secondary qualities also mean that it is a world of avarice and egomania. It is thus very easy to accord oneself a far greater importance than one actually has. Finally, Second Life is aggressively capitalist in both facilitation and enactment. Quite simply, the competition that exists means that irrespective of the noise that they make, these people simply did not matter. Ire towards specific residents is also a target for protest. Although grieving and harassment can be traced and GMs usually deal with excessive acts, in Second Life the line between art form and harassment is often blurred. In December 2006, resident Anshe Chung, credited with being the first real life millionaire from in-game sales of real estate, was attacked at an in-world press conference by giant penises, making the interview impossible. The stunt had been arranged by artists hoping to gain an entry for ‘Second Life Safari’ on SomethingAwful.com (Peterson 2006–7),5 but it also highlighted the tensions between those who bought up viable land in the world and sold it on for a profit, and those who felt that this business was reprehensible. Whilst Chung was powerless to prevent the attack in game, avatar owner Ailin Graef filed a DMCA that prevented recordings of the incident being shown on You Tube (Actual News Guy: 2007). In this case, in-world wrangling spilled out into the real world, but once again the ‘rules’ of Second Life allowed the protest to go ahead. It was only in the real world that Chung was able to ban recordings on You Tube, and of course this proved futile as copycat sites spawned all over the web (see for example Anon 2007).

Beyond Second Life As the world has grown, so Second Life has started to become more rigidly politicised. Unlike the previous protests, 2007 saw not only an explosion of

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SomethingAwful.com is a site dedicated to highlighting the worse parts of the internet; ‘Something Awful has been mocking itself and the internet since 1999, bringing you reviews of the worst movies, video games, and websites to ever exist. If it’s something and it’s awful, it’s probably on Something Awful, where the internet makes you stupid’ (Somethingawful.com 2007).

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people entering the world, but also the implantation of serious real world issues in the game. Whilst Second Life can easily house forums for debate and discussion, its concerns have usually remained insular. However as it gained more international attention, so too did its protests become more directly politicised, speaking more to issues from outside of the Second Life world than those within it. Riots between French political groups in January 2007 made international news (More4News 2007; Kane 2007). The riots followed the establishment of an embassy for French nationalist group French Front National within the world. Importantly, this was a protest about real world politics being played out within Second Life, not an internal dispute. Finally, an exterior protest about in-world ethics had a real effect on the Second Life grid. In December 2006, Terranova author Ren Reynolds predicted that a real world backlash against Second Life would cause moral panics about the world’s content (Reynolds 2006). In early 2007 he was proved right, as a debate over ageplay (residents who had sex with other residents whose avatars looked like children) brought to bear real life fears over paedophilia. In this case, protest came mainly in the form of the media, seizing on what one commenter to Reynolds’s entry identified as the ‘most sensational possible headline’ (in Reynolds 2007), and forums debating the topic. Crucially, although the topic was also debated in-world, the main argument took place outside within the public domain of the media. Linden Labs, who had previously stated that ‘If this activity were in public areas... it would be viewed as being broadly offensive, and therefore unacceptable. What consenting adults do in private, however distasteful others may find it, is allowed under these standards [original emphasis]’ (Robin Linden, 2005, in Psaltery: 2007), were forced to retract their previous position. On 7 March 2007, the company decided that despite their earlier statements, various international laws (most specifically, laws against pornographic images of children in the Netherlands) meant that they should begin to ban this behaviour and began to shut down areas and groups that promoted it. On 31 May 2007, they took this further, issuing specific guidelines banning the following: Real-life images, avatar portrayals, and other depiction of sexual or lewd acts involving or appearing to involve children or minors; real-life images, avatar portrayals, and other depictions of sexual violence including rape, real-life images, avatar portrayals, and other depictions of extreme or graphic violence, and other broadly offensive content are never allowed or tolerated within Second Life. (Daniel Linden 2007)

Ageplay was ultimately prevented because of real world legal fears, not those enforced by Linden Labs (Metropolitan 2007). The issue highlighted the difficulties inherent in creating a community which nominally promotes free expression, but has nebulous guidelines as to what this is, and no internal law system that can enforce these. In this case, Linden were

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permitting what many saw as a horrendous infringement of clause 5 (unacceptable content), because their virtual laws were unable to prevent it. Only outside pressure and ‘real world’ laws were ultimately able to allow them to prevent ageplay within the world, even though many dissidents acknowledged that actually policing this content within the game was going to be extremely difficult. These protests, both social and political, also demonstrate a final evolution in SL’s worldness – as the world grows, so concerns have moved away from the game itself. Neither the riots nor the debate over ageplay originated inside Second Life; they were both expressions of exterior belief systems. Finally, then, the world has become a place where exterior ideologies from ‘real’ legal and political systems are of far more importance than residential territorial disputes or single person actions. In these latter protests, Second Life is simply one of many places where these debates are active, and has become a convenient place for staging extremist demonstrations.

Conclusion Second Life has been regarded as the golden ticket to virtual reality, a hotbed of insurrection, the most useful tool on the web for interaction, and a passport for virtual wealth. It is all of these things and none of them; with critics and residents alike often forgetting that it is a world entirely within the hands of the users. The contradictions caused by its rapid expansion have curtailed some of its early freedoms, whilst at the same time opening the door for many others. It is an imperfect tool that many find dazzling, bewildering, or simply incomprehensible. As a progenitor to something greater it shows how a sustained online community has the potential to bring people together, but its size and lack of cohesion also demonstrates that it is like any other community – riven with dissent. As an imagined community it is diffracted; perhaps this is for the best. Some contradictions within the world are too large ever too meld, although this multiplicity of approaches shows that the world does have the potential to innovate. Second Life has certainly revolutionised the world of cybersex, bringing a new integrity to this particular society. Similarly, perhaps ironically so, its ability to develop online and distance learning is incredible. At the same time, Second Life’s inability to control its people and form a stable community has led to a gradual movement away from the virtual world itself. Whereas early protests spoke to residents about issues within the world, these have gradually exploded outwards. Politicised motives from outside now cause riots, not squabbles over virtual land. Despite their professed delight in free expression, some aspects proved too extreme for the community, yet real world concerns were what eventually prevented ageplay within the game. The developers found that their own rules could not prevent it, and it was only an external law coupled with an external moral panic, that finally meant they could act against it. Overall, Second Life demonstrates a community that is not only imagined, but is totally out of control, and at present the population growth is so

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dramatic that there is currently no way to stop this. Whilst early communities within Second Life were able to resolve their differences within the context of the world itself, overspill into the real world, alongside the inclusion of real issues, has proved very problematic. Whether the lessons that are still being learned from the development of Second Life will have a positive effect on future virtual worlds (or Second Life itself), remains to be seen. References Actual News Guy (2007), ‘You Tube pulls video of giant penis attack in Second Life’ Nowpublic. 1 May. Available at http://www.nowpublic.com/youtube_pulls_ video_of_giant_penis_attack_in_second_life [Cited 22/05/2007]. Anderson, Benedict (2006), Imagined Communities 2ed, London, Verso. Anon (2007), ‘Second Life Safari, Room 101 vs Anshe Chung’, Google Video. 5 January. Available at http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid⫽5387867190768022577 [Cited 22/05/2007]. Au, Wagner James (2003a), ‘The War Over Jessie Wall Parts I-V’ New World Notes 7 July. Available at http://secondlife.com/notes/2003_07_07_archive.php [Cited 22/05/2007]. Au, Wagner James (2003b), ‘The War Over Jessie Wall Parts VI-X’. New World Notes. 14 July. Available at http://secondlife.com/notes/2003_07_14_archive.php [Cited 22/05/2007]. Caillois, Roger (1962), Man, Play and Games, London, Thames and Hudson. Castronova, Eric, (2005a), Synthetic Worlds; The Business and Culture of Online Worlds, Chicago, University of Chicago Press. Castronova, Eric (2005b), ‘Synthetic Statehood and the Right to Assemble’, Terra Nova. 1 February Available at http://terranova.blogs.com/terra_nova/2005/02/ the_right_to_as.html [Cited 22/05/2007] Diaz, Christiano (2007), ‘Project Open Letter’. 30 April. Available at http://www. projectopenletter.com/ [Cited 22/05/2007] Ellis, Warren (2007), ‘Please Stop Doing that to the Cat’, Reuters Online 23 February. Available at http://secondlife.reuters.com/stories/2007/02/23/second-lifesketches-please-stop-doing-that-to-the-cat/ [Cited 22/05/2007]. Foton (2005a), ‘The Gnome Tea Party’, AFKGamer, 28 January. Available at http://afkgamer.com/archives/2005/01/28/the-gnome-tea-party/ [Cited 22/05/ 2007]. Foton (2005b), ‘The Gnome Tea Party in Pictures’ Available at http:// afkgamer.com/archives/2005/01/31/the-tea-party-in-pictures/ [Cited 22/05/2007]. Kane, Margaret (2007), ‘A piggish political protest in Second Life’ News.com. 18 January. Available at http://news.com.com/8301-10784_3-6151114-7.html [Cited 22/05/2007]. Linden, Daniel (2007), ‘Keeping Second Life Safe Together’, Second Life Homepages. 31 May. Available at http://blog.secondlife.com/2007/05/31/keeping-second-lifesafe-together/ [Cited 22/05/2007]. Linden Labs (2004), ‘End User License Agreement’ at ‘Second Life Modifies End user Licence Agreement’ Second Life Herald. 10 June. Available at http://www. secondlifeherald.com/slh/2004/10/sl_modifies_ter.html [Cited 22/05/2007]. ——— (2007a), ‘Create Anything’. Second Life homepages. Available at http:// secondlife.com/whatis/create.php [Cited 22/05/2007]. ——— (2007b), ‘What is Second Life?’, Second Life homepages. Available at http://secondlife.com/whatis/ [Cited 22/05/2007]. 206

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——— (2007c), ‘Terms of Service’. Second Life homepages. Available at http:// secondlife.com/corporate/tos.php [Cited 22/05/2007]. ——— (2007d), ‘Community Standards’ Second Life homepages. Available at http://secondlife.com/whatis/[Cited 22/05/2007]. MacCallum-Stewart, Esther and Parsler, Justin, (2006), ‘Not Everybody Wants to be a Troll’, Paper given at ‘My so Called Second Life’. NMK, Notes available at Glodnepix http://www.whatalovelywar.co.uk/war/2006/10/my_so_called_se.html [Cited 22/05/2007]. ——— (forthcoming) ‘The Place of Roleplaying in MMORPGs’ in Space and Culture. ——— (2008), The Playing of Roles: How does roleplay affect gameplay in Playing with culture, A Reader on Cultural Research in World of Warcraft, 2008, Massachusetts, MIT Press, pp. 87–138. Massiel, Myrhh (2007), ‘Leaving Second Life’, Second Life Herald, 15 May. Available at http://www.secondlifeherald.com/slh/2007/05/living_rich_com.html [Cited 22/05/2007]. Metropolitan, Carl (2007), ‘Blame Europe’, Second Life Herald. 16 May. Available at http://www.secondlifeherald.com/slh/2007/05/blame_europe.html [Cited 22/05/2007]. More4News, (2007), ‘French bring virtual riots to Second Life’ 24 January. Available at http://www.channel4.com/more4/news/news-opinion-feature.jsp?id=513 [Cited 22/05/2007]. Psaltery, Phoenix (2007), ‘Linden Labs begins ageplay crackdown’, Metaverse Messenger. 8 March. Available at http://www.metaversemessenger.com/ stories/ageplay_crackdown.htm [Cited 22/05/2007]. Reynolds, Ren (2006), ‘Countdown to SL Backlash’ Terra Nova. 31 December. Available at http://terranova.blogs.com/terra_nova/2006/12/countdown_to_ ba.html [Cited 22/05/2007]. ——— (2007), ‘And the Winner Might be’. Terra Nova. 9 May. Available at http://terranova.blogs.com/terra_nova/2007/05/and_the_winner_.html [Cited 22/05/2007]. Skall, Onder (2007), ‘Spanish Politicos at War in SL’, Second life Herald. 20 April. Available at http://www.secondlifeherald.com/slh/2007/05/by_onder_skall_.html [Cited 22/05/2007]. Peterson, Chris ‘Petey’, (2006-present), ‘Second Life Safari’, SomethingAwful.com Available at http://www.somethingawful.com/d/second-life-safari/ [Cited 22/05/2007]. Trilling, Mariner (2007), ‘Have Cock, Will Travel’. Second Life Herald (03/04/07) Available at http://www.secondlifeherald.com/slh/2007/04/have_cock_ will_html [Cited 22/05/2007]. UrizenusSklar (2006), ‘Elf King Wayfinder Leaves Second Life, Elf Clan Disbands, IBM Chairman Palmisano to Address Troops in Forbidden City’, Second Life Herald, 14 November. Available at http://www.secondlifeherald.com/ slh/2006/11/elf_king_wayfin.html [Cited 22/05/2007]. Vielle, Tenshi (2007), ‘Why the Lindens Won’t Listen’, Second Life Herald. 21 May. Available at http://www.secondlifeherald.com/slh/2007/05/oped_why_the_ li.html#more [Cited 22/05/2007].

Suggested citation MacCallum-Stewart, E. (2007), ‘The warfare of the imagined – building identities in Second Life’, International Journal of Performance Arts and digital Media 3: 2&3, pp. 197–208, doi: 10.1386/padm.3.2&3.197/1 The warfare of the imagined – building identities in Second Life

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Contributor details Esther MacCallum-Stewart is a Post-Doc Researcher at SMARTlab, who joined the team in 2006, following completion of her PhD at the University of Sussex. She is an expert in online communities, role play and gaming, and has written extensively about the forms of interaction that develop online between communities of players. Her research investigates digital narratives, and in particular the relationship between history and popular cultural representations as expressed through games, online resources and interactive media. She is interested in role play and dress up as online characterological aspects of ‘play’ related to the domain of live performance. Contact: 98 Rugby Road, Brighton, East Sussex, BN1 6ED, UK. E-mail: [email protected]

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International Journal of Performance Arts and Digital Media, Volume 3 Number 2 & 3. © Intellect Ltd 2007. Article. English language. doi: 10.1386/padm.3.2&3.209/1

Embodied narrative: The virtual nomad and the meta dreamer Denise Doyle University of Wolverhampton Taey Kim SMARTlab, University of East London Abstract

Keywords

This article charts the relationship between and the experience of real and virtual worlds. Like the travellers of the earlier centuries who returned with information and curiosities from distant and previously undiscovered lands we bring back with us our narratives, our stories and descriptions of our experience of embodiment in these new landscapes. We find that inhabiting the spaces of these virtual worlds is challenging our relationship to our own. We explore, through the construction of digital narratives, the experience and journey of Wanderingfictions in her metaverse, Second Life and Dongdong’s trans-national travel in the physical world exploring the Web 2.0 environment as metadata to articulate the user’s virtual identity. Data was collected in the form of narrative; each took their turn to write from their world; like a collection of postcards or snapshots of experience. Through the emerging dialogue we discover a combination of dis-ease, fear, but also wonderment of this new shift, this new view, where we are able to live in and embody multiple realities. Exploring these various conditions challenges us to investigate our physical availabilities as travellers in these virtual environments. A non-human body as metadata offers us resources for thinking in more sophisticated ways about virtual technologies. User Generated Contents and 3D Virtual Worlds such as Second Life bring new forms of participation. These two main waves on the net are contributing to the systems of informatics in their structures, behaviours and interactions of digital knowledge and narrative. The narrative reveals the complexities of dealing with identity politics in the environments of virtual spaces. It observes how our early, though rapidly changing, sensibilities are responding. We are in transition. This article finds that we will only truly become post-human when our memory of being ‘only human’ finally fades.

metadata non-human body web 2.0 UGC (user generated contents) embodiment virtual worlds

Introduction There is no place in cyberspace – there’s no Africa there, no mud, no beads or wells or such humanity in the very air. Griffiths 2004: 269

If there is ‘place’ in cyberspace, we are still fluid in our expression of it. As new online network spaces emerge daily, this article attempts to begin the

PADM 3 (2&3) pp. 209–222. © Intellect Ltd 2007.

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process of description of the experience of ‘being’ in these (virtual) places/spaces. We are the travellers returning with news of another planet, another place. Like the travellers of the earlier centuries who returned with curious information from distant and previously undiscovered lands we bring back our narratives, our stories, along with the descriptions of our experience of embodiment in these new landscapes. The virtual nomad, Dongdong, and the meta dreamer, Wanderingfictions, are exchanging their experiences from each of their respective virtual worlds in this article. We have each assumed this position, this perspective to speak from another place. We have focused on what each character sees and experiences from their worlds, rather than exploring the construction of our performative selves. Through this a natural dialogue emerged; each was interested in how their worlds are different, how they overlap, how they exchange. Data was collected in the form of narrative; each took their turn to write from their world; like a collection of postcards or snapshots of experience. From the pre-digital world Bachelard, the great observer of the literary imaginary writes that when we dream of the universe we are always departing, living in an elsewhere which is always comfortable (Bachelard 1969: 177). Yet the human condition has become more uncomfortable, more unsettling in the post-techno world. We still need to wander, to travel, to dream of an ‘elsewhere’ even if our ‘elsewheres’ now actually exist in some form – ‘somewhere’. Hayles (1999), in discussing Gibson’s Neuromancer, acknowledges that its power lies in the Kantian recognition of space and time as a fundamental human experience: Cyberspace is created by transforming a data matrix into a landscape where narratives can happen [. . .] Narratives become possible when this spatiality is given a temporal dimension by the pov’s movement through it. The pov is located [original emphasis] in space, but it exists [original emphasis] in time [. . .] Reduced to a point, the pov is abstracted into a purely temporal entity with no spatial extension; metaphorized into an interactive space, the datascape is narrativized by the pov’s movement through it. Data are thus humanized, and subjectivity is computerized, allowing them to join in symbiotic union whose result is narrative. Hayles 1999: 38–39

If narrative is the result, what is our experience of our embodiment and environment when travelling in virtual spaces with a non-human body? Dongdong is trapped inside of her plastic body and Wanderingfictions body is a human rationalisation. Dongdong and Wanderingfictions examine two main realms of the post-techno world, the Second Life environment and the Web 2.0 phenomenon.

The Second Life environment Second Life is an online environment or ‘virtual world’ created by Linden Lab and is the world inhabited by Wanderingfictions. Launched in 2003 with barely 1,000 users (Rymaszewski 2007: 5), the number of residents is now

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over 9 million, or at least those who hold a Second Life account.1 Following the logic of the ‘real’ world, it follows (most of) the rules of our Cartesian space, providing earth, sky, water, gravity, day and night, moon and sun on a three-dimensional networked grid. Second Life has its own ‘time’ – SL time, set to the equivalent of pacific coast ‘earth’ time. The sun rises at dawn and when it sets the moon rises. If you are a land owner you can set the sun/moon cycle as you choose based on a 24-hour clock cycle. Or you can keep a constant ‘nature time’ – always midnight, always sunset, always sunrise. The ‘Force Sun’ command enables you to override an area’s settings wherever you are, or rather your avatar. It is possible to have any representation of yourself, your avatar, though many choose to represent themselves in human form. Whilst there is gravity, your avatar can defy it, through the Fly command and as of August 2007 your avatar can now run as well as walk, talk as well as text. Still no lips moving. Jones (2006: 10–11) notes that, whilst Second Life could not be described as an immersive virtual world based on Heim’s set of characteristics of virtual worlds, it still sits ‘squarely in the discourse of virtual reality because it provides a high level of interactivity and tele-presence within a parallel world that allows for the construction of place and self’. Wanderingfictions has ‘resided’ in Second Life for over one year and she is there to explore this virtual world through digital narrative.

The web 2.0 phenomenon Web 2.0 refers to the second generation of web based communities and hosting services such as social networking sites, wikis, community blogs, crowd sourcing contents sites – MySpace, Facebook and Flickr, etc – which aim to facilitate collaboration and sharing between users. It provides the everyday surfer with new ways to interact with social media construction. The Internet is helping to create what can be seen as a more transparent world by making information more accessible. The term became popular following the first O’Reilly Media Web 2.0 conference in 2004.2 The IT (Information Technology) industry has been a goldmine of extended information in the last two decades. We discovered a great fountain of intangible knowledge to use such as a text, graphics, and music to link up with the application of scientific knowledge for practical purposes; so called technology. If web 1.0 is about learning and educating from the (i)nformation given, web 2.0 is about identifying and expressing the individual ‘I’s. Dongdong is a virtual character who participates in art projects as well as being an Internet citizen. She is a Blythe doll created in 1972 by designer Allison Katzman from the now-defunct American toy company Kenner. The New York TV producer Gina Garen took hundreds of photographs of her Blythe dolls when she travelled and published her first book of Blythe photography with Chronicle Books, ‘This is Blythe’ in 2004. In the same year, Hasbro (Kenner’s successor) gave the rights to make Blythe dolls to Takara of Japan. A vibrant Blythe subculture flourishes on the Internet, predominantly in forums and usergroups.3 Dongdong has been in the doll community

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1

Information shown on http://www.secondlife. com on the 21st August 2007; there were 9,019,209 accounts created.

2

Paul Graham (November 2005). Web 2.0. Retrieved on 2007-08-23. “I first heard the phrase ‘Web 2.0’ in the name of the Web 2.0 conference in 2004.”

3

Wikipedia, Blythe (doll) Retrieved on 2007-08-23. http://en.wikipedia. org/wiki/Blythe_ %28doll%29

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for over two years and acts like an individual creation. She is representing this ‘I’ notion in the web 2.0 community in the Asian Internet world. When MySpace, Facebook and Flickr are coded in Western (ISO-8859-1) in the metadata, there are Web 2.0 online communities based on Unicode (UTF8), which allows users to see various languages encoding. The fan-sites and avatars in this post game community operates as an underground group compared to a social media network group. However, these fan groups are planting the energy around Web 2.0 to create multiple personas in their virtual life. These users are highly committed to the community. Dongdong is exploring how users are appearing and formulating their identity within the platform. She is also the representation of data itself. Dongdong inhabits the web 2.0 environment.

Narrative as process Already actively exploring the virtual personas of ‘Wanderingfictions’ in Second Life and ‘Dongdong’ in the Web 2.0 environment, we initiated our article in April 2007. We took the virtual nomad and the meta dreamer as the subjects of our dialogue. One is a virtual character who acts and moves as though she is real in the (virtual) world, the other is a real/physical character who only exists as a real being in the web community. We wanted to separate from our own personas when we wrote from these two character’s voices to enable us to observe our different experiences as post-human bodies. The dialogue exchange between Dongdong and Wanderingfictions took place over a period of a month and entirely by email. It was intentional that we did not speak during this time, to enable the text itself to be the carrier of the meaning. Our main intention of this initial writing was to explore the hypertext of the cogito. This process of narrative exchange allowed us to playfully explore, absorb and transform of each other’s texts: ‘any text is constructed as a mosaic of quotations; any text is the absorption and transformation of another’ (Kristeva 1980: 37). As Kinder (2002), in writing of the database narrative, says that in our dreams the cerebral cortex: [. . .] performs this interpretive task by drawing selections from our internal database of imagery, which contains virtually everything we have ever experienced and everything we have absorbed from our cultural dreampool, and we reshuffle these selections to generate new combinations that we narrativize when we awaken. (Kinder 2002: 9)

As we now live in multiple realities, as we now occupy multiple spaces, our cultural dreampool will soon include the very real, or lived, experiences of embodiment in virtual worlds, and in turn, new narratives will emerge. Hayles (1999: 22) considers narrative to be a more embodied form of discourse. With our non-human bodies we attempt to explore this notion of embodied discourse as we explore our virtual worlds through, what we term, ‘embodied narrative’.

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Prologue

4

There is no daylight or night darkness in this world. It is inside a rainbow of pantone with web safe colour spectrum changes. There is no limited time concept here. We can calculate time from Senegal to Hanoi, LA to Oslo, Seoul to Rotterdam, La Paz to Magadan and Ottawa to Colombo. But we do not live as they live. We arrive anytime, we disappear like ghosts.

Network Position: Online community Addicted to Dolls, 10817 members from Cyworld mybb.cyworld.com

5

Network Position: City of Acropolis: Aglea, 109,124,322. Wanderingfictions rents a ‘sky pad’ in this region, which she calls ‘home’.

Dialogue on the Borderland Dongdong4 I have been dwelling in this box for the last few months. It’s not uncomfortable but I miss my adventurous journeys. So I’ll tell you more about my stories outside of this box. I was shipped from Hong Kong to London in 2001. I have big curious eyes, a big head and skinny legs so it’s difficult to stand up by myself. Some say I am too scary looking to be a friendly toy. I don’t really smile, but I do feel joy and happiness. I guess I don’t really mind being scary. This was before I had an identity as Dongdong. Then I became a real nomad. I travel a lot of places with my owner and sometimes without her. Often, when her friends are travelling, she sends me with them with a couple of outfits and a blanket to cover my body when I sleep. Her friends send her snapshots of me after the travel. There are group of people who have the same species as me and they are all communicating and sharing photos like the snapshots of my travelling. Now I make my choice to go somewhere else, and encounter many other creatures. To me, travel is not only a change of environment or destination but also the transformation of identity as an individual, which I’m searching for elsewhere. It can be local, or international. I am seeking to cross the boundaries. That is my instinct. I’m hoping to tell you my stories how I see about my travel and my identities online. How about you? What does ‘moving’ or ‘travelling’ mean to you? (Figure 1).

Wanderingfictions:5 One has to journey to dream In my world, changing destination is easy. There is a map, based on photographs taken from the sky. All I have to do is to find somewhere I want to

Figure 1. Dongdong on her travels in the real world.

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6

On the mainland it is possible to move from region to region without teleporting. Elsewhere, most islands are not connected therefore prohibiting movement across large spaces.

7

Network Position:

8

Network Position: FuturePerfect, 215,63,53.

9

You can ‘create’ a family in Second Life: have a partner, get married, have children, even have siblings.

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go and then within a moment I can ‘teleport’ there. Some would say that that makes it easy to know every place, because you don’t need to spend your time travelling. You don’t need to plan your slower journey, work out what transport you need or where you would need to stay if the journey would take more than a day. But here’s the thing: I miss being able to physically move through the space of this world; to travel from region to region.6 If I try to, something always stops me: some invisible barrier. That’s where we make the connections, crossing the borders, the boundaries. It is in the process of travelling itself, of journeying that we dream. You ask me what ‘moving’ or ‘travelling’ means to me: it is about transformation ‘through’ dreaming, through imagining. I am freer to dream when I am moving. One has to journey to dream. Of course I can fly here. But it’s like having invisible wings that you cannot really spread widely or fully or freely enough. Sometimes I fly upwards as fast as I can, so I can feel that sensation of freedom, and I can dream of flying a great distance along the horizon. Eventually I get to a point where gravity pulls me back down, but I do seem to be able to have the fantasy of escaping gravity, at least for a moment.

Dongdong:7 when arrows are moving That is intriguing that you can fly in this world with invisible wings! I wish I were designed in that way; to have Harry Potter’s invisible gown or a magical transforming tool. But unfortunately, I am stuck in this plastic body. However, my nature as a traveller is a free soul; as you describe that you are freer to dream when you are moving. Every time when I travel through the real world as well as a virtual world, I hear various sounds. It may come from the train station or a blue sky, or even from a flash button or splash pages. Different combinations of instruments make a beautiful music track. Music has an original sense of virtuality. People remember the time and place they listened to a particular combination of sounds. Maybe I represent the DJ, who is more interested in the experience of the journey itself rather than the destination. When arrows are moving ahead, how can we see this movement? Or can we ever follow these arrows? Isn’t it more important to be moving along with the arrows? I looked inside of your world. It is imitating the outside world very much. You can build blocks and gardens, sell property and exhibit art in shows. There are snobbish citizens, artificial families, sleeping citizens and challenging citizens. How do you feel about the others?

Wanderingfictions:8 they call us post-human Well, it can be hard to make friends here. But then there are others who really want to help you. When you are new to the world, others want to help you get on your feet, so to speak. I was born a year ago in 2006. I don’t have a family as such.9 At the beginning I looked like lots of other people here. That was shocking at times; when I was someplace and another ‘me’ was there too. Over time my shape seemed to change, though I only really found my identity when my skin changed. It’s a brown shade now. Oh, and I wear glasses (Figure 2).

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10 Network Position: Acropolis Gardens, Delia, 93,67,323.

Figure 2. Wanderingfictions Story in Second Life.

Here, there is always a lot of discussion about who we are and what this new world is. Almost always you can join a group. Sometimes I go to discussions and they call us post human. Can you explain that a little to me? Yours, Wandering.

Dongdong: I’d rather be a Cyborg I am exploring all of these definitions of spaces. Where is ‘here’ and where is ‘there’? It becomes here when we get there, and I’m yearning for another ‘there’ again. I see that I constantly desire to be somewhere different. Why? Because I am trapped inside of this body, which cannot make any magical transformations. So I see the possibilities of change from the space itself. Yes, we are all becoming post-human. I guess I rather want to be a Cyborg instead of being a human’s extension. When I lose my identity where I come from, I feel free. My question is how I can find a virtual ‘elsewhere’ construction, a border-less method of overcoming political boundaries in the search of self-identity. The body travels, but politics around the body remains on the ground where it originally started. Even if I leave my home/land, my fundamental agony does not change. When I travel, packing is not always the fun part. I make my entire luggage as small as possible, as mobile as possible. I capture events, histories, and logs about the journey to make my map. My map does not have regional names. It has remarks of landscapes, things I have to remember.

Wanderingfictions:10 landscapes, embodiment and narrative fields Ah, so you are a mapmaker! I wonder what remarks you make of the landscapes that you travel through? Do you have a system of classification at all? Of patterning? Is it to capture what it is to be here or to be there?

Dongdong The system of classification for my map makes my journey interesting. I used to have small boxes to collect the smells of different locations. But

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11

A long time ago, people who had exquisite taste for marvellous objects and paintings started to collect and display their collection in boxes. They had money and authority to put their collections in a place to keep and display their pleasure of collectiveness. They called that box a ‘cabinet of curiosities’ also known as Wunderkammer or wonder-rooms.

12 Admirers’ group: This refers to Fanbase site for the Blythe doll, owners have certain worship for this figures. They are between late 20s to late 30s, who usually have a creative profession and diverse cultural understanding in Asia. 13 Network Position: Unknown.

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since I moved to the virtual world I do not really have a sense of smell now. I categorise with tags, which are small labels, which tell you about the key points of the places. Those are creating my entire map now. I easily recognise the places and memories, but it is not as vivid as the smell boxes. How do you make your map? How do you see your world as your landscape?

Wanderingfictions I am uncertain of my own geography. I don’t even know where I live. Conceptually, that is. If we looked on the map I would not be able to point to it and say ‘there, that is where I live, that is my home’. Perhaps this is something that happens with a virtual geography. I need a tagging system like yours. The only way I can navigate is through the visual patterning on the map, unless I am given an exact co-ordinate position to teleport to. Once I have established a region I want to explore I zoom in close enough to enable me to recognise the patterning in the geography, an interesting shape outlined. I am being defined as a pattern not a presence. I have the experience of embodiment, although I know my body is virtual. Of course I do. There is little true form here, only a series of associations. I took a friend of mine to a volcano last night. He was in awe of it. In his mind’s eye, in his imagination he saw before him a real volcano. Well, real enough to evoke his awe. Is that not ‘real’ enough for it to contain a form of reality? A form of presence?

Dongdong: cabinet of curiosities Curious cabinets11 of modern people (giant figures to me) are becoming invisibly vast in this virtual life. You could take your friend to a volcano there, make hundreds of skyscrapers, build bizarre shaped houses, you are able to control the sun and moon too. If that is the form of the creation, I wonder whether these people make something other than real life figures. Is this a new world? Or is this a reflection of our desire of wandering as an extension of travel? The Net is a place similar to the ‘curious cabinets’. Collecting, presenting, showing off and textualising. The documentation of my travel became important, as I also reside as data. So I would talk about my net travel experience. My admirer group treats me as a baby, pet, lover, and favourite toy in their reality.12 But they treat me as an intangible data when we fly peer to peer. I represent their identities through the image. Image data tells more than text data in such a platform. In this platform, network between the users are the main key. When they connect to another user group, I am transformed as metadata, which changes the representation (Figure 3).

Wanderingfictions13 Without a shared network, my world could not exist. If we had individual micro (meta) worlds in which each of us lived, in separate pieces of space and time, I fear that it would not last. We would become extinct almost before we began. Could an old cabinet of curiosities exist in my world? Would we know what to do with it? Would it seem too strange to interpret? I fear that the

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Figure 3. Data: Data users ultimately consume. Meta Data: Data about data → expansion of data context Human: The main subject to create data/meta data/network data Network Data: the relationship between data, meta data, and human [Web 2.0] Constitution of Service Data world itself is its own curiosity. A new world curiosity. Metanarratives are created by placing objects (or data) next to each other as is ‘displayed’ in the narratives of the cabinet of curiosity. Each decade (piece of time) has its own curiosity. We move in waves. There are few curiosities here. There has not been the time to build those objects that exist and embody something of their own ‘time’. The curiosities are not objects here but architectures. Here, it is the scale that has changed. They have built the Taj Mahal, but there is still no India here. Few people know that the Taj Mahal was to be one of two parts. One each side of the river, calling to each other. One side is the white side (the one that we know), the other the black. It was intended to be a material and grand recognition of the greatest love between two people. However, only one side has ever existed. I am intrigued as to why, given the opportunity, that the Taj Mahal, here in this world, wasn’t built as it was intended to be in yours. After all, the black marble does not need to be moved great distances at great cost. It would not take the years it would need to build where it currently exists. Now, this is curious. The moments you mean something to your admirer group, I wonder if you fill the space that completes their metanarrative? At those points you fit, you enable them to make tangible an uncertainty they have. Although it’s only momentary. That is why you become intangible again. Time is the most intangible notion of reality we have. To document is to say ‘I did that. I have been there. This is what happened’. This is a peculiarly post-human activity. Even if that form becomes data again. Is this why we travel? Is that why I travel? Because when I travel I am immersed in moving in space and time.

Dongdong: the sign of ‘Being’ I guess we are all becoming wanderers in this infinite text. Interrelations between the stories and fragments of images are extensive. We are evolving

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ourselves with communications and the creation of our expression towards this blurry world we exist. Text will expand in every direction. We will not live in a horizontal timeline any longer. You will be able to create nameless nations and unauthorised territories, paradoxical zones like the Taj Mahal without India in your virtuality. I would love to meet my admirer in real life. But I know that they are sitting in a back supported chair with a gorgeous new machine, waiting for the icon to blink. The sign of ‘being’. It is all about the confirmation and recognition in this cabinet. If we are in the wave moving, how can we find an epicentre? We are shrinking, growing, expanding, deforming, deleting, creating, modifying and metamorphosising and disappearing.

Wanderingfictions:14 my body is my rationalisation Yesterday I searched again for India and in a way I found it. There was no Taj Mahal, no signs to tell me. I changed my clothes so I could imagine India a little more. It seemed to work. I sat inside a huge lotus flower and touched its petals. It stirred a memory in me. The petals were many hues of red (though I know it is only a pantone colour spectrum). Although I was a little disorientated. Did I shrink or did the flower simply grow? I am, in truth, very fluid here. I change all of the time. Is this the paradox? Being so fluid, so free of form? So free to re-form? You say we will not live in a horizontal timeline any longer. If this is so we will, we must lose our horizon (Figure 4). Here is another paradoxical zone. Being more like a real human is my rationalisation. In the same way that I do not need wings, yet still the representation is there. The perception is held to. I can still fly, with or without wings! And I try to fly across my metaverse, bound to my Cartesian sense of space: an attempt at an orientation in time. I am in a state of in-between.

Figure 4. Wanderingfictions (with wings). 218

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And my fear becomes exposed. My (virtual) body will reveal its meaning in time. As will yours. Soon, though, there will be no paradoxes, because soon our view will not contain what it was to be only human.

Dongdong: you are an illusion I am made of plastic, acrylic thin hair and rubber. I have become a wandering soul on the net. I live in the cabinet of curiosity. I am a virtual nomad. I am scared to go to another nation. I can barely stand up on my feet, because I do not fit with reality. The dimensions and normality are firmly on the ground. The body travels, but politics around the body remain on the ground – where it started. You are more like a real human, but you don’t have any tangible material that you are made of. You are an illusion. You fly as you transport to a different world. You are discovering new soils in the world. You flow with an updated version of this virtual world. You are always fresh. You are flowing. But you may be scared to wander in this virtual world of infinite text too.

Epilogue About the dialogue of Dongdong and Wanderingfictions We have investigated these transitions in our locations, along the technological thread stream, which can reach another kind of crisis by going across territories. The fears are still operating in us as much as we are excited about treading new paths. Nonetheless, we are trying to overcome our dizziness on the borderland in between worlds.

Subject ‘I’, the body Whilst Haraway (1999: 149) declared that she would rather be a cyborg than a hybrid of machine and organism, Dongdong travels through the physical world in a plastic unmovable body into the virtual world as identity snapshots of Web 2.0. For her, the body is the vehicle that carries her journey and her identity. The body becomes her story container. Wanderingfictions physicality is real in Second Life, yet it lies within a conceptual field. She is ‘inside out’ and ‘outside in’ (Grosz in Hayles 1999: 196). She becomes aware that her body when it is like others around does not fit her growing psyche. It needs to be changed, individualised and reflective. Her body becomes performative; of what she searches for in the virtual world; if she becomes India, then she can find India. We also witness how both of our bodies can experience a transformation from outside of their realm inside the communities of the virtual world: Bodies disappear into information with scarcely a murmur of protest; body can disappear into information with scarcely a murmur of protest; embodiment cannot, for it is linked to the circumstances of the occasion and the person. As soon as embodiment is acknowledged, the abstractions of the Panopticon disintegrate into the particularities of specific people embedded in specific contexts. Hayles 1999: 198

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A number of ‘I’s travel through different spaces and times. Massumi (2002: 3) suggests that every body subject is so determinately local; it is boxed into its site on the culture map. Grid lock. Wanderingfictions and Dongdong’s substantial experience of mapping in each of their environments shows that this grid proves that the idea of positionality begins by subtracting movement from the picture. This freeze frame shows one moment of a body’s fluidity. However in the virtual world, the body travels as a continuity of movement.

Travelling between the real world and the virtual world We are actively communicating with the other creatures and find new functionalities and applications in these worlds. And subject ‘I’ decides to take a path from it. Jones (2006: 4) suggests ‘virtual reality is the contemporary and future articulation of the philosophical and psychological question of how we define (and create) reality’. We see through the eyes of Wanderingfictions’ friend, the experience of awe in front of the virtual volcano, that the issues, definitions and experience of reality find rich and challenging ground in virtual environments. Jones (2006) charts the philosophical developments and concepts of the real and the virtual from premodern times to the post-modern era and concludes that now: [. . .] Virtual worlds rest within a discursive space that have been constructed upon the struggle between the strengthening and blurring of boundaries of corporeality and transcendence, the real and the virtual, where and nowhere, and the unitive and multiplicitous self. It is this tension that makes virtual reality and virtual worlds so compelling to the contemporary imagination. Jones 2006: 15

Conversely, Dongdong’s experience within the online community presenting as metadata on the net is more fictional. The web 2.0 platform encourages users to jump in and share their everyday lives. This platform formulates a number of UGC, and provides content as crowd sourcing. When all different kinds of users participate in this structure of this new knowledge network, metadata transforms into attention data. Dongdong’s interpretation of the cabinet of curiosities is a useful term when considering this vast expanse of networked space, full of information being categorised, organised, distributed, re-interpreted, re-narrativised.

Time and space Second Life is a space that is experienced in a Cartesian way. It is experienced whilst sitting ‘in a space’, the space of our room, and simultaneously ‘through’ the screen. There is also a simultaneity of our experience of real and virtual – or other – space. Grosz (2001) suggests what Bergson did for time, we should attempt for space. In using this Bergsonian premise, she suggests that it may be possible that the qualities Bergson attributes to duration may be also attributed to space:

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[. . .] if duration exists in states of contraction and expansion, in degrees of uneven intensity, either elaborated in increasing detail or functioning simply as ‘shining points’ of intensity, then perhaps space too [. . .] has a loci of intensity, of compression, of elasticity [. . .] the very configuration of space itself may be heterogeneous [. . .] Perhaps, in other words, there is a materiality [original emphasis] to space itself, rather than materiality residing with only its contents. Grosz 2001: 127–8

If Grosz’s focus is on the heterogeneous flow of spatial configurations, Massumi is more interested in the de-positioning of the body and the dynamic movement of the grid spaces. In parallel to the real world, we have embodied these notions in (an)other space and time through each of our characters. It seems clear that both Wanderingfictions and Dongdong are struggling in their own ways with travelling in these virtual spaces, yet each experiences a freedom and wonder of the new experiences that those spaces offer and a curiosity for the virtual world allowing a new experience of time and space.

Conclusion Working with the process of digital narrative as ‘embodied narrative’ and the non-human body as metadata describes our experiences in virtual worlds in new ways. As we see from our dialogue, understanding our geographical position in this digital era is absolutely essential. As we read the exchange we find confusion, disorientation, fear, but also wonderment of this new view, where we are able to live in, and embody, multiple realities. Exploring these various conditions challenges us to investigate our physical availabilities as travellers in this virtual environment. A non human body as metadata offers us resources for thinking in more sophisticated ways about virtual technologies. User Generated Content and networked 3D Virtual Worlds such as Second Life bring new forms of participation. These two main waves on the net are contributing to the systems of informatics in their structure, behaviours and interactions of digital knowledge and narrative. The Second wave of user orientated contents from Web 2.0 and Second Life is not about today’s up to date information technology. We believe that we will be able to see the 4th generation of web development, and more in our lifetime. Our ‘I’s will travel through multiple spaces and times. Whether we will be happier than in the past about our living in a virtual environment or not is not a question we can have any longer. Nevertheless if we hold to the past then we can keep a certain sense of orientation. We have to have enough of the past in our memory to connect to our ‘imagined’ future to be able to make the patterns that materialise, retrospectively. Dongdong and Wanderingfictions will still whisper to each other about their discoveries in their own worlds. References Bachelard, G. (1969), The Poetics of Reverie, Boston: Beacon Press. First published 1960. Griffiths, J. (2004), A Sideways Look at Time, New York: Penguin. First published 1999.

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Grosz, E. (2001), Architecture from the Outside: Essays on Virtual and Real Space, Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press. Haraway, D. (1999), ‘A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology, and SocialistFeminism in the Late Twentieth Century,’ Simians, Cyborgs and Women: The Reinvention of Nature, New York: Routledge. Hayles, N.K. (1999), How We Became Posthuman: Virtual Bodies in Cybernetics, Literature and Informatics, Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press. Jones, D.E. (2006), I, Avatar: Constructions of Self and Place in Second Life and the Technological Imagination, Gnovis, Journal of Communication, Culture and Technology, 6. Kinder, M. (2002), ‘Hot Spots, Avatars, and Narrative Fields Forever’, Film Quarterly, 55, pp. 2–15. Kristeva, J. (1980), Desire in Language: a semiotic approach to literature and art (trans. Thomas Gora, Alice Jardine and Leon S. Roudiez), in Leon S. Roudiez (ed.), New York: Columbia University Press. Linden Labs (2007), Economic Statistics: Population. Second Life. Accessed 22nd August 2007. http://www.secondlife.com/whatis/economy_stats.php Massumi, B. (2002), Parables for the Virtual: Movement, Affect, Sensation, Durham & London: Duke University Press. Rymaszewski, M. et al. (2007), Second Life: The Official Guide, Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons.

Suggested citation Doyle, D., & Kim, T. (2007), ‘Embodied narrative: the virtual nomad and the meta dreamer’, International Journal of Performance Arts and digital Media 3: 2&3, pp. 209–222, doi: 10.1386/padm.3.2&3.209/1

Contributor details Taey is a visual media artist and PhD candidate at SMARTlab, University of East London. Her practice background is narrative based photography and interactive multimedia installation. In her virtual space, she examines the position of media art itself as an ‘elsewhere’ construction, a borderless method of overcoming political boundaries in the search for self-identity as far-east Asian and sexual minority in the postcolonial phenomenon. Her various exhibitions have travelled to London, Paris, Doncaster, Koln, Seoul, and many other international cities. Contact: Taey Kim, University of East London, The SMARTlab Digital Media Institute, 4-6 University Way, LONDON E16, UK. Web: http://www.taey.com E-mail: [email protected] Denise is a Senior Lecturer in Digital Media at the University of Wolverhampton and PhD candidate at SMARTlab, University of East London. She contributes to the contextual and practice-based strand of the UG Digital Media programme at Wolverhampton as well as undertaking research in the use of virtual worlds in learning. She is a theorist and new media practitioner. Her research interests include: interactive film, database cinema, virtual worlds, philosophies of the imaginary, practice-based research methods, critical theory and applied media arts, digital narratives, and multiplayer games and virtual learning environments. Contact: University of Wolverhampton, School of Art and Design, Molineux Street, Wolverhampton. Contact: Denise Doyle, University of Wolverhampton, School of Art and Design, Molineux Street, WOLVERHAMPTON WV1 1SB, UK. Web: http://wanderingfictions.net E-mail: [email protected]

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International Journal of Performance Arts and Digital Media, Volume 3 Number 2 & 3. © Intellect Ltd 2007. Article. English language. doi: 10.1386/padm.3.2&3.223/1

Playing the third place: Spatial modalities in contemporary game environments Axel Stockburger Academy of Fine Arts Vienna Abstract

Keywords

The article identifies the specific nature of spatiality as one of the most important aspects of contemporary networked game environments and presents a close reading of Henri Lefebvre’s spatial theories in order to gain a different perspective towards the subject. Artistic interventions in the form of online performances by artists such as Eddo Stern and Joseph DeLappe are discussed as exemplary forms of critical engagement with these emerging immersive environments.

digital games game studies spatiality game art media studies interactive art

Introduction In recent years digital games have evolved from single player systems to arenas of mediated performative action for large groups of players. One does not even have to mention a phenomenon like Second Life, a kind of branding echo chamber that seems to fuel the imagination of journalists, media agencies and artists around the globe in order to realise that digital gaming has undergone a veritable phase shift with the introduction of immersive online environments that are rendered in three dimensions. If one considers that Blizzard, the company responsible for the MMORPG World of Warcraft, has recently announced that it is reaching 9 million subscribers, each single one paying a monthly fee it is easy to imagine the economical impact of the medium. However, simultaneously it becomes evident that such game environments represent economical and social universes in their own right and that they amount to public spheres which are owned and maintained by private companies. Artists such as Eddo Stern or Joseph DeLappe have started to critically engage with these mediated spaces and have developed different strategies that amount to artistic performances in digital spaces. Their work will serve as exemplary for the nascient potential for performative arts embedded in those structures, but before anything else a fundamental issue has to be clarified. If one agrees to the fact that the kinds of digital games that have been brought up above are novel media phenomena rooted in a specific spatiality, since they serve as realms for performative actions on a global scale, questions regarding the nature and qualities of this kind of spatiality emerge. In this context it is interesting to note that so far, very few attempts at understanding the multi-dimensional nature of this spatial form have emerged from the field of game studies. Although there exist numerous approaches that address diverse aspects of spatiality of digital games in

PADM 3 (2&3) pp. 223–236. © Intellect Ltd 2007.

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isolation, such as the discussion of game space from a narrative perspective (Murray 1997), a focus on the visual aspects (Wolf 2001) or the impacts of rule systems (Juuls 2001), there seems to be no attempt to understand how these elements are functioning as part of a system. A notable exception can be seen in a brief article by Espen Aarseth who has proposed to turn towards Lefebvre’s spatial theories (Aarseth 2001: 152–169) in order to present a reading of game spaces as allegorical spaces. Although this opens up a very interesting perspective it seems that numerous important aspects of Lefebvre’s theory, most importantly his take on socio-economical aspects were neglected in this approach. Thus, this article, that is based on thoughts which are presented in more detail in a dissertation (Stockburger 2006) aims to reconsider Henri Lefebvre’s writing as well as Edward Sojas take on it in the context of digital game environments and to highlight some of the crucial elements of contemporary game spaces. This is undertaken in order to provide a theoretical approach to game space that could serve as a means to analyse and describe aspects of spatial performance work in digital game environments. In this sense, this short article aims to provide a basis for further research into the newly emerging field of performance art in digital game universes. It is hoped that the reader realises that such an attempt is only possible through a thorough engagement with Lefebvre’s original text.

The production of space as a theoretical framework for game space In the introduction to his seminal work ‘The Production of Space’, Lefebvre poses a number of questions that are directed towards historical spatial concepts from philosophy and physics. His aim is to develop a proper science of space that takes into account seemingly disparate notions of space. Accordingly, he sets out to ‘discover or construct a theoretical unity between fields which are apprehended separately, just as molecular, electromagnetic and gravitational forces are in physics’ and states that ‘[t]he fields we are concerned with are, first, the physical – nature, the Cosmos; secondly, the mental, including logical and formal abstractions; and, thirdly, the social’ (Lefebvre 1974: 11). These three seemingly separate spheres are quite clearly present in online game spaces; firstly, there exists a physical space where the player is located; secondly, there is the mentally constructed space arising from narrative and rule based structures; and finally we are confronted with spaces generated by the social interaction of individuals, exemplified in multi-player online games as well as shared gaming sessions. It is precisely the connection between these different dimensions that needs to be clarified in order to understand the entirety of space in video and computer games. The aim of Lefebvre’s project is to analyse how space is produced on various levels, in the realm of codes or language, but also in practico-sensory activity and through the interactions between subjects. The ultimate goal is ‘[t]o expose the actual production of space by bringing the various kinds of space and the modalities of their genesis together within a single theory’

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(Lefebvre 1973: 16). Seemingly, discrete elements are thus understood as flexions of the wider phenomenon of spatiality. Since space in the context of digital game spaces can only be fully understood if it is treated as the sum of its disparate modalities, Lefebvre’s approach seems to provide an ideal framework for this undertaking. If one concedes that games need to be practiced and played, not read we have to accept that there is a dimension of computer games that is experienced beyond the realm of the logos – a dimension that has to performed rather than decoded. Moreover, there exist aspects of space beyond the sphere of language that can be accessed and expressed via art and play. The ideological freight that Lefebvre refers to as ‘illusion of transparency’ underlies western traditions of thought that perpetuate the dominance of the sense of vision over all other senses. Although critical of the dominance of the logos, Lefebvre describes space as ‘encoded’, and accordingly, its production and decoding as subjected to historical transformation. He states that ‘[c]odes will be seen as part of a practical relationship, as part of an interaction between “subjects” and their space and surroundings’ (Lefebvre 1991: 18). Here, one might pose the question how these codes relate to language. Lefebvre outlines his position as follows: ‘[t]he strategy of centering knowledge on discourse avoids the particularly scabrous topic of the relationship between knowledge and power. It is also incapable of supplying reflective thought with a satisfactory answer to a theoretical question that it raises itself: do sets of non-verbal signs and symbols, whether coded or not, systematized or not, fall into the same category as verbal sets, or are they rather irreducible to them? Among non-verbal signifying sets must be included music, painting, sculpture, architecture, and certainly theatre, which in addition to a text or pretext embraces gestures, masks, costume, a stage, a mise-en-scene – in short a space. Non-verbal sets are thus characterized by a spatiality, which is in fact irreducible to the mental realm [. . .]. To underestimate, ignore and diminish space amounts to the overestimation of texts, written matter, and writing systems, along with the readable and the visible, to the point of assigning to these a monopoly on intelligibility’ (Lefebvre 1991: 62). Although digital games did not exist at the time of the writing of the ‘Production of Space’, it does not seem too farfetched to speculate that they might have been included among the practices which include ‘nonverbal signifying sets’, on a par with theatre, architecture and music. In this context, it is important to recall that advocates of a ludological position in game studies usually reject the notion of computer games as directly ‘readable’ narrative artefacts. Indeed, games exist to be performed or played, and are similarly characterised by a spatiality that is irreducible to the realm of the logos or what, in Lefebvre’s terms, constitutes the ‘mental realm’. Thus, aspects of this notion of spatiality, namely coded and non-verbal forms seem to be well suited to account for those aspects of game space that are omitted by narratological approaches. One can claim that computer games constitute a spatial practice par excellence, operating through ‘non-verbal sets of spatial signs and symbols’

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and addressing bodies operating in space. Since computers are machines that operate on a symbolical level, players are continuously confronted with symbolic spatial representation. Those symbolic representational elements are, however, partially rooted in ‘mental’ formations, similar to Euclidian space or Renaissance perspective. If one assumes that important aspects of the spatiality in computer games present themselves in a non-verbal symbolic form, it can be argued that written language alone might not be sufficient to cover the territory. Lefebvre takes his argument further when he critiques the application of semiology to architecture. He is convinced that although there is always a signifying practice involved it cannot be reduced to ‘language or discourse, nor to the categories and concepts developed for the study of language’ (Lefebvre 1991: 222). This is because ‘spatial work [. . .] attains a complexity fundamentally different from the complexity of a text, whether prose or poetry’ (Lefebvre 1991: 222). A spatial work, such as a work of architecture is realised through a social practice, and ‘[t]he actions of a social practice are expressible but not explicable through discourse; they are precisely, acted – and not read’ (Lefebvre 1991: 222). It is this dimension of actual performance that is realised within and through a social practice that strikes us as a fundamental element of games in general, and most poignantly of multi user online games. In other words, just as space has to be practised and experienced beyond the logic order of language, games have to be played/performed and it is not sufficient to study their symbolical surface aspects without getting involved. This aspect of play that surpasses language into space is acknowledged by Lefebvre when he states that ‘[l]anguage possesses a practical function but it cannot harbour knowledge without masking it. The playful aspect of space escapes it, and it only emerges in play itself (by definition), in irony and humour’ (Lefebvre 1991: 211). This, however, does not mean that knowledge production based on language is rendered obsolete, which would invalidate Lefebvre’s own work of writing. The core element of his argument emphasises the importance of practice versus abstract and detached examination. The playful aspect of space is something that emerges naturally from the practico-sensory realm and has to be regarded as an integral part of the foundations of human development. It is this playful and non-rational space that Lefebvre posits against the rational intellectual space of Cartesian logic. He attacks the shortcomings of spatial conceptions centred on Western logos when he writes, ‘[a] narrow and desiccated rationality [. . .] overlooks the core and foundation of space, the total body, brain, gestures, and so forth. It forgets that space does not consist in the projection of an intellectual representation, does not arise from the visible-readable realm, but that it is first of all heard (listened to) and enacted (through physical gestures and movements)’ (Lefebvre 1991: 200). This is a crucial observation, since computer and video games are quite clearly listened to and enacted through physical gestures and movements. However, they simultaneously mobilise the visible and the readable. This fact immediately brings about the question how these seemingly opposed areas might be related to each other. It is in

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particular this connection and interplay between discrete areas that Lefebvre’s theory attempts to grasp and analyse. We have already touched upon two distinct fields, the field of logical and rational conceptions of space, as defined by classical philosophy, mathematics and engineering and the field of directly experienced space that emerges from the practicosensory realm and that is marked by what Lefebvre calls ‘non-verbal sets of spatiality’. Lefebvre introduces two categories to account for these diverging aspects of spatiality, namely ‘Representations of Space’ and ‘Representational Spaces’. The first category stands for the realm of abstract and rational conceptions of space, which are tied up with philosophical thought, mathematics as well as engineering and urban planning. Here, space is first of all conceived, planned and mapped out rationally. The second, category, ‘Representational Spaces’, designates the field of direct experience gained in the ‘practicosensory’ realm. It is the sphere of the non-verbal that differs from the former because it is lived and experienced rather than intellectually constructed and projected. ‘Spatial Practice’ maintains a dialectical relationship between ‘Representations of Space’ and ‘Representational Spaces’ and is, in Lefebvre’s words, responsible for ‘production and reproduction and the particular locations and spatial sets characteristic of each social formation’ (Lefebvre 1991: 33). In the following we will try to clarify in detail how these concepts are put to work within Lefebvre’s objective, and subsequently how they can be mobilised as a basic framework for spatiality in digital games.

A triadic structure ‘A triad: that is, three elements and not two. Relations with two elements boil down to oppositions, contrasts or antagonisms. They are defined by significant effects: echoes, repercussions, mirror effects’ (Lefebvre 1991: 39). Here, Lefebvre is clearly indebted to Hegel’s and Marx efforts to surmount the structural dualisms and binary oppositions, which defined Cartesian as well as Kantian, post- and neo-Kantian thought. Referring to philosophical projects based on subject–object opposition Lefebvre writes, ‘[t]heir dualism is entirely mental, and strips everything which makes for living activity from life, thought and society (i.e. from the physical, the mental and social, as from the lived, perceived and conceived)’ (Lefebvre 1991: 39). Such systems of thought tend towards complete transparency and intelligibility, thus not leaving any room for the material, physical and social aspects of life. Therefore, in order to understand social space as a product of forces that manifest themselves beyond the mental sphere, it is sensible to consider the body as a starting point. Firstly, a body in a group or society is geared towards (social) spatial practice that presupposes bodily activity, such as movement, gestures and the use of sensory organs. This activity amounts to what Lefebvre advances as ‘perceived space’ or ‘[t]he practical basis of the perception of the outside world, to put it in psychology’s terms’ (Lefebvre 1991: 40). Secondly, representations of the body, derived from science, such as medical sciences, anatomy, physiology, form the conceived space of the body. These scientific representations of the body are obviously prone to be mixed up with

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ideological contents and constantly evolve over time. This field of spatial representation is posited as ‘conceived space’. Thirdly, bodily, or ‘lived space’, in constant mediation between the former two, is highly influenced by social and cultural conventions and is accompanied by an ‘illusory’ immediacy that is prefigured by symbolisms evolving from religious traditions and mythologies. Game space clearly has to be regarded as a cultural product and practice that is informed by spaces created through the use of verbal signs or language (narrative spaces), yet it appears equally informed by a spatial practice operating on the basis of bodily involvement in the form of gestures (user action) as well as non-verbal sets of symbols and signs (representational spaces). All of these dimensions of space are equally present in digital games and are constantly mediating between each other. The question that needs to be addressed here is how this process of mediation could be understood in spatial terms. Lefebvre defines the contingencies of spatial practice as follows: ‘The object of knowledge is, precisely the fragmented and uncertain connection between elaborated representations of space on the one hand and representational spaces (along with their underpinnings) on the other; and this ‘object’ implies (and explains) a subject – that subject in whom lived, perceived and conceived (known) come together within a spatial practice’ (Lefebvre 1991: 230). It follows that if ‘representations of space’, the results of a process, are the sole objects for the study of spatial practice, lived experience and with it the genesis of the process would be omitted. In other words, it is important to consider the processes that surround and run through cultural artefacts, namely how they come into being and how they are experienced. Thus, in order to fully comprehend game space, the spatial practice of creating and playing computer games has to be considered equally important as the formal aspects of spatial representation. It is crucial to stress the fact that the particular spaces generated by computer and videogames have to be regarded as the result of a dynamic process that involves numerous distinct elements such as the rules, the programme, the player’s active involvement as well as audiovisual symbolical elements. Thus, it would be quite short-sighted to concentrate on one of these particularities without taking into account the other elements in the process. In other words, rather than studying computer games as things in space, the particular process of the production of game space has to be taken into consideration as well. On first glance, the fact that most games are finite cultural products seems to justify an approach that is focused on the visible and audible content alone. Yet, precisely because they appear as coherent entities, and the scaffolding that leads to their production has vanished, it is crucial to investigate the process beyond the technological product within the wider realm of cultural activity. And it is here that one can attempt to answer the question how the interdependence between the ‘artificial’ socio-cultural aspects of spatiality and those based on the ‘natural’ shared grounds of bodily perception could be examined. This interdependence between culture and nature seems to be exactly what

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Lefebvre has in mind when he introduces the Marxist notion of production into his framework. If space is posited as a social product, influenced by perceived space (the shared perceptional basis) as much as by conceived space (the culturally specific space of logical thought and language based conceptions) it can be regarded as an implicit dialectical process that contains answers to our question, as well as the question itself. If one takes this thought further, the products of spatial practice, whether they are games, performances or architecture re-enter the process as elements, which are products of a spatial practice as much as they in turn influence that same practice. It can be argued that the spatial practice arising from the production and consumption of computer games in turn influences the general spatial practice of the subjects involved. To put it bluntly, an individual that has had the experience of playing a networked computer game integrates this experience into his or her general understanding of space. Thus one can claim that computer games are not only spatial socio-cultural products that give evidence of contemporary spatial conceptions but also that they influence spatial practice by introducing different and new configurations of representational spaces. This is why the analysis of the production of game space could in turn reveal more about contemporary spatial practice than one might, at first, expect. At this point, it is necessary to return to the heuristic device mobilised by Lefebvre to examine his model for the production of space, namely his triad of ‘perceived, conceived, and lived space’. He presents his conceptual triad as follows: ‘Spatial Practice, which embraces production and reproduction, and the particular locations and spatial sets characteristic of each social formation. Spatial practice ensures continuity and to some degree cohesion. In terms of social space, and of each member of a given society’s relationship to space, this cohesion implies a guaranteed level of competence and a specific level of performance’ (Lefebvre 1991: 33). ‘Representations of space: conceptualized space, the space of scientists, planners, urbanists, technocratic subdividers and social engineers, as of a certain type of artist with a scientific bent – all of whom identify what is lived and what is perceived with what is conceived’ (Lefebvre 1991: 38). ‘Representational spaces: space as directly lived through its associated images and symbols, and hence the space of ‘inhabitants’ and ‘users’, but also of some artists and perhaps of those, such as a few writers and philosophers, who describe and aspire to do no more than describe. This is the dominated – and hence passively experienced – space, which the imagination seeks to change and appropriate. It overlays physical space, making symbolical use of its objects. Thus representational spaces may be said, though again with certain exceptions, to tend towards more or less coherent systems of non-verbal symbols and signs’ (Lefebvre 1991: 83). ‘Spatial practice’ emerges from shared habitual action in a society based on how the members of that society ‘perceive’ their environment and interact with it. Those perceptions are informed by the dominant ‘representations of space’, which are advanced by a particular segment of society such as scientists, theorists and engineers. ‘Representations of space’ is the sphere

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of abstract conceptions and mental models that can be highly theoretical and out of touch with everyday live. In contrast, ‘Representational space’ is understood as a layer of non-verbal sets of symbols that is superimposed upon physical space. It is a realm of space that is directly lived rather than negotiated by conscious logic. ‘Representational space’ is a first hand experience rather than an abstract conception. The ‘spatial practice’ of a society is the result of a complex interaction between ‘representations of space’ and ‘representational spaces’. How do ‘spatial practice’, ‘representations of space’ and ‘representational spaces’ relate to computer and video games in detail? In Lefebvre’s view, ‘[t]he spatial practice of a society secretes that society’s space; it propounds it, in a dialectical interaction; it produces it slowly and surely as it masters and appropriates it’ (Lefebvre 1991: 38). He characterises spatial practice in neo-capitalist society as follows: ‘[i]t embodies a close association, within perceived space, between daily reality (daily routine) and urban reality (the routes and networks which link up the places set aside for work, ‘private’ life and leisure (ibid)’. Seen in this light, the spatial practice emerging from computer games reveals a lot about the conditions of post-industrial societies. For instance, one can witness a continuous blurring of the boundaries between leisure and work. Not only do play and work take place at the same physical location and on the same device, the individual’s PC, mobile phone or PDA. Moreover, networked games bring about a spatial practice that facilitates global participation and have led to the inception of novel micro-economic systems. With the enormous growth in the trade of virtual objects in MMORPG’s such as Everquest, Ultima Online or World of Warcraft that has been thoroughly researched by Edward Castranova (Castranova 2001), forms of play increasingly take on the characteristics of paid work. Another aspect of this erosion of the border between cultures of play and work has been examined in detail in relation to the modes of production in game companies (Kline, Dyer-Witheford and De-Peuter 2003). Increasingly the production of digital games is presented as a kind of game of its own, a playful and creative activity that can be enjoyed without thinking too much about overtime and extreme ‘working hours’, because it is ‘fun’. Simultaneously, concepts and practices in the vicinity of ‘user generated content’ point in a similar direction. Computer and video games have to be regarded as products of neocapitalist economic structures and the spatial practice associated with them accordingly, to paraphrase Lefebvre, ‘secretes that society’s space’. In other words, the myriad forms of territorial domination, spatial contest and individual struggle that appear in those artefacts are clearly related to the underlying drives of post-modern culture. Moreover, one could argue that contemporary ‘spatial practice’ in Western societies is increasingly permeated by various forms of ‘representational spaces’ due to the enormous increase of digital devices operating with spatial sets of non-verbal symbols. After all, the GUI’s of operation systems in daily use by millions of people all deploy non-verbal spatial metaphors. In this context, it is hard to find a better example for ‘representational space’, than the kind of space that is directly lived through its associated images and symbols, generated

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by the audiovisual spatial illusion of video and computer games. Yet, at the same time, other aspects of computer games are clearly dominated by ‘representations of space’, that is specific conceptions of space, which can be highly abstract and clearly based on language and the logos. A spatial narrative or a set of rules that defines spatial action in a game belongs to this dimension. The game designer who programmes the movement of objects in a game according to mathematical rules and algorithms within a coordinate system generates specific ‘representations of space’. The player continuously switches between these dimensions while playing the game. On the one hand the player experiences the space directly through non-verbal sets of signs and on the other hand consciously generates an abstract mental map of the space and devises strategies of action. Thus ‘spatial practice’ in video and computer games has to be regarded as a result of the highly dynamic mediation between ‘representations of space’ and ‘representational space’. How does this dynamic mediation unfold itself? Lefebvre writes, ‘[t]o take in theatrical space, with its interplay between fictitious and real counterparts and its interaction between gazes and mirages in which actor, audience, “characters”, text, and author all come together but never become one. By means of such theatrical interplay bodies are able to pass from a “real”, immediately experienced space (the pit, the stage) to a perceived space – a third space which is no longer scenic or public. At once fictitious and real, this third space is classical theatre space’ (Lefebvre 1991: 188). Here we are dealing with theatre, a cultural form that has already served Brenda Laurel (Laurel 1991) as the central metaphor, for her examination of enactment and active performance in human computer interaction. Lefebvre points out that ‘[t]heatrical space certainly implies a representation of space – scenic space – corresponding to a particular conception of space (that of the classical drama, say – or the Elizabethan, or the Italian). The representational space, mediated yet directly experienced, which infuses the work and the moment, is established as such through the dramatic action itself’ (Lefebvre 1991: 188). This is a crucial point in relation to game space and it can be paraphrased as follows: the spatial practice surrounding computer games is on the one hand defined by spatial modalities that belong to the field of ‘representations of space’, such as particular rules defining spatial performance, verbal conventions of spatial narrative, conceptions guiding the construction of audiovisual spatial representations (various modes of perspective) and on the other hand established by directly ‘lived’ experience and active construction of ‘representational spaces’. In other words, there are elements, which act as foundations, as basic spatial conceptions, for the fluid and action-based directly experienced (performed) space of the moment, resulting in a coherent ‘spatial practice’. Here we need to address the importance of Lefebvre’s notion of ‘lived space’ from a slightly different perspective by briefly introducing one of the most prominent commentators of Lefebvre’s work. Edward Soja presents his re-reading of the spatial triad in the form of what he terms the ‘trialectics’ of ‘First-, Second- and Thirdspace’. He provides a post-modern reading of

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Lefebvre’s project. ‘Firstspace’ is identified as the directly perceived ‘material side’ of space and ‘Firstspace’ epistemes are described as ‘[f ]ocusing their primary attention on the “analytical decipherment” of what Lefebvre calls spatial practice or perceived space, a material and materialized “physical” spatiality that is directly comprehended in empirically measurable configurations’ (Soja 1996: 74). Thus ‘Firstspace’ is also the area of the aforementioned, illusion of opacity, the tendency to ‘[p]rivilege objectivity and materiality [. . .]’ (Soja 1996: 75). Subsequently, ‘Secondspace’ epistemes are advanced as guided by ‘[t]heir explanatory concentration on conceived rather than perceived space and their implicit assumption that spatial knowledge is primarily produced through discursively devised representations of space, through the spatial workings of the mind’ (Soja 1996: 78–79). This is the space of the ‘illusion of transparency’, the tendency to treat every kind of knowledge about reality as a result of reflective thought, thus granting the reign to the res cogito. The element that differs most from Lefebvre’s original text in Soja’s interpretation is his version of ‘lived space’ or ‘Thirdspace’. He basically defines ‘Thirdspace’ epistemologies as ‘[a]rising from the sympathetic deconstruction and heuristic reconstruction of the Firstspace-Secondspace duality [. . .]’ (Soja 1996: 81). For Soja, ‘Thirdspace’ is the necessary other for the duality of real and imagined space and he introduces Borge’s ‘Aleph’ as a metaphor for it. In his rendition ‘Thirdspace’ seems to become the post-modern container of difference, otherness and novel approaches. Thus he leaves the definition for ‘Thirdspace’ as open as possible, to be filled with all concepts and strategies leading to new possibilities and places. Here, ‘lived space’ becomes a very far-reaching placeholder for everything that cannot be defined either by ‘First-’ or ‘Secondspace’ approaches. Soja’s reading brings Lefebvre down to earth when he identifies perceived space (Firstspace) with the real, and conceived space (Secondspace) with the imaginary, leading to lived space (Thirdspace) as a field of both, imagined and real. The hybrid mix between real and imagined spaces that is provided by digital game universes reverberates strongly with this conception of ‘Thirdspace’. This insight is crucial because it defies the idea of computer games as merely ‘virtual’ and purely imaginary spaces. It is precisely the interaction between real and imagined spatiality that makes this medium so compelling and unique. The spatial practice emerging from computer games has to be regarded as a hybrid between physical (the home or a LAN tornament with hundreds of players) and imagined spaces (representational aspects of generated by the game engine). At this point we would like to advance a set of different spatial modalities that can be separated according to their functions and qualities in the game space, namely user space, narrative space, rule space, audiovisual representational space and kinaesthetic space, and to position them within the framework of Lefebvre’s spatial model. Firstly, user space is understood as the physical location of the ‘spatial practice’ emerging from gameplay. It has a social dimension, since it is the location of players who meet and interact with each other. Accordingly, within Lefebvre’s triad it can be identified with ‘perceived space’. Secondly, the modalities of narrative space (text

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and/or speech based elements) and rule space (the rules of the simulation system) are language-based abstract dimensions and thus belong to the realm of ‘conceived space’. Thirdly, the modality of kinaesthetic space (the bodily connection between player and game space facilitated via the interface) is closely linked with Lefebvre’s notion of ‘lived space’, since it designates the bodily link between player and game, which is established through the interface in conjunction with the non-verbal sets of spatial symbols produced by the audiovisual representational modality of space. What makes Lefebvre’s theory so significant for the development of a novel perspective on game space is his precise analysis of different types of space and the notion of the dynamic interplay between them, resulting in the notion of ‘spatial practice’. Accordingly, all of the above categories have to be regarded as interlinked modalities in a dynamic process that results in the ‘spatial practice’ of computer game play. To illustrate, the ‘spatial practice’ emerging from playing an online MMORPG like World of Warcraft could be sketched as follows: it takes place in a specific user space (the home of the player or a public internet cafe) and it involves representations of space such as narrative space (you are in a specific region of the game universe azeroth and can travel to different regions in order to find items or play quests) and rule space (which defines the values and behaviour of objects in the game space) as well as the audiovisual representational aspects (the threedimensional rendering of the game universe, objects and avatars) and finally the kinaesthetic modality (the link between the player’s body, via the keyboard and mouse interface to the avatar) that makes the game a directly lived, visceral experience. Furthermore, the spatial practice emerging from World of Warcraft also includes the continuous development of new territories and maps by the company Blizzard as well as the social interactions before and during gameplay. As this brief sketch demonstrates, on the one hand, it would be impossible to deny the connections between those spatial modalities; on the other hand they all have individual and distinctive characteristics that have to be accounted for.

Performative interventions in online games To bring the argument to a close and highlight avenues for further research it seems sensible to briefly introduce the work of artists who are critically engaging with different aspects of the spatial modalities that have been advanced above. The American artist Josef DeLappe, for example, has started a series of ‘online performances’ in networked game environments. In the piece “War Poets Online” from 2004 he logs onto servers of the popular Ego-shooter ‘Medal of Honour’ and starts to type poetry of War poets from World War I such as Siegfried Sassoon or Wilfried Owen. In an interview with Jan Winet he says ‘[f ]rom the start, I was considering the poetry readings in the games as being a new kind of street theatre. [. . .] When I first started doing these performances online they were also very private. The idea of doing these before an audience came later. [. . .] These were quite individual encounters in an online server where there might be twenty other gamers who may or may not be paying attention to the fact

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that there was somebody typing these odd texts into the gamespace. The strategy was to exist as a neutral visitor – I did not engage in the gameplay – at least not in the prescribed manner. There was also something quite curious about performing poetry, only to be killed and reincarnated again, and again. Bringing the performative aspect into these hyperviolent spaces was, in a way, an intervention, an aesthetic protest. There is a level of wry, satirical humour to it as well. It was also very poignant, particularly doing “The War Poets”. I started doing these after September 11th when we were invading Afganistan and into the present as we were heading into Gulf War 2’ (Winet 2006: 98). DeLappe’s practice can be regarded as an attempt to engage with the audiences of online games in the form of a performance based on the narrative modalities that make up the game space. As he has pointed out in other interviews, his work sometimes leads to highly controversial discussions in the chat channels that are part of the games and thus initiate a critical discourse that reflects the actions of players. However marginal this approach might seem at first, it amounts to a realisation of the fact that contemporary game environments represent public spaces that can be used for performance based artistic interventions. This practice only hints at the kinaesthetic potential inherent in these games since the artist leaves his own avatar to be continuously shot and killed. However, this practice can be seen as a perfect example for performances in digital games that are geared towards the symbolical field provided by the representations of space. A work that addresses what we have introduced as the kinaesthetic modality of game space, namely the bodily link between the player’s motoric space and the game space can be seen in Eddo Stern’s ‘Runners Everquest” (1999–2000). The installation confronts the user with three different projections and three computer mice connected to them. Each mouse steers the movement of a character, which is present in real-time in the popular online MMRPG Everquest. In this sense the piece also amounts to an online game performance and Eddo Stern notes on his website that the game performance ran for exactly 180 days. Stern deliberately confuses the player’s kinaesthetic link between interface device and avatar by multiplying the options. Since it is impossible for a single player to control three avatars simultaneously, the direct link between interface device and avatar is put into question. Stern writes ‘[u]sing a custom made “Triple Mouse”’ participants can, and must control all three characters, who simultaneously navigate a separate area of the game world, respectively. The player is forced to make a decision about which character to embody and which to abandon, while a varying live web-audience of thousands follows his or her performance within the online game’ (Stern 1999). The simple multiplication of avatars/interfaces sharply highlights the questions regarding embodiment and kinaesthetic space. Furthermore, ‘Runners: Everquest’ develops a highly complex spatial setup since the piece connects one user space (in this case the gallery) with three different locations in the game space of the online game and thus three different audiovisual representational spaces (although they all follow the same pattern defined by a 3rd person camera).

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In this way, the singular connection between player and avatar that guarantees the function of embodiment within the game is shattered and the player has to come to terms with the fact that he/she has to simultaneously control 3 different Game Egos in three different locations of the game universe. Stern’s piece amounts to a critical study of game conventions and clearly highlights the central role of the kinaesthetic link between player and avatar. In this sense it amounts to a questioning of the realm that is highly specific for digital game environments and that reverberates strongly with Lefebvre’s lived space. In Stern’s installation the link between physical embodiment (lived space) and sign based audiovisual space (representational space) is deliberately interrupted and thus brought to the foreground. Here the impact of game space on the potential of contemporary performance pieces becomes obvious. For example, it might be very productive for contemporary performance artists to consider the possibilities of avatar multiplication as a means of increasing the echo of embodied presence in digital game spaces. It is hoped that the close reading of Levebvre’s spatial theories that has been undertaken in this article may provide directions for further research into the unique spatiality that forms the core of contemporary digital game environments. If we consider that these game spaces have become a stage for contemporary artists and performers it is necessary to understand how his unique spatiality inform these works. Most importantly, the proposed theoretical approach might enable a way of integrating issues that that are often considered in separation, such as the socio-economical and political impact of those immersive universes, thereby encompassing the perspectives of producers, players as well as artists who are starting to intervene and reflect the consequences of mediated performative actions. The growing importance of this ‘third place’, that emerges from the complex interplay of spatial modalities, for contemporary artists and audiences has become a highly dynamic field of action that ranges from fan culture to the arena of fine arts in the 21st century and thus has to be considered worthy of further investigation. References Aarseth, E.J. (2001), ‘Allegories of Space: The Question of Spatiality in Computergames’, in Eskelinen, M. and Koskimaa, R. (eds.) (2002), Cybertext Yearbook 2000, Jyväskylä: Research Center for Contemporary Culture, University of Jyväskylä, pp. 152–169. Castranova, E. (2001), ‘Virtual worlds:A First-Hand Account of Market and Society on the Cyberian Frontier’, The Gruter Institute Working Papers on Law, Economics, and Evolutionary Biology, 2. Accessed 8 August 2006. Available at http://www.bepress.com/giwp/default/vol2/iss1/art1/current_article.html Juuls, J. (1999), ‘A Clash Between Game and Narrative’, MA Thesis, University of Copenhagen, Institute of Nordic Language and Literature, Copenhagen. Kline, S., Dyer-Witheford, N. and De-Peuter, G. (eds.) (2003), Digital Play: The Interaction of Technology, Culture, and Marketing, Quebec: McGill-Queen’s University Press. Laurel, B. (1991), Computers as Theatre, Menlo Park, CA: Addison Wesley.

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Lefebvre, H. (1991), The Production of Space, Oxford: Blackwell Publishers. Merleau-Ponty, M. (2002), Phenomenology of Perception, London: Routledge Classics. Merrifield, A. (2000), ‘Henri Lefebvre: A Socialist In Space’, in Crang, M. and Thrift, N. (eds.), Thinking Space, London and New York: Routledge, pp. 167–182. Murray, J.H. (1997), Hamlet on the Holodeck: The Future of Narrative in Cyberspace, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Soja, E. (1996), Thirdspace: Journeys to Los Angeles and Other Real and Imagined Places, Oxford: Blackwell. Stern, E. (1999), ‘Runners: Everquest’, Online Game Performance, Website. Accessed 7 August 2005. Available at http://www.eddostern.com/runnersEQ.html Stockburger, A. (2006), ‘The Rendered Arena: Modalities of Space in Video and Computer Games’, Doctoral Thesis, Awarded by the London Institute (LCC). Winet, J. (2003), ‘In Conversation Fall 2003: An Interview with Joseph DeLappe’, in Clarke, A. and Mitchell, G. (eds.) (2007), Videogames and Art, Intellect Books, Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. Wolf, M.J.P. (2001), ‘The Medium Of The Video Game’, Austin, TX: University of Texas Press.

Suggested citation Stockburger, A. (2007), ‘Playing the third place: Spatial modalities in contemporary game environments’, International Journal of Performance Arts and digital Media 3: 2&3, pp. 223–236, doi: 10.1386/padm.3.2&3.223/1

Contributor details Axel Stockburger is an artist and theorist who lives and works in London and Vienna. He studied at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna with Peter Weibel and holds a PhD from the University of the Arts, London. His films and installations are shown internationally. Among other projects he has initiated the independent art television channel TIV in Vienna in 1998 and collaborated on international projects with the London based media art group D-Fuse (2000–2004). At present he works as scientific staff member at the Department for Visual Arts and Digital Media/Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna. More information can be found at http://www.stockburger.co.uk. Contact: Axel Stockburger, Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, Institute of Visual Arts, Lehargasse 8, A-1060 Vienna, Austria. E-mail: [email protected]

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International Journal of Performance Arts and Digital Media, Volume 3 Number 2 & 3. © Intellect Ltd 2007. Introduction. English language. doi: 10.1386/padm.3.2&3.237/2

Introduction Part 3: Complexity: The theory into the practice Introduced by Alec Robertson

This third section of the special issue of IJPADM tracks the results of relationships which formed during the ‘Magic in Complexity’ Event in February 2007. The Event, hosted by SMARTlab of the University of East London and convened by myself with Professor Lizbeth Goodman and Professor Jeffrey Johnson, brought together a range of people within the performing arts, design practice and research. The focus of that event was upon digital games design which looks beyond the current saturated market of computer and video games – or what has been thought of as the ‘shoot-em-up’ genre, reaching towards new forms of game making and game play. In this, the MAGIC event took a cross section of ideas and approaches to performance informed by the entertainment domain, offering a range of playful game-like designs for socially engaged projects informed by ‘the science of complex systems’. The Event was one of a series and part of a research project led by Professor Jeffrey Johnson of the Open University and entitled ‘Embracing Complexity in Design’ set within the ‘Designing for the 21st Century, initiative jointly organised by the UK AHRC (Arts and Humanities Research Council) and the EPSRC (Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council). The papers in this section cover a variety of perspectives in this transdisciplinary context, and the nature of ‘collaboration’ in the context of exploring the arts and new media is discussed, together with the nature and understanding of ‘complexity’ itself. For example, a (D21C) project – ‘Emergent Objects 2’ is outlined by its researchers who attended the event, which is an example of collaboration in design research between artists, scientists, engineers and designers. Suggestions, terse statements, open ends and partial completion are integral to the emerging nature of the research outlined in the section. Some recommendations are made in the papers to provide pointers for further academic work and practical action. Specifically, in summary drawing from the paper Abstracts the contributions include a paper led by Dave Everitt, which outlines issues concerning collaboration, group behaviour, complexity and organisations. This is in some relation to specific events organised by the ‘Embracing Complexity in Design’ (ECiD) project of the D21C AHRC and EPSRC UK research Cluster aimed to encourage ‘emergence’ of new ideas within trans-disciplinary research dealing with design research, complexity, performance and new

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media. These events involved group work in a performative context along with multimedia on-line proceedings. The paper explores possible prerequisites and conditions that stimulate or inhibit emergent behaviour among groups of creative individuals. Karen Cham discusses ‘structuralism’, ‘post structuralism’ and ‘semiotics’ as a common ground for the analysis and design of diverse cultural artifacts; multiple ‘authors’ and multiple ‘readers’ are able , via digital interaction, to participate in a simultaneous and instantaneous reproduction and dissemination of their multiple interpretations of an artefact as part of a networked participatory process. This dynamism of digital interactivity is well within the realm of complexity science as a ‘performative autopoeitic’ process. The paper argues for a new paradigm of ‘complex media’ for the reflexive practitioner in digital media. The paper by Bayliss et al. presents Emergent Objects 2, a portfolio of sub-projects funded by the EPSRC/AHRC, D21C initiative. It focuses on the way interdisciplinary exchange and collaboration allows fluidity and responsiveness in uncertain design contexts. Resisting the modernist, instrumental conception of design, it outlines the aim to defamiliarise the design process and to play with its nature and possibilities. The notion of a singular designer is displaced by the notion of a collaborative design process, whereby any participant is an active design agent, partaking in design functions. The paper explores how key performance concepts of play and embodied knowing are employed within Emergent Object 2 design practices, with illustrations from the three sub-projects: Snake, SpiderCrab and Hoverflies. The 4D design perspective is central to the paper by Robertson, Lycouris and Johnson. It introduces an approach to the design of interactive environments, including digital new media created for urban spaces, with reference to choreography, architecture, the science of complex systems and 4D design. Relationships between architectural structures of buildings and the hybrid of bodies, images, sounds and choreographic designs are discussed together with issues around ‘static’ and ‘dynamic’ aspects of the built environment in public spaces. It embraces ‘movement’ as an important element in the processes of conceptualisation and design of architectural space and in the building itself, and concerns itself with what might be termed ‘applied choreography’ with notions of 4D design and ‘complexity theory’.

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Emergence and complexity: Some observations and reflections on transdisciplinary research involving performative contexts and new media Dave Everitt De Montfort University, Leicester Alec Robertson De Montfort University, Leicester Abstract

Keywords

This paper outlines issues concerning collaboration, group behaviour, complexity and organisations with some reference to specific events organised by the ‘Embracing Complexity in Design’ (ECiD) project of the D21C AHRC and EPSRC UK research Cluster. These events aimed to encourage ‘emergence’ in transdisciplinary areas dealing with design research, complexity, media art with live or participatory elements and new media. They involved group work in a performative context along with on-line proceedings. The authors’ research perspectives in art-design-technology, performance art and collaboration informed the paper, which explores possible prerequisites and conditions that stimulate or inhibit emergent behaviour among groups of creative individuals, drawing upon concepts from the fields of Complexity Theory and the Social Sciences. Suggestions, terse statements, open ends and partial completion are integral to the emerging nature of the research outlined, although a tentative framework is proposed in which to position work observed. Some recommendations are made to provide pointers for further academic and practice-based work.

complexity emergence collaboration transdisciplinary art-technology cliques

Introduction Transdisciplinary research is increasingly productive in pushing the boundaries of knowledge, particularly in the creative fields of the arts and design, in which new methods to encourage productivity are needed just as they are for other specialist domains. For example, methods of inquiry from complexity theory and the social sciences can be applied to the arts and methods from the arts within some sciences. Although the scientific paradigm (with systematic definitions and the need for explicit evidence and processes) once appeared contrary to creative approaches there is now increasing collaboration between the arts and sciences, and recognition of the role of ‘creativity within research’, as evident in a remark from Professor Sir Christopher Frayling: . . . ‘research’ need not mean ‘academic research’ or ‘scientific research’. It simply means an enquiry whose goal is new and communicable

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knowledge – and, of course, there’s a key role for creativity in that process. (Frayling 2004)

The need for more ‘contract research’ involving collaboration is also encouraged by the Lambert Review of Business-University Collaboration (Lambert 2003), while the ‘CREEM’ network of researchers and practitioners is a current example from transdisciplinary research and practice (CREEM 2007). Complexity science researches the property of ‘emergence’, in which the independent activities of agents or ‘actors’ in strong interaction with each other produce unpredictable results of value (Gell-Mann 1995). These kinds of complex situations often exist in groups of transdisciplinary researchers acting creatively. Specifically, group work in the performing and especially the mediated arts necessitates a degree of collaboration not always evident in traditional arts and design disciplines with a more strongly individual ethos. The skills required for practice in digital media stimulate collaborations across disciplines, and this invites new methods for research and practice. With an understanding of the required conditions, collaboration and group behaviour can be designed to encourage the emergence of new ideas and knowledge. This is perhaps more prevalent in the arts and design than in other areas, with its tradition of ‘studios’ and non-linear serendipitous processes. There are clear implications here for transdisciplinary inquiry, and this paper outlines issues, first concerning collaboration, group and emergent behaviour, then complexity and organisations; with some reference to specific events organised to encourage ‘emergence’ within transdisciplinary arts and design research, complexity, performance and new media.

Collaboration and group behaviour with new media Collaboration requires some basic conditions from the individual to result in creative group behaviour: •

•

Individual potential is significantly enhanced through group interaction only when participants are already functioning adequately as individual practitioners; otherwise unaddressed issues may be highlighted through group activity; it is then the individual’s task to work on these, and on qualities that promote individual creativity (Macleod 2004). Effective collaborators recognise their limitations in scope, and see participation in groups of effective individuals (i.e., those able to contain personal behaviours such as defensiveness, within limits defined as safe by the group in which they function) as a viable model for extending practice.

Through being excluded from the mainstream arts canon until around 2002–3 (Grau 2007) artists working with technology (‘media artists’) formed groups to exchange skills and information. The web and other communications technologies enabled a kind of distributed group behaviour to emerge, where participating individuals may or may not physically meet,

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and where outcomes are often unpredictable. Distributed group behaviour in art is already evident (e.g., Catlow 2006) and is likely to increase as the functionality, accessibility and usability of web technologies and software frameworks increases and diversifies (Piccini; Doruff 2006). Groups of artists working with technology can be said to exist explicitly and implicitly as exoteric and esoteric groups: Exoteric or explicit groups involve practitioners working either at physical locations (e.g., university departments) or via digital networks – since communications technology is commonplace, the latter are regarded as explicit groups, since the individuals communicate personally over the network and the network is organised and undertaken consciously, for example at the event ‘Real-time Collaborative Art Making’ (2007). •

Esoteric or implicit groups engaged in specific activities involve individuals may not know each other personally, but who nevertheless belong to the larger group of ‘collaborative artists working with technology’ and who therefore share qualities, problems and knowledge with their implicit peers. Unlimited by geography or personal connection, they imply the wider cultural development of integrating technology into creative practice.

In collaborations with specialists, or where artists borrow, learn and mix from areas beyond their original practice, the following observations can be made: •

•

•

•

Artists working with technology connect to other disciplines in order to develop their work – for example, from the development of pigments and the mathematics of perspective, to the engineering and computer science of media art. Many artists are therefore also practitioners or at least informed explorers in other fields specific to their practice (computer science, philosophy, mathematics, engineering . . .), a process that can be seen in technological initiatives aimed at unlocking computing functionality instead of accepting the limitations of proprietary software (Turner 2006; Candy and Edmonds 2006; Turner and Edmonds 2003). Inquiry within one discipline is enhanced when insights from another are applied through co-operative inquiry or by crossing disciplinary boundaries; it follows that environments supporting this kind of activity require the same qualities as the individuals they seek to serve. The emergence of specialists within co-operative groups is a related issue (Di 2004). Some ability to synthesise initially disparate threads at a ‘meta’ level is essential, the aim being to create new connections that open up communication between previously unconnected or poorly-connected elements. This can be found in individual specialists and practitioners, as well as within groups, departments and organisations, and is a key transdisciplinary skill.

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When undertaking collaborative activity, language and thinking style are also important: During many conversations with artists working in this area, common experiences in overcoming ‘concept barriers’ often crop up. Technologists are often educated to be concrete thinkers who use language precisely. The same phrase can thus mean different things to people with differing backgrounds. (Everitt 2002)

The artist attempting to describe a process can end up finding that the technologist requires more precision in the terminology used. For example, a data model ‘ontology’ in information science is more specific an application than its usage in conceptual analysis, while the words ‘array’ and ‘object’ in computer science have precise meanings to the computer programmer (or media artist . . .).

Emergent behaviour in groups of artists The following model of arts practice suggests three modes of behaviour, found in varying degrees within individual practitioners. For the purposes of illustration these are roughly exemplified by artists who best embody them: 1. Individual, heroic, pioneering – the heroic model of the lone artist: Picasso, Pollack, O’Keeffe; or Char Davies, Harold Cohen, Paul Brown – all interesting because some pioneering media artists had greater single ownership over their mediated works. 2. Reactive, revolutionary, challenging – the ‘revolutionary group’ model: historically, Dada, Fluxus, shock art (Hermann Nitsch, Zhu Yu’s Eating People, Genesis P-Orridge, or less extreme: Sensation in the United Kingdom, particularly Marcus Harvey’s Myra; Sarah Lucas’s urinal reference to Duchamp in her Charlie George installation at the ICA; Gottfried Helnwein’s references to the Holocaust). 3. Synthetic or collaborative – (the networked model) beyond artist and assistant, peer collaboration networks are required to complete work requiring input exceeding the capacity of individual skills (historically, Bauhaus; more recently – plucking two disparate examples from the many – Greyworld and Rhizome; software such as ‘KeyWorx’; funding programmes like the former SciArt; organisations and events, e.g., Ars Electronica, CAiiA-STAR, ASCI, Creativity and Cognition, etc. or multifaceted designers like Thomas Heatherwick). Each mode of activity has evolved to address specific creative needs that function (in the above order) to: 1. Research and initiate creative ideas while protecting them from excessive interference during the process (the individual). 2. Respond and react to environmental influences, and test new ideas against existing ideas (the reactive and interactive).

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3. Extend territories and interactions with others, thereby transcending the boundaries of individual practice (the collaborative and potentially complex interactive). Incidentally, triple models offer rich cross-disciplinary parallels and appear to be common in attempts to model human behaviour.1 Emergent behaviour can arise in transdisciplinary groups, both individually and within the group. The recognised indicators of emergence are present, since individual artists already tend to: • • • •

follow working methods that produce unforeseen outcomes, which they value pursue several lines of inquiry simultaneously be sensitive to the significance of slight initial differences in producing significantly varying outcomes regularly adjust these slight differences towards a result that – while perhaps remaining indefinable – is nevertheless perceptible to them and (hopefully) their audience.

When these methods are mixed with the complex nature of group interactions, relationships become ripe for the unpredictable generation of emergent outcomes. Co-operative human behaviour in the field of Complexity has been most famously researched and applied to conflict resolution by Robert Axelrod (1984, 2000) and Hoffman (2000) and continues as a component of AgentBased Modeling in the Social Sciences (Axelrod and Tesfatsion 2007; for details on social interaction in complex networks see Klemm et al. 2003). Some basic principles of complexity theory can also provide insight into this process. Rzevski (2005) outlines three: 1. Autonomous units (Actors, Players and Agents) each pursue their own goal in a strong interaction with each other. 2. The interaction can be competitive, cooperative or a combination of the two. 3. Goals of individual players may or may not be disclosed to other players. One facet of complexity involves elements of Chaos Theory (the origin of that much-loved yet technically specific phrase ‘strange attractor’); particularly relevant here are models that employ a ‘landscape’ metaphor. Using the related terms, group behaviour may evolve into or around one or several ‘basins of attraction’ in an ‘attractor landscape’: We are all familiar with decisions that once made are difficult to reverse, and also perhaps with the feeling that we are being drawn into a situation against our will. Consider life then as a complex landscape full of hills and valleys. We try to navigate from attractor to attractor, using energy to climb to the top of a

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1

Beyond the scope of this paper, but for useful triple models in psychology, see Alderfer’s existence – relatedness – growth Hierarchy of Motivational Needs http://chiron.valdosta. edu/whuitt/COL/ motivation/motivate. html (or for a brief non-academic summary – ignore the graphics! – see: http:// motivationcentre. blogspot.com/2006/ 03/alderferserg-theory.html). Both accessed 21 July 2007.

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3

A basin of attraction in this case is a dynamically stable focus of activity resulting from collective attention and acting as an attractor to current and potential participants.

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nearby hill – changing state, so that we can reach a better valley, a new (hopefully more rewarding) steady state – or attractor. (Lucas 2004)

This view is expanded by Sher Doruff (while discussing development of the KeyWorx extensible application framework, designed for New Media Performance):

Noise-Induced Transitions are studied in a range of fields such as population dynamics, electrical circuits, chemical and photochemical reactions. For a classic text see: Horsthemke and Lefever (1983).

There are three types of attractors; point (stable), loop (oscillating) and strange or fractal (chaotic) and they form, within the phase space of the model, ‘basins of attraction’. Their positions in phase space describe the patterns and behaviours of the system. Most basins remain stable (homeostatic) through negative feedback but some have ‘thicker’ bifurcators that tend to make the basins more sensitive to the slightest movement and MAY (element of chance, potential catastrophe) trigger a move to another basin of attraction, causing a new pattern to emerge. (Doruff 2006)

For meaningful emergent behaviour to occur in a collaborating transdisciplinary group (‘basin of attraction’2) containing individual but interconnected actors, conditions need to be dynamic (or ‘jiggly’) enough to allow individuals to ‘escape’ into other regions or find other ‘basins’. Deeper basins are harder to escape from; they may be deeper because of specifically focused activity or from mutually-reinforced status, or simply from cliquey attitudes (see later) that create a ‘steep’ them-and-us boundary to the basin. However, too shallow a basin may fail to contain the individuals consistently enough to produce meaningful outcomes; it may be shallow because of a lack of focus, scant supporting resources, too much (or too little) noise in the system (Baronchelli 2007),3 or from poor network coherence between individuals. Such conditions for emergence in social groups transfer well to those working collaboratively towards live art events.

Threats to emergent behaviour Expanding on the triple model above, emergent behaviour may be limited within a group by modes (1) and (2), for example: •

•

Too dominant an individual (mode 1) may attempt either: to force group behaviour in an individual direction without respecting the group’s (possibly multiple internal) ‘basins of attraction’, or become competitive rather than co-operative. In both cases emergence will likely be skewed towards certainty. If reactions (mode 2) between two or more group members becomes rigid, stereotyped or locked into an action-reaction cycle, formalised or defensive behaviour will probably isolate them from the influence of emerging group dynamics.

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likely in mode 3. Perhaps a fusion of all three modes – individual, reactive and synthetic – is most likely to encourage emergence, just as a well-balanced team is the most productive (Belbin 1993). Certain psychological factors may also inhibit emergent behaviour. The many masks of fear can produce limited, aggressive or ritualised behaviours that can remain rigid unless there is commitment to personal development. To make matters worse, these qualities are often masked under such cloaks as ‘professional integrity’, ‘current debates’, ‘coolness’, fashionable agendas and other formal methods of defining intellectual and cultural territory, or even shaped by the remits of funding organisations and the need to survive. Emergent behaviour is likely to be stifled by such restrictions, since any rigid agenda will influence outcomes too strongly to qualify as truly emergent.

Cliques Cliques are worth special mention as a threat to emergent behaviour. Viewed as a super-type of the solitary and reactive behaviour modes (1 and 2), but extended to a group and having a similar influence over the surrounding environment, they arise from internally-reinforced collective behaviour (defensiveness, lack of confidence, arrogance, professional pride, etc). The difference between cliques and ‘basins of attraction’ is that the latter can be responsive and fluid, whereas cliques tend to: •

• •

Isolate themselves from other group members in the ‘basin’ or – if the entire basin becomes a clique, from other groups – by discouraging new participants via them and us scenarios, maintaining explicit or implicit ‘in and out’ lists or constricting interaction to acceptable, formal exchanges. Conceal knowledge, skills and outcomes or use inaccessible language or jargon. Attempt to control outcomes without being sensitive to or aware of the ‘feel’ of others, or of potential emergent qualities.

Disciplines tend to evolve unique languages which only become exclusive where there is no effort to render it (or a lexicon) accessible to nonspecialists – plain English does not imply simplistic thought. Challenges to emergent behaviour arise where such languages are used as jargon in attempts to gain validation, rather than to expresses an idea well. This is a psychological issue because such usage – where it does not arise from habit or imitative thinking – is likely to be based on fear of exclusion/desire for approval, where that fear/desire is coupled with lack of self-esteem. Name-dropping and ‘coat-tailing’ are possible trivial indicators. Cliques generally risk becoming too rigid for change, or of forcing issues and then having to defend them by stifling the elements of effective communication. If the parent ‘basin’ is dynamic enough the clique may eject (or ejects itself); if itself a ‘too-deep basin’, it becomes isolated from outside interaction. In either case, emergent behaviour is likely to be inhibited. Emergence and complexity: Some observations and reflections on . . .

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Organisations and Complexity Agent-based-modeling (ABM) is an approach used to run computer simulations of human interactions and test the possible outcomes (Axelrod and Tesfatsion 2005; Hoffmann 2000), and in research into the formation and spread of opinions (Holyst 2000). However, the Complexity Group at the London School of Economics (LSE) has some useful insights into the general characteristics of complexity modeling in organisational contexts: Modeling of aggregate behaviour in organizations is usually based on the assumption that all individuals exhibit average and thus predictable behaviour, when organizations are entities made up of individuals who interact, are mutually inter-dependent and exhibit non-average behaviour. (Mitleton-Kelly 2007)

The crucial point here is that human individuals and their interactions are already highly variable, so ABM as it is usually used (with ‘independent agents’ obeying small sets of rules) may not capture an effective range of possible outcomes without modelling a great deal of human behaviour and interaction itself. However, the restrictions of ABM can force variables into a compact essential set and, since segregation has already been famously modelled (Schelling 1978) it may be also be possible to reproduce – say – the outcomes of clique behaviour within a basin of attraction. However, current research into cliques, where ‘it becomes necessary to allow update of the beliefs of an agent upon receipt of the beliefs of another agent (Valtorta 2002)’ appears to be primarily focussed on the need to understand the threat of terrorism (Sandia 2004), while research into collaborative creative groups has a lower priority, if it is to be found anywhere. Another key factor when considering organisations is the understanding that traditional structures and their centralised information system are now recognised as inflexible: The switch from the Command-and-Control to Learning Organisation paradigm in the area of organisational theory is well understood. (Rzevski and Prasad 1998)

Many of the deeply hierarchical organisations that support creative practice will take some time to implement these findings. However, there exist opportunities to create conditions favourable to emergence in the more ‘agile’ territory of seminars and related events, a practical possibility explored in the next section.

Serendipity Syndicates and Performative Knowledge Elicitation The sciences of complexity have shown that for an entity such [as] an organization to survive and thrive it needs to explore its space of possibilities and to encourage variety. When far-from-equilibrium, systems are forced to experiment and explore their space of possibilities and this exploration helps them discover and

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create new patterns of relationships, different structures and innovative ways of working. (Mitleton-Kelly 2007)

In considering transdisciplinary research used to stimulate emergence, some experience of several research events involving scientists, artists and designers is drawn upon (Everitt 1999; Robertson 2004, 2005, 2007; Johnson and Cham 2007). These events involve what might be referred to as ‘applied performance’ (Robertson 2001), where the ‘performance ’ element included the creation of situations (with a view to stimulating emergence) in which groups physically act out scenarios and concepts. Events at e-artlab (Everitt 1999) sought to create situations where art emerges from data gathered from the environment and the interactions of participants. It also grasps opportunities for digital art in urgent, spontaneous or unusual public situations. Later events dealt with the nature of ‘design research’; ‘design and complexity science’; complexity and games design, and another with ‘art and complexity science’. Two used a ‘Question-Time’ format with a panel and audience participation (Robertson 2004, 2005). The event ‘Magic in Complexity’ (Robertson 2007) used what the organiser called ‘stimulus talks’ to feed ‘serendipity syndicates’ where each syndicate had a research question to address and was then allowed free discussion, encouraged by two ‘facilitators’. The latter (Johnson and Cham 2007) engaged performative group exercises (see explanation, above) and participative sculpture to explore the ‘emergence’ of ideas and ‘connectivity’ of transdisciplinary participants for the purpose of ‘knowledge elicitation and knowledge creation’. These events resulted in numerous tentative connections being made relating to complexity science theory, games design, and new media with the online proceedings increasing the chance of ‘emergence’ beyond the event venue itself. The characteristics of ‘applied performance’ in these contexts includes: • • •

Use of participatory workshops to ‘jiggle’ participants out of familiar ‘basins’ based on pre-existing relationships, discipline or status. Differing degrees of participation from various delegates with varying backgrounds and stances. Outcomes resulting in potentially complex connections between: people–people, people–projects and projects–projects.

These events contributed transdisciplinary input for research projects involving both creative individuals and those with scientific approaches, both on a ‘micro’ level to address immediate needs but – more importantly – to stimulate emergence of post-collaboration, involving complex group behaviour, with productive potential for design research.

Conclusion There is potential in examining current research from the Social Sciences in cooperation, group behaviour and complexity to assess implications for

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collaborative groups in art-design-technology and performance work. From these tentative explorations it would be rewarding to deepen connections between the fields of performing arts, complexity science and design. Agent-Based Modelling in the Social Sciences has already established itself in Complexity Science (as evidenced in the works cited earlier) but in the arts, especially where collaboration is crucial in the performing arts or in art-design-technology partnerships, the terms ‘emergence’ and ‘complexity’ need to be clearly understood and researched with regard to their scientific context, so that they retain connection with the larger body of Complexity Science. Further, the consideration of the conditions required for the stimulation of emergence in such situations suggests broadening the area of research to include non-human components such as organisations, tools and environments. This suggests the integration of new elements in the critical framework, an initiative evident since the advent of Actor Network Theory (Callun 1986; Latour 1987, 2005). Concerning personal effectiveness within groups, it would also be of benefit to draw on findings from humanistic psychology (Rogers 1961), partly as a compliment to the Cognitive Sciences and strong technical element of Complexity in the Social Sciences; and from applications already made in education (Smith 1997). Well-established models of personal motivation (e.g., Maslow 1943), would also benefit further exploration to aid understanding of the effectiveness of individual and group behaviour in creating conditions for emergence. Several recommendations can be made: •

•

•

•

Experimental work combining performance methods with appropriate principles from complexity theory to generate conditions for collaboration in transdisciplinary research would be useful. Careful consideration as to the kind of ‘independent agents’ that make up a complex evolving system of groups is required, as specialists – or those deeply into their own line of inquiry without a little inter-disciplinary approach – may be inhibitors to ‘emergence’. There is a need to explore and model exactly how artists might contribute to or become involved in ‘complexity’ research, and how they might operate in a group environment designed to stimulate ‘emergence’. The dissemination of research findings in this field of inquiry involving new methods for transdisciplinary collaboration between the performing arts, complexity science and design could be productive within design practice.

The practical application of some work in this field of inquiry might be termed ‘applied performance’ or ‘4D design’ (Robertson 1994, 1995, 1997). The use of better design methods in professional design may assist the creation of better objects, systems and services in everyday life. This could assist artists and designers in their role to improve the general well-being of people in their relations with each other and to technology in their environment. Finally, such an approach could provide commercial benefits thus

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making a further contribution by the ‘creative industries’ to the general economy. References Ars Electronica (English version), http://www.aec.at/en/. Accessed 21 June 2007. ASCI (Art & Science Collaborations, Inc.), http://www.asci.org. Accessed 21 June 2007. Axelrod, R. (1984), The Evolution of Cooperation. Basic Books. Axelrod, R. (2000), ‘On Six Advances in Cooperation Theory’, Analyse & Kritik, 22, pp. 130–151. Axelrod, R. and Tesfatsion, L. (2005), ‘A Guide for Newcomers to Agent-Based Modeling in the Social Sciences’, Appendix A in Leigh, T. and Kenneth, L.J. (eds.), Handbook of Computational Economics, Vol. 2: Agent-Based Computational Economics, Handbooks in Economics Series, Amsterdam, the Netherlands: Elsevier/North-Holland, 2006. PDF available at: http://www.econ.iastate.edu/ tesfatsi/GuidetoABM.pdf with support materials at: http://www.econ.iastate.edu/ tesfatsi/abmread.htm. Accessed 21 June 2007. Baronchelli, A., Luca, D., Alain, B. and Vittorio, L. (2007), Non-equilibrium phase transition in negotiation dynamics. ‘Deviations from purely herding behavior are considered by introducing a certain level of noise. [. . .] the presence of noise can induce non-equilibrium phase transitions from the consensus state to disordered configurations, in which more than one opinion is present. Recently, a new class of models has been proposed, in which the mere herding behavior is replaced by a more complex interaction process, based on the principle of bounded confidence. This principle consists in enabling interactions only between agents that share already some cultural traits’ (references removed), Available at arXiv: http://aps.arxiv.org/abs/cond-mat/0611717v1 or PDF at: http:// aps.arxiv.org/PS_cache/cond-mat/pdf/0611/0611717v1.pdf. Both accessed 21 June 2007. Belbin, M. (1993), Team Roles at Work, Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann. For a summary, see Team Types: Know Them by Their Slogans. Available at: http://www. srds.co.uk/cedtraining/handouts/hand39.htm. Accessed 21 July 2007. CAiiA-STAR (2006), ‘International Research Conference Consciousness Reframed: art and consciousness in the post-biological era, has been held at the Caerleon Campus of the University of Wales College Newport in 1997, 1998, and 2000’. See http://www.planetary-collegium.net/conferences/. Accessed 21 June 2007. Callon, M. (1986). ‘Some Elements of a Sociology of Translation: Domestication of the Scallops and the Fishermen of St Brieuc Bay’, in J. Law (ed.), Power, Action and Belief: A New Sociology of Knowledge, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul. Candy, L. and Edmonds, E. (2006), ‘Creative Expertise and Collaborative Technology Design’, Available at: CiteSeer: http://citeseer.ist.psu.edu/732096.html. Accessed 21 June 2007. Catlow, R., Marc, G., Patrick, S. and Kate, S. (2006), as an example: NOVEMBER – a networked performance, http://november.gloriousninth.net. Accessed 21 June 2007. Creativity and Cognition. http://www.cs.umd.edu/hcil/CC2007/. Accessed 21 June 2007. CREEM (2007), based in the Institute of Creative Technologies (IoCT), De Montfort University, Leicester. http://creem.dmu.ac.uk. Accessed 24 September 2007. Di, Z., Jiawei, C., Yougui, W. and Zhangang, H. (2004), ‘Emergence of Specialization from Global Optimizing Evolution in a Multi-Agent System’, (date not given), in Jef Allbright’s blog (http://www.jefallbright.net/node/2775); PDF available at

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Cornell University Library (arXiv.org) at http://www.arxiv.org/ftp/nlin/papers/ 0407/0407005.pdf. Both accessed 21 June 2007. Doruff, S. (2006), The Translocal Event and the Polyrhythmic Diagram, PhD thesis, SMARTlab Programme in Performative New Media Arts, Central Saint Martins College of Art & Design, University of the Arts, London. http://spresearch.waag. org/images/TheTranslocalEvent.pdf. Accessed 24 September 2007. Everitt, D. (1999), Emergency Art-Lab web-archive at http://e-artlab.com/e-art_ about.htm. Accessed 24 Sept 2007. ——— (2002), Arts Council England, study and recommendations, part 1 of 4 from Arts and disability interfaces, PDF of part 1: http://ecoconsulting.co.uk/ research/papers/distech-study.pdf or full scoping study available at http:// ecoconsulting.co.uk/research/disability-tech.shtml. Both accessed 21 June 2007. Frayling, C. (2004), (Rector of the Royal College of Art, Chair of the UK Arts Council, past Chairperson the UK Design Council) ‘Message from the Rector’, in Robertson A. (ed.), DDR4: Reflecting, Refreshing, Reuniting and Renovating. Event hosted by RCA Society and Design Research Society, at Royal College of Art, London on 20 March 2004. Web proceedings at http://www.dmu.ac.uk/4dd/DDR4/. Accessed 6 June 2007. Gell-Mann, M. (1995), ‘What Is Complexity?’, Reprinted with permission from John Wiley and Sons, Inc.: Complexity, 1:1, at: http://www.santafe.edu/~mgm/complexity. html. Accessed 5 July 2007. Grau, O. (2007), MediaArtHistories, The MIT Press. Also see the Media Art Histories Archive at http://www.mediaarthistory.org. Accessed 21 June 2007. Greyworld.org, about: http://www.greyworld.org/?s=about_greyworld_#about_ greyworld_. Accessed 21 June 2007. Heatherwick, T. (2007), http://www.heatherwick.com/index.php. Accessed 21 June 2007. Hoffmann, R. (2000), ‘Twenty Years on: The Evolution of Cooperation Revisited’, Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation, 3: 2, available at: http://www. soc.surrey.ac.uk/JASSS/3/2/forum/1.html. Accessed 21 June 2007. Holyst, J.A., Krzysztof, K. and Frank, S. (2000), ‘Phase Transitions in Social Impact Models of Opinion Formation’. Available at arXiv: http://aps.arxiv.org/abs/ cond-mat/0004026v1. Accessed 21 June 2007. Johnson, J. and Cham, K. (2007), Art in the Science of Complex Systems. Event hosted by The Lighthouse Media Centre, Brighton University, UK, on 13–16 June 2007. Web proceedings at http://www.complexityanddesign.net/art&complexity.html. Accessed 6 June 2007. Klemm, K., Víctor M.E., Raúl T. and Maxi, S.M. (2003), ‘Nonequilibrium Transitions in Complex Networks: A Model of Social Interaction’, in Physical Review E, 67, 026120, Issue 2, February 2003. Available at http://prola.aps.org/abstract/PRE/v67/i2/ e026120. Accessed 21 June 2007. Latour, B. (1987), Science in Action: How to Follow Scientists and Engineers Through Society. Milton Keynes: Open University Press. ——— (2005), Reassembling the Social: An Introduction to Actor-Network-Theory. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Lucas, C. (online version 2004), Attractors Everywhere – Order from Chaos, available at ‘CALResCo Complexity Writings’, website at: http://www.calresco.org/ attract.htm. Accessed 21 June 2007. Lambert Review (2003), Department for Education and Skills and the Department for Trade and Industry. November 2002 commissioned by HM Treasury. HMSO.

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Maslow, A.H. (1943), A Theory of Human Motivation, Psychological Review, 50, pp. 370–396. Available at http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/Maslow/motivation.htm. For a summary of Maslow’s famous hierarchy of needs, see the Wikipedia entry at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maslow’s_hierarchy_of_needs. Both accessed 21 July 2007. Macleod, H. (2004), ‘How to be Creative’ (July 25), Available at http://www. gapingvoid.com/Moveable_Type/archives/000876.html. Accessed 21 June 2007. Mitleton-Kelly, E. (2007), ‘Lexicon’, web site of the Complexity Group at the London School of Economics, http://www.psych.lse.ac.uk/complexity/lexicon.html. Accessed 5 July 2007. Piccini, A. Chosen as an example of grid computing, see ‘Digitized Data: Performing Located Knowledges in the Creative and Performing Arts’, available at: http:// www.bristol.ac.uk/drama/staff_research/angela_piccini/. Accessed 21 June 2007. Real-time Collaborative Art Making – A Methods Network Workshop, 20 July 2007. http://www.biad.uce.ac.uk/vru/collaborativeart/index.php. Accessed 10 July 2007. Rhizome.org, general information: http://rhizome.org/info/. Accessed 21 June 2007. Robertson, A. and Woudhuysen, J. (2001), ‘4D Design: Applied Performance in the Experience Economy’, Body Space Technology Journal (On-line), 1: 1. Nov 2001, Brunel University. Available at http://people.brunel.ac.uk/bst/vol0101/ index.html. Accessed 5 July 07. Robertson, A. (ed.), (2004), ‘DDR4: Reflecting, Refreshing, Reuniting and Renovating’, Event hosted by RCA Society and Design Research Society, at Royal College of Art, London on 20 March 2004. Web proceedings at http://www. 4d-dynamics.net/DDR4/. Accessed 6 June 2007. ——— (2005), ‘DDR5: More is More: Embracing Complexity in Design’, Event hosted by the RCA Society and ECiD1 D21C AHRB/EPSRC Project at Royal College of Art, London on 16 Dec 2005. Web proceedings at http://www. 4d-dynamics.net/DDR5/. Accessed 6 June 2007. ——— (2007), ‘DDR6: Magic in Complexity: Embracing the 4D Design Arts’, Event hosted by SMARTlab, University of East London and ECiD2 D21C AHRB/EPSRC Project on 23 Feb 2007. Endorsed by the Chartered Society of Designers (CSD). Web proceedings at http://www.4d-dynamics.net/DDR6/. Accessed 6 June 2007 ——— (1994), ‘4D Design: The Interaction of Disciplines at a New Design Frontier’, in ‘Designing Strategic Interfaces’, Design Management Journal, 5: 3, Summer, Boston, pp. 28. ——— (1995), ‘4D Design Futures: Some Concepts and Complexities’, in Robertson, A. (ed), 4D Dynamics: An international interdisciplinary conference on design and research methodologies for dynamic form, Leicester: De Montfort University, ISBN 1857211308, pp. 149–153. Available at http://www.4d-dynamics. net/guest-ar.html. Accessed 5 July 2007. ——— (1997), ‘4D Product Design, Mechatronics and Multimedia Technologies: Some Conceptual Challenges’, in Proc. PDE 97, 4th National Conference on Product Design Education, Brunel University, 7—8 July. Available at http:// www.4d-dynamics. net/und.html. Accessed 5 July 2007. Rogers, C.R. (1961), On Becoming a Person, Constable and Robinson, (New Ed edition, 2004); See also Rogers, N. (2002), ‘Giving Life to Carl Rogers Theory of Creativity’, PDF at http://www.nrogers.com/GivingLife.pdf or HTML at http:// www.talentdevelop.com/articles/GLTCRTOC.html. Both accessed 21 July 2007. Rzevski, G. and Prasad, K. (1998), ‘The Synergy of Learning Organisations and Flexible Information Technology’, PDF available at http://www.rzevski.net/papers.asp. Accessed 5 July 2007.

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Rzevski, G. (2005). ‘Designing Complexity into Products and Processes’, presentation at DDR5 Event hosted by RCA Society, Royal College of Art, London on 16–17 Dec 2005. Web proceedings at http://www.dmu.ac.uk/4dd/DDR5/ Clusters1.html. Accessed 6 June 2007. Sandia National Laboratories (2004), ‘Advanced Concepts Group’, (http://www. sandia.gov/ACG/), powerpoint presentation by Nina, B., Teresa, K., Tim, M., Julienne, S., Jessica, T. and Ben, W., available at http://www.sandia.gov/ACG/ documents/sandreports/SAND2004-1107P.ppt. Accessed 5 July 2007. Schelling, T.C. (1978), Micromotives and Macrobehavior, New York: Norton. Sci-Art, former projects: http://www.wellcome.ac.uk/doc_WTX035067.html. Accessed 21 June 2007. Smith, M.K. (1997, updated February 04, 2007), ‘Carl Rogers, Core Conditions and Education’, from the Encyclopaedia of Informal Education, http://www.infed. org/thinkers/et-rogers.htm. Accessed 21 July 2007. Turner, G. (2006), ‘Supportive Methodology And Technology For Creating Interactive Art’, available at http://gregturner.org/thesis/. Accessed 21 June 2007. Turner, G. and Edmonds, E. (2003), ‘Towards a Supportive Technological Environment for Digital Art’, available at CiteSeer: http://citeseer.ist.psu.edu/ turner03towards.html. Accessed 21 June 2007. Valtorta, M. Kim, Y.-G. and Vomlel, J. (2002), ‘Soft Evidential Update for Probabilistic Mul- Tiagent Systems’, International Journal Approximate Reasoning, 29: 1, pp. 71–106. Available at CiteSeer: http://citeseer.ist.psu.edu/477140.html. Accessed 5 July 2007.

Suggested citation Everitt, D. & Robertson, A. (2007), ‘Emergence and complexity: Some observations and reflections on transdisciplinary research involving performative contexts and new media’, International Journal of Performance Arts and digital Media 3: 2&3, pp. 239–252, doi: 10.1386/padm.3.2&3.239/1

Contributor details Dave Everitt is an artist and researcher whose work concerns biological input, the interplay of order and disorder in mathematical pattern and collaborative live arttechnology projects. A former visiting researcher at Creativity and Cognition Research Studios, recipient of Arts Council England funding and research fellow at Leicester’s Institute of Creative technologies, he has two ongoing collaborative projects: the ‘Emergency artlab’ and ‘cubelife’. His principal interests are the implications of the interdisciplinary sciences for artists and creators, and computer programming culture; he runs a media information design consultancy, lectures and researches in New Media and art-technology partnerships. Contact: Dave Everitt, 30 Woodland Avenue, Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire, LE13 1DZ, UK. E-mail: [email protected] Alec Robertson’s research interests include dissemination problems of design research and ‘4D Design’ for which he has organised several related design conferences and events, where the website Cyberbridge-4D at http://www.4d-dynamics.net, includes some multimedia archives of these. Alec is a graduate of the Royal College of Art, and he has held several elected Council Officer posts of the Design Research Society, and was Chair of the long established RCA Society (06–07). He is an independent consultant, as well as an academic in the Dept. of Imaging & Communication Design at De Montfort University; is a member of the Chartered Society of Designers, UK, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, UK. Contact: Alec Robertson, Faculty of Art & Design, De Montfort University, Leicester, LE1 9BH, UK. E-mail: [email protected] 252

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International Journal of Performance Arts and Digital Media, Volume 3 Number 2 & 3. © Intellect Ltd 2007. Article. English language. doi: 10.1386/padm.3.2&3.253/1

Reconstruction theory: Designing the space of possibility in complex media Karen Cham The Open University Abstract

Keywords

Structuralism, post-structuralism and semiotics underpin core teaching methodologies in art, design, media and cultural studies and crucially, provide common ground for the analysis and design of divergent cultural artefacts from literature, the visual and performing arts and the media. However, there are as yet, no established paradigms stemming from this methodological approach to allow the reflexive practitioner to address the nature of digital interactivity; neither in virtual reality through a graphical user interface, nor in the augmented reality and embodied interfaces of interactive art installations and participatory performances. In artistic compositions, the design of open structural relations rather than closed objects finds its roots in the participatory performance and installations of systems art, yet the dynamic capacity of digitally interactive systems in use, places digital interactivity well within the realm of complex systems science. A digital interface may, for example, allow multiple ‘authors’ and multiple ‘readers’ to participate in a simultaneous and instantaneous reproduction and dissemination of their divergent interpretations of an artefact as part of a networked participatory process; such a process demonstrates self-organisation and emergent behaviours, which are key attributes of complex systems. This paper proposes a ‘reconstruction theory’ as a design methodology for the ‘space of possibility’ in such ‘complex media’ in order to underpin critical practice in digital media arts. Such a proposal would also provide the foundations of a much sought after theoretical continuum from established art, design and media theory to the divergent manifestations of digital culture by establishing the common relations between structuralism, systems theory and systems art, to post-structuralism, complex systems science and the digitally interactive arts.

digital media interactive art reflexive practice post-structuralism complexity theory

Introduction ‘Superstructuralism’ (Harland 1987) is a useful term encompassing key critical movements such as structuralism, post-structuralism and semiotics and their attendant methodological practices such as deconstruction and textual analysis. Such practices have proved extremely useful in providing common ground for deconstructing and analysing the form and function of diverse cultural artefacts and practices and are today well established as core teaching methodologies in art, design, media and cultural studies (Danesi and Perron 1999). Superstructuralism has been used to analyse heterogeneous manifestations of different media from a common theoretical ground, for example

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television advertisements, passages from literature and teenage rites of passage can all be ‘read’ as ‘texts’, offering some insight into the myths and ideologies of our own culture. However, addressing the form and function of digitally interactive artefacts has driven many commentators to distraction; Manovich describes interactivity as a ‘myth’ (2001: 55) stating only a ‘basic fact about computer media’, whilst for Gansing it is ‘not . . . describing any specific functionality of digital media’ but is rather ‘cultural rhetoric’ (2003: 39). Whilst all cultural terms come to possess mythological connotations, surely it is important for the reflexive practitioner to address what makes the nature of their material different from other materials? What is immediately and significantly different and important about digital interactivity as a medium, is its provision of some dynamic form of media interface to a text, or the component parts of a text, such as symbol, metaphor and narrative. Thus, the multiple ‘authors’ and multiple ‘readers’ of a digitally interactive ‘text’, often participate in a simultaneous and instantaneous reproduction and dissemination of their multiple interpretations of an artefact as part of a networked participatory process. Many authors of interactive artworks have actively exploited this capacity. For example, Bill Seamans work with Gideon May ‘The World generator/The Engine of Desire’ (Figure 1) allows users to select, contribute and alter the media assets of the installation in a group dialogue exploring Seamans notion of ‘recombinant poetics’ that Christiane Paul describes as an ‘ever increasing complexity of meaning’ (2003). Yet, in evaluating this work in detail, do we critically address the idea, the facilitating structure, the process or the result? What paradigms do we use to contextualise such work? What type of artwork is this? David Rokeby states that ‘rather than creating finished works, the interactive artist creates relationships’ (1996). Yet we could easily argue that all compositions consist of relations. Indeed, Philip Galanter goes so far as to insist all art is actually generative art because it relies on systems of rules to generate interpretations (2003). However, Seamans work is actually a fine example of interactive art that explores the potential crafting of the material. Here, interactivity is exploited in such a way as to demonstrate it as much more than a myth or rhetoric; interactivity is explored as a medium. This work demonstrates Rokebys ‘relationships’ with a dynamism or a ‘fourth dimensional’ (Robertson 1995) capacity, which is indeed what he

Figure 1. Control Panel for the ‘World Generator’, ‘Approaches to Interactive Text and Recombinant Poetics’ (Seaman 2004). 254

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actually means; in interactive art relationships are malleable or open to change. Artistic compositions of dynamic systems of relationships finds its roots in the participatory performances and installations of ‘systems art’; a ‘rejection of art’s traditional focus on the object, to wide-ranging experiments with media that included dance, performance and . . . film & video’ (De Salvo 2005: 3). Yet in digitally interactive media, there is also a virtually tangible, live mediated exchange of elements which constitutes an entirely new form of systems art and an entirely new medium. In the sciences this type of dynamism or capacity for unpredictable change is a recognised characteristic of ‘complexity’; a new type of scientific thinking concerned with complex systems that display a capacity for ‘self organization’ and ‘emergent behaviour’. This concern with systems and complexity in the sciences has run concurrent to the computer age as engineers and scientists have begun to develop computerised communications technology. In his seminal paper ‘ The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical reproduction’ Walter Benjamin states that photography accelerated pictorial reproduction to the speed of speech (1937). It is here proposed that the digital interaction of computerised communications technology has accelerated that utterance to the speed of discourse; the primary complex system of human communication. This paper therefore proposes a critical context for digital interaction as discourse by means of a ‘complex adaptive structuralism’ to address the digitally interactive, ‘4D texts’ of ‘complex media’ and the ‘complex causal systems’ of networked digital media culture. It is in this context that a ‘reconstruction theory’ would find its home, both as a practical methodology for designing a ‘space of possibility’ into ‘complex media’ artefacts and as a theoretical tool to underpin critical practice in digital media arts. Furthermore, a complex adaptive structuralism for digitally interactive artefacts would provide a much sought after theoretical continuum by integrating established art, design and media theory with systems theory and complexity science to embrace the divergent manifestations of digital culture and the interactive arts.

Complex systems theory Systems theory is an holistic approach to analysis that views whole systems based upon the links and interactions between the component parts and their relationship to each other within their environment. This stands in stark contrast to conventional science which is based upon Descartes’s reductionism, where the aim is to analyse by reducing a whole to its component parts (Wilson 1998). A concern with such systems has been common across disciplines as divergent as art and design, thermodynamics, biology, sociology, physics, economics and law since the late 1960s. Known as ‘systems theory’ this is a way of thinking rather than a specific set of rules, and has given rise to ‘complex systems theory’, whereby a system demonstrates specific capacities of ‘complexity’ such as ‘self organization’ and ‘emergence’. The study of complex systems is very interdisciplinary and thus encompasses more than one theoretical framework, so there is no single unified Theory of Complexity, but several different theories have

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arisen concurrently. Whilst key ideas of complexity theory developed through artificial intelligence and robotics research, other important contributions came from thermodynamics, biology, sociology, physics, economics and law. For our purpose here, ‘complex systems’ will be the general term used to describe those systems that are ‘diverse and made up of multiple interdependent elements’, (Johnson 2007) they are often ‘adaptive’, in that they have the capacity to change and learn from events. ‘This capacity to adapt can be understood as emerging from the interaction of autonomous agents – especially people’. (Johnson 2007) Finally, it is worth noting that the components of a complex system are often themselves complex systems; a ‘fractal’ type characteristic which is known as nested complex systems. In her volume for the Elsevier Advanced Management Series, ‘Complex Systems and Evolutionary Perspectives on Organisations’, Eve Mitleton Kelly (2003: 7) describes some generic principles of complex systems as • • • • • • •

self-organisation emergence interdependence feedback space of possibilities co-evolving creation of new order

These principles can just as easily be traced in virtual ‘organisations’ as they can in real ones, for example, in artificial life projects such as ‘TechnoSphere’ (Figure 2), the ‘space of possibilities’ was consciously designed into a ‘digital ecology’ (Prophet 1996). Indeed, in 2002, the Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art, New York, held an international exhibition entitled ‘Complexity; Art & Complex Systems’, that was concerned with ‘art as a distinct discipline offer [ing] its

Figure 2. Technosphere, Jane Prophet, Gordon Selley and Mark Hurry (1995). 256

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own unique approache[s] and epistemic standards in the consideration of complexity . . .’ (Galanter and Levy 2002: 5) and the organisers go on to describe technical applications of genetic algorithms, neural networks, a-life, etc, as one of the key ways in which artists engage the realm of complexity. However, any critical context for this work is noticably absent, with Galanter himself arguing that ‘contemporary art theory rooted in skeptical continental philosophy [reduces] art to social construction’ as ‘postmodernism, deconstruction and critical theory’ are ‘notoriously elusive, slippery, and overlapping terms and ideas . . . that in fact [are] in the business of destabilizing apparently clear and universal propositions’ (2003). Yet the concern with the dynamic aspects of complex systems is prefigured most significantly in the study of language; perhaps the most immediate complex, dynamic, co-evolving, adaptive system and ‘structural linguistics’ is the scientific study of language and its complexities in use. Semiotics, stylistics, semantics and pragmatics are all extremely well established and effective methodologies from structural linguistics that underpin the art theory to which Galanter is so resistant. They have been successfully applied in the humanities for the best part of the last century in such a way as to assist critical analysis of interactive systems that display complex characteristics such as conversations, art installations and news reporting. It is not unreasonable to suggest that we cannot legitimately develop any critical evaluation of digitally interactive artefacts without some recourse to ‘contemporary art theory rooted in skeptical continental philosophy’ because of its comprehensive approach to interaction.

Postmodernism, deconstruction and critical theory Whilst many key ideas of complexity theory developed in the sciences through artificial intelligence and robotics research, concurrently, in the humanities, structuralism, post-structuralism and deconstruction theory became popular methodologies demonstrating a concern with human systems and interactions. Structuralism is an all encompassing term for various theories from the humanities, social sciences and economics that share the assumption that structural relations between principle concepts can be exposed and explored to useful ends. In academic disciplines such as linguistics, anthropology, psychology and sociology, structuralism is concerned with investigating how these relations combine to make meaning. Structuralist thought stems from the teaching of Ferdinand de Saussure whose teaching pursued a ‘synchronic’ linguistics; an analysis of conditions for the existence of language in general, when the common 19th century practice was ‘diachronic’ linguistics, a concern with changes over time in specific languages. It is in Saussures key concept of the difference between ‘langue’, the grammatical system of rules that governs language and ‘parole’, the spoken word, that the parallels between structuralism and systems thinking are apparent. ‘Langue’ is the system and ‘parole’ is the performative capacity of the system in use. It is in this way that we can define the origins of structuralism as systems thinking applied to linguistics, fifty years or more before its common occurrence in other disciplines.

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The work of Charles Sandres Peirce must be acknowledged here and his concept of semiology. Whilst very similar to Saussurian semiotics, Pierce is concerned with ‘universal’ sign systems above and beyond human discourse; e.g. similar to the Stoics for whom ‘natural’ signs were medical symptoms. Pierces semiology thus posits a potentially unworkable 56,049 different sign types. His initial triad of signs; iconic, indexical and symbolic have proved invaluable however (see Cobley and Jansz, 1997).

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The Saussurian approach to the study of the synchronic systems of language underpins European schools of thought, which focus upon human signs and discourse; an intentional process of representation, significantly different to Aristotlian traditions, which are concerned with broader ‘universal’ sign systems.1 As such, Saussurian concepts have come to underpin much of the theoretical basis for art, design, media and cultural studies, which is of course, also the study of human signs and discourse. Indeed for many Saussurian successors, such as Jean Baudrillard, representation of any kind does not distort, reflect nor represent some kind of prior reality, it is all there is (1988: 32). Such a statement can perhaps be better understood in the light of the key structuralist technique of ‘textual analysis’. Structuralism takes the key concept of the literary text and expands it to address any cultural artefact as a ‘text’ which can be ‘read’ because, just as the written sentence consists of combinations of words, all cultural artefacts have a communicative function and consist of combinations of ‘signs’. Saussures defined these sign as a dyad, consisting of a ‘signifier’ or material aspect and a ‘signified’ or the attendant mental concept. The concept of the ‘science of signs’ is known as ‘semiotics’. A seminal work of textual analysis using semiotics is Roland Barthes ‘Mythologies’ (1968) where he deconstructs popular artefacts such as advertisements (Figure 3) to reveal common myths in French society and the ideologies that propagate those myths. For example, an advertisement for pasta sauce uses combinations of common European signs such as a wooden kitchen table and fresh vegetables spilling from a shopping bag to denote the ‘myth of Italianicity’ and its connotations of ‘family’ and ‘home’. It is only in specific combinations and contexts that such signs denote the desired signifier and its preferred connotations. Meaning is thus defined as an emergent property of the interaction between component parts of a message; thus, meaning is an emergent property of a complex system. Does textual analysis demonstrate that an advertisement is a complex system? Advertisements tend to be ‘closed’ texts; that is they are constructed using the denotations and connotations of signs in common usage at any one time as they are aiming to communicate to as many people as possible. However, the meaning of all texts changes diachronically, as the denotations and connotations of their component signs change; for example the sign of passenger aircraft before and after 9/11. This is the structuralist concept of the ‘open work’ (Eco 1962), where meaning is established not only as an emergent property of the interaction between component parts of a message but also as an emergent property of interaction between the text and the reader.

Systems art Whilst theorist Phillip Galanter describes all art as involving some degree of systems of rules (Galanter 2003), Francis Halsall (2001) defines a ‘systems art’ from a systems theoretical perspective. Halsall gives a thorough definition of systems art as ‘emerging in the 1960s and 1970s as a

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Figure 3. Panzani Pasta Ad, Barthes, 1968. new paradigm in artistic practice . . . displaying an interest in the aesthetics of networks, the exploitation of new technology and new media, unstable or de-materialised physicality, the prioritising of non-visual aspects, and an engagement (often politicised) with the institutional systems of support (such as the gallery, discourse, or the market) within which it occurs’ (Halsall 2005: 7). ‘Open Systems: Rethinking Art c.1970,’ at Tate Modern, London (2005) describes system art as a ‘rejection of art’s traditional focus on the object, to wide-ranging experiments with media that included dance, performance and . . . film & video’ (De Salvo 2005: 3) Artists include Andy Warhol, Richard Long, Gilbert and George, Sol Lewitt, Eva Hesse and Bruce Nauman.

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Figure 4. Andy Warhol, Marilyn Monroe (1967). For example, Warhols Marilyn Monroe screen prints (Figure 4) are systems art because the artistic value of the work, which traditionally lies in the execution of the object, is here in the relational structure between the media, the technique, the subject and the context. It is by predicating the role of the reader and their interpretations that structuralism anticipates the role of the user in digital interaction. For example, in looking at a painting the ‘reader’ experiences an individualised interpretation; in participating in a digital installation such as Camille Utterbacks ‘External Measures’ (Figure 5) where the dynamic composition is linked to human motion, the user experiences an individualised interaction. It is also on this basis that later on, post-structuralist theorists went on to establish the concept of the complete ‘death of the author’ (Barthes, 1977) – the apriori that all cultural artefacts are ‘open’ and all meanings can only be ‘completed’ by the ‘reader’. Again, it is not difficult to appreciate these concepts in digital interaction, where without the user; there is only a static system or framework which only has potential meaning through human interaction, like an unseen painting or unread book. Thus, poststructuralist textual analysis demonstrates the advertisement as a nested complex system; the meaning of an advertisement is an emergent property

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Figure 5. ‘External Measures’, Camille Utterback (2003). of the interaction between the component parts of the message, which are in themselves part of a diachronic complex adaptive system. ‘Post-structuralism’ is a self-reflexive discourse marked most distinctively by a rejection of totalising world views and the proposition that there is no external reality outside of language and ideology. Post-structuralism thus became a concern with the meta paradigms of ‘knowledge’ itself. Jean Francois Lyotard took the structuralist concern for the analysis of cultural texts to its logical conclusion in The Post Modern Condition; A Report on Knowledge (1984) where he describes postmodernism as a loss of faith in ‘meta narratives’, the totalising philosophies of history, upon which ethical and political decisions are made for society. For example, the progressive liberation of humanity through science is a cultural meta-narrative rather than a truth. The work of post-structuralists such as Barthes, Baudrillard and Lyotard offers us the notion of all cultural artefacts, including meta narratives such as mathematics, science and religion, as texts or systems of signs. The meaning of such systems are not fixed but rather sustained by networks of relationships that change, both synchronically and diachronically. This is post-structuralist discourse analysis, where all sense of reality is the product of discourse; put simply, of interaction. It was Jacques Derrida who took this proposal to its logical conclusion with ‘deconstruction’; an attempt to demonstrate that any text can be deconstructed to into multitudinous interpretations. The pluralism of deconstruction is at the core of all post-modern thought which is best described simply as ‘a concern with the generation, sustenance and social ramifications of systems of intelligibility’ (Shotter 1975).

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It is not difficult to see post-structuralisms concern with adaptive systems as a concern with complexity; conversely, the concern of complexity science with systems defines it immediately as a postmodern science. Whilst many theorists addressing complexity and digital media are antagonistic to discourse analysis and postmodernism in general, if language for Derrida is ‘an unfixed system of traces and differences . . . . regardless of the intent of the authored texts . . . with multiple equally legitimate meanings’ (Galanter 2003) then I have heard no better description of the signifiers, signifieds, connotations and denotations of digital culture. Furthermore, Lyotard’s definition of the ‘performativity’ of knowledge in a cybernetic society is manifest on a daily basis on the internet; even Saussure himself, almost a century ago, described ‘parole’ as a performative system in use. It is difficult to see how we can legitimately address interactivity and complexity without addressing post-structuralism; any interactive system, at least when in use, is ideologically plural and thus necessarily postmodern. Prior to being used, it is a system designed as a space of possibility.

Digital interactivity Digitally interactive media is a recent development and is defined here as ‘a machine system which reacts in the moment by virtue of automated reasoning based on data from its sensory apparatus’ (Penny 1996). Interactivity is most commonly an attribute of server based multimedia on the internet and is a specific attribute of digital media, although interactive systems are not necessarily screen based. This type of interactivity is new, and the core critical debates in art and design at present centre around the search for a theoretical continuum between ‘traditional’ mediums and ‘new’ or digitally interactive media. There are abundant autonomous theories of interactivity across an entire spectrum; ranging from the stubborn conviction that digital interactive media is not important as a medium (Manovich 2001) which does nothing to help the reflexive practitioner contextualise their work; to reasonable ideas of remediation (Bolter 1999) that, by reducing mediation to technique alone, fail to account for the socio-cultural dynamic of human interaction; to full blown radical ideas of reframed consciousness (Ascott) and post humanism (Hayles) which, whilst intellectually important, can be difficult to apply tangibly to the more basic critical questions of the nature of interactive art. Digital interaction through a GUI is a graphic model of interaction. For example, compare the traditional top down model of news generation, distribution and consumption (Figure 6) to the ‘emerging media eco-system’ (Figure 7) (Bowman and Willis). To the traditional news organisations, such a ‘democratization of production’ (Mc Luhan 1968) has been a huge cause for concern, they are now lost in a global miasma of competing perspectives. What is important here for us is that such a shift demonstrates in practice the theoretical difference in linear modes of production, and dissemination to non linear, interactive modes where the meaning emerges from the interaction between people and 262

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Figure 6. Traditional top down model of news generation, distribution and consumption (Bowman and Willis).

Figure 7. The ‘emerging media eco-system’ (Bowman and Willis). the text. The ‘emerging media eco-system’ is an advanced model of poststructuralist theory in practice and simultaneously a complex adaptive system in play. In his paper ‘Post Structuralism, Hypertext & the World Wide Web’, (2006) Luke Tredennick states that ‘despite the concentration of post-structuralism on

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Figure 8. ‘Uzume’, Petra Gemeinboeck (2003).

text and texts, the study of information has largely failed to exploit post structuralist theory’ (Tredennick 2006). Whilst it is not difficult to anticipate the potential of a basic overlap to inform information management, it has yet to be appreciated that digital interaction in its entirety can be apprehended from a post-structuralist position and in a wholly digital environment post-structuralist theory is tangible complexity. For example, Petra Gemeinboeck describes her installation ‘Uzume’ as ‘evolving unforeseeably based on a dynamic interplay of input and response’ (Figure 8) between the user and the system. Here, the author has designed the system incorporating the potential ‘space of possibility’, for unknown outcomes of the interactive process. Whereas less sophisticated works are essentially reactive, like ones interaction with a light switch, this work is designed for emergence which is an inevitable development in an adaptive system. It is in design for interactive media arts, where algorithms meet images, and the user can interact, adapt and amend the artefact, that self-organisation, emergence, interdependence, feedback, the space of possibilities, coevolution and the creation of new order are embraced on a day to day basis by artists, designers and users alike. A digitally interactive environment such as the world wide web, clearly demonstrates all the key aspects of a complex system. Indeed, it has already been described as a ‘complexity machine’ (Qvortup 2006). It is important to remember that this ‘complexity machine’ has been designed. It is an intentional facility. For example, Tredinnick details its evolution through the Memex machine of Vannevar Bush’; Ted Nelsons hypertext system Xanadu and Tim Berners-Lees Enquire (Tredennick 2006). The internet may display all the characteristics of complexity but it has not emerged spontaneously itself, it was engineered. So, whilst we may not be able to entirely predict complex behavior, we can, and do, quite clearly design the space of possibility within which it can arise in design for digital

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interaction. If post-structuralism hadn’t come first, we would have to invent it to understand digital interaction as a complex performative mediated process. When designing digitally interactive artefacts we design parameters or co-ordinates to define the space within which a performative autopoeitic process will take place. We can never begin to predict precisely what those processes might become through interaction, emergence and self-organisation, but we can and do establish and then author parameters that guide and delineate the space of possibilities.

Conclusion: a complex adaptive post-structuralism In digital interaction the terms art, design and media converge into ‘a process driven, performative event that demonstrates emergence through autopoietic processes within a designated space of possibility’ (Cham and Johnson 2007). This is at the core of ‘complex adaptive structuralism’, a legitimate and useful new paradigm that allows us to embrace digital interactivity as a complex system in practice. It is built upon the basis of a theoretical continuum from Saussurian linguistics and the concern with synchronic systems and performance; it predicates post-structuralism and the role of the ‘reader’ in ‘completing’ the emergent meaning of open texts and integrates systems thinking and complex systems theory with systems art and digital media. Complex adaptive structuralism is significantly different to poststructuralism per se, as it is applicable to the realm of digital interaction, above and beyond post-structuralisms concern with its predecessor, interpretation. As demonstrated, interaction is significantly different to interpretation in that it is part of a performative rather than conceptual, complex adaptive system. Thus we have a proposal for ‘Reconstruction Theory’. Whereas Derrida’s Deconstruction Theory is an ongoing ‘fractal’ textual analysis of the conceptual interpretive systems of the reader, Reconstruction Theory is a design methodology and critical tool regarding the intentional authorship of the space of possibility in complex media, designed for emergent behaviours, as part of any 4D text such as an interactive installation, networked web communities and massively multiplayer games. Finally, it may only be through integrating our existing knowledge of communication with our evolving knowledge of complex systems into a complex adaptive structuralism that it may prove possible to understand more about the complex adaptive systems of media culture as a whole and raise important questions about the generative capacity of representation per se within a solid theoretical framework. References Ascott, R. (1991), ‘Reframing Consciousness, Art, Mind, Technology’, Intellect http://beallcenter.uci.edu/shift/screens/techno.html. Accessed 13 September 2007. Barthes, R. (1968), Mythologies, London: Paladin. Barthes, R. (1977), Image, Music, Text, London: Paladin. Baudrillard, J. (1988), Selected Writings, Cambridge: Polity Press.

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Benjamin,W. (1937), http://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/philosophy/works/ ge/benjamin.htm. Accessed 12 July 2007. Bolter, J.D. and Grusin, R. (1999), Remediation, Understanding New Media, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Bowman and Willis (2003), http://www.hypergene.net/wemedia/weblog.php. Accessed 12 July 2007. http://www.brown.edu/Research/dichtung-digital/2006/ 01/Simanowski-b/index.htm. Accessed 13 September, 2007. Cham, K.L. and Johnson, J. (2007), ‘Complexity theory; a science of cultural systems’, M/C Journal, Complex, 10: 3, J. Cahir and S. James (eds.), http://journal. media-culture.org.au/0706/08-cham-johnson.php. Accessed 12th July 2007. Cobley, P. and Jansz, L. (1997), Introducing Semiotics, Cambridge: Icon Books. www. complexityanddesign.net/. Accessed 12 July 2007. http://crossings.tcd.ie/issues/ 4.1/Gemeinboeck/. Accessed 13 September 2007. Danesi, M. and Perron, P. (1999), Analyzing Cultures, Indiana: Indiana University Press. Derrida, J. (1998), Of Grammatology, Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press. De Salvo, D. (ed.) (2005), Open Systems: Rethinking Art c. 1970, London: Tate Gallery Press. Dorai, C. and Venkatesh, S. (2002), Computational Media Aesthetics, Berlin: Springer-Verlag. Eco, U. (1979), The Open Work, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Galanter, P. and Levy, E.K. (2002), Complexity; Art & Complex Systems, SDMA Gallery Guide. Galanter, P. (2003), Against Reductionism: Science, Complexity, Art & Complexity Studies http://isce.edu/ISCE_Group_Site/web-content/ISCE_Events/Norwood_2002/ Norwood_2002_Papers/Galanter.pdf, Accessed 10 October 2007Gansing, K. (2003), ‘The Myth of Interactivity or the Interactive Myth?: Interactive Film as an Imaginary Genre’, Fine Art Forum, 17: 8, ISSN: 1442 4894. Halsall, F. (2005), Observing ‘Systems-Art’ from a Systems-Theoretical Perspective. CHArt 2005. Hayles, N.K. (1999), How We Became Posthuman: Virtual Bodies in Cybernetics, Literature and Informatics, Chicago: Chicago University Press. Lyotard, J.F. (1979), The Postmodern Condition, Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1984. Manovich, L. (2001), The Language Of New Media, London: MIT Press. Mitleton Kelly, E. (2003), Complex Systems and Evolutionary Perspectives on Organisations, London: Elsevier Advanced Management Series. Mc Luhan, M. (1962), The Gutenberg Galaxy, The Making of Typographic Man, Ontario, Canada: University of Toronto Press. Paul, C. (2003), Digital Art, London: Thames & Hudson. Penny, S. (1996), ‘From A to D and back again; The Emerging Aesthetics of Interactive Art’, Leonardo Electronic Almanac, 3: 4.Prophet, J. (1996), ‘Sublime ecologies and artistic endeavors: Artificial life and interactivity in the online project “TechnoSphere”’ Leonardo, 29: 5, pp. 339–344. Qvortup, L. (2006), ‘Understanding New Digital Media’, European Journal of Communication, 21: 3, pp. 345–356. Robertson, A. (1995), ‘4D Design Futures: Some Concepts and Complexities’, Proceedings of the 4D Dynamics Conference, 21 September 1995, De Montfort, University, Leicester, ISBN 1857211308, pp. 149–153. Available at http://www. 4d-dynamics.net/guest-ar.html. Accessed 5 July 2007.

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Rokeby, D. (1996), ‘Transforming Mirrors: Conclusion – Designing the Future’, http://homepage.mac.com/davidrokeby/mirrorsconclusion.html. Accessed 13 September 2007. Seaman, B. (2004), ‘Approaches to Interactive Text and Recombinant Poetics, www.electronicbookreview.com/.../languagevehicle. Accessed 14 September 2007. Shotter, J. (1975), Images of Man in Psychological Research, London: Methuen. de Saussure, F. (1986), Course in General Linguistics, Illnois: Open Court Publishing. Tedinnick, L. (2006), ‘Post Structuralism, hypertext & the World Wide Web’, Aslib, 59: 2, pp.169–186, 2007. Wilson, E.O. (1998), Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge, New York: A.A. Knoff. http://www.janeprophet.co.uk/. Accessed July 2007.

Suggested citation Cham, K. (2007), ‘Reconstruction theory: Designing the space of possibility in complex media’, International Journal of Performance Arts and digital Media 3: 2&3, pp. 253–267, doi: 10.1386/padm.3.2&3.253/1

Contributor details Karen Cham is an artist, lecturer and researcher working with Digital Media. She has been working with audio visual technology since 1987 making performance, installation and screen based works exploring the relationship between aesthrtics, semantics and technology. Current research interests include how media semantics might inform computational media aesthetics, algorithmic and data driven video. She is pursuing a theoretcial methodology on design for interaction and emergence, which can be applied transdisciplinarily, and also actively involved in promoting and exploring the application of artistic methodologies within complexity science research. Contact: Karen Cham, Dept Design & Innovation, The Open University, Faculty of Technology, Walton Hall, Milton Keynes, MK7 6AA, UK. E-mail: [email protected]

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International Journal of Performance Arts and Digital Media, Volume 3 Number 2 & 3. © Intellect Ltd 2007. Article. English language. doi: 10.1386/padm.3.2&3.269/1

Emergent objects: Designing through performance Alice Bayliss University of Leeds Joslin McKinney University of Leeds Sita Popat University of Leeds Mick Wallis University of Leeds Abstract

Keywords

This paper presents Emergent Objects 2, a portfolio of sub-projects funded by the EPSRC/AHRC ‘Designing for the Twenty-first Century’ (D4C21) initiative. Our focus is on the way interdisciplinary exchange and collaboration allows fluidity and responsiveness in uncertain design contexts. Resisting the Modernist, instrumental conception of design, Emergent Objects 2 does not propose an alternative model for direct emulation. Rather, the aim is to defamiliarise the design process; and to play with its nature and possibilities. The notion of a singular designer is displaced by the notion of a collaborative design process, whereby any participant is an active design agent, partaking in design functions. The paper explores how key performance concepts of play and embodied knowing are employed within our design practices, with illustrations from the three subprojects: Snake, SpiderCrab and Hoverflies.

Collaboration design process interdisciplinary play embodied knowing responsiveness

Emergent objects Emergent Objects 21 is a portfolio of sub-projects funded by the EPSRC/ AHRC Designing for the Twenty-first Century (D4C21) initiative. It adopts an interdisciplinary and cross-sector standpoint to promote new ways of thinking about design and designing from a performance perspective. It involves artists, designers, choreographers, performance academics, computer specialists and roboticists from the academy and the professional sphere. The portfolio name plays with the concepts of emergence and objectile. Emergence addresses three areas: self-evolving performances engendered by complex products and systems such as gaming; productive complexity in design processes and the complex and shifting context of design practice itself. Design thinking and performance knowledge intersect particularly when considering the potential for an expressive and affective interaction between the designed object and the human subject, and this is the terrain that Emergent Objects explores. We consider the designed object as an ‘objectile’, a continuous variation of matter and development of form:

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For full details of projects and personnel, see http://www. emergentobjects. co.uk/. EO2 builds on perspectives gained in the similarly-funded Emergent Objects 1 Cluster (2004), also led by the University of Leeds.

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Jan Overfield, a participant in EO1, used performance perspectives so successfully as Strategic Arts Officer for Hinckley and Bosworth Borough Council, to be put in charge of the development of the Hinckley Master Plan. She conceived of a disused factory building as a Deleuzian ‘objectile’ – constantly transformed through the use of the community in their rehearsals and modelling of their material environment.

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the object becomes an event, always in the process of becoming through interaction (Deleuze 1993).2 Such a perspective doubles as an impetus to the development of new design thinking and practices. The portfolio comprises three sub-projects and one meta-project. Each sub-project addresses its own concerns through practice-led methodologies founded on the hermeneutic spiral (Trimingham 2002). Design and performance theory/practice imperatives develop iteratively, through a structured series of encounters, drawing on groundwork established between researchers at University of Leeds and Shadow Robots (see Popat and Palmer 2005). The sub-projects inform each other through regular joint meetings. Simultaneously, the meta-project informs the sub-projects by mapping design- and performance-related models and paradigms for reflection or application. In addition, the interpenetration of the sub-projects is observed, charted and theorised. The design processes of the three sub-projects are deliberately at different stages of emergence: Snake (Nottingham Trent University) principally investigates the performed engagement between an interactive sculpture and human agent. The key objective is to design an interface to facilitate a direct responsiveness that is conducive to a corporeal, tacit engagement. The sculpture will engage the viewer in a ‘dance duet’ through use of sensors, both responding to existing mood and suggesting/creating alternative mood. The design of the moment of engagement between duet partners takes account of its emergent nature, arising from a real-time encounter where the partners have equal influence. SpiderCrab (University of Leeds and Shadow Robot Company) is a robotic agent conceived of as a multisensorial mediation between architectural environment and dancing partner. As with Snake, performative merging is a key concern, and Popat proposes that the ‘Turing Test’ will be the dancer’s sensation of SpiderCrab as another dancer. The fully-realised 6-limbed, 3.3 metre high, robot will have pseudo-human characteristics including precoil and recoil in gesture, learning, aesthetic choice, redundant movement, mood and physical temperament. As objectile, it will set continuing evolutionary challenges to software design, robot engineering, performance specialists and human agents. Hoverflies (Universities of Huddersfield and Leeds) is at the earliest design stage, where the objectile is in its most fluid state of emergence. The aim is to design and build an interactive object, which entices performative interaction and play. Using accelerometers as the mediating technology and the performing body in flight, the work investigates how motion, gravitational pull and velocity might be projected into a variety of digital outputs. The guiding principle is to investigate hyper-physical interfaces where the traditional notion of ‘user’ is supplanted by ‘participantperformer’. Hoverflies will be installed in a number of different social contexts (e.g. playground, festival, public space) to investigate how positioning and spatiality impact on people’s willingness to participate (see Figure 1).

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Figure 1. Hoverflies pursues a simple interface for technological interaction – a swing. Photo: Alice Bayliss.

Contexts Performance devices (role-play, scenarios) have long been employed directly and indirectly by design researchers, primarily as a means of accessing and understanding human factors within the design process. The role of performance-based techniques and scenarios in participatory design (Muller 2002) and in design of interactive systems (Iacucci, Iacucci and Kuutti 2002) has been examined. Whilst endorsing these studies, we aim to mobilise a deeper understanding of the value of performance knowledge to design practice and thinking about design.

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Key performance concepts such as embodiment, empathy and/or expression facilitate exploration of design as an agent of interaction and experience, as suggested by Robertson and Woudhuysen (2000). Emergence has been variously described in different design domains (e.g. Testa, O’Reilly, Weiser, Ross 2002; Cavallo 2000). Our focus is on the way interdisciplinary exchange and collaboration allows fluidity and responsiveness in uncertain design contexts. Calls for design to facilitate creative engagement between its objects and their users identify the need for improvisational and expressive space (Fischer and Scharff 2000; Redstrom 2006). The rootedness of our experience of products in bodily interactions between people and their environments has been stressed (van Rompay, Hekkert, Muller 2005). And performance theory and practice foreground the phenomenological dimensions and embodied nature of encounter and expression (Garner 1994). The value of tacit knowledge and kinaesthetic perception to an interdisciplinary design practice has been argued (Rust 2004). The tacit dimension enhances consideration of both what the designer knows and can act on and the way that humans may meaningfully interact with technological objects. Over-inflated claims for the ‘interactive’ nature of products have been countered by re-definitions of the possible and desirable relationships between users and designed artefacts or systems. Thus, Kozel (2005) calls for ‘responsive’ interactions between system and participant. The spatial, phenomenological experience of design (in particular theatre design) suggests an intersection of imaginations between designer and ‘consumer’ – an exchange rather than a transmission. (McKinney 2005).

Designing While the Snake team, formed before EO2 started, has designated designers, the other two projects comprise design teams. The Meta-Project Briefing states: In Emergent Objects, the notion of a singular designer is displaced by the notion of a collaborative design process, whereby any participant is an active design agent, partaking in design functions. Even where one person may be ultimately responsible for the design outcome of a particular aspect of a project, the permeability of their own design activity will be an important principle and indeed object of research. Wherever possible and appropriate, active collaboration on the setting and conduct of design tasks should be sought.

This contrasts with the currently dominant conception of the designer and their place in the design process. Addressing the Cox Review (2005), the Meta-Project Briefing notes that Cox’s linear sequence of three defined terms neatly maps traditionally good business practice: creativity – ‘is the generation of new ideas’ design – ‘shapes ideas to become attractive propositions for users or customers’ innovation – ‘is the successful exploitation of new ideas’ (Cox 2005: 2)

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But the Briefing suggests that, in order to better understand the actual and possible place and nature of design, we might play with these definitions and the relation of terms. Rather than think of ‘Design’ as ‘creativity deployed to a specific end’ (ibid.), we might ask: Is there any line to be drawn between creativity and design? Are perhaps creative play and working towards specific ends both parts of the design process? If so, are they sequential? dialectically related? cyclical? Or is the situation ‘fractal’ – design having its own sequence or cycles of creativity-design-innovation? How can we define and map the three terms – creativity /design/innovation – in relation to the functioning of our proposed objectiles? The design process in EO2 is eccentric in conventional terms. Not only is the design function spread across a number of agents, few of whom are professional designers; the team members are also typically institutionally and geographically distant. Resisting the Modernist, instrumental, conception of design, EO2 does not propose an alternative model for direct emulation. Rather, the aim is to defamiliarise the design process; and to play with its nature and possibilities. EO2 set up its design process as a complex system for three reasons: to examine how such a system encourages emergent behaviour in the design process, and emergent design solutions; to play towards the emergence of a new, complex, sustainable design process and to ask what conditions might encourage the design of such new processes themselves to be emergent, evolving.

Play Play theory has regained importance in performance studies through its appropriation for instance by games design and theory. EO2 makes its own strategic appropriations. Huizinga (1949), Caillois (1958) and others conceive of play as a framed activity, where the frame both defines a space of freedom and provides a productive restraint. Csikszenmihalyi (1996) associates play with the condition of ‘flow’ – the absorbed concentration, non-contradiction of goals, and immediate feedback essential to creativity. For a conventional designer, the non-contradiction of goals necessary to a creative design solution often equates to a clear design brief. Such has been the habitual expectation of software designer John Bryden from the SpiderCrab team, for example. But EO2 works to deny such teleological prompts, by opening out a complex space of play from the outset. At the same time, it offers easily graspable models for self-management of the newly-opened space. In particular, the Meta-Project Briefing provides Caillois’ two key mappings of play for reflection and experimentation: first, the four categories agon/competition; alea/chance; mimicry/illusion and illinx/vertigo; and second the continuum between paidia/sheer playfulness and ludus/rule-bound play. The first question for an EO2 designer, then, is ‘Am I playing, and how?’

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As a complement, the Briefing appropriates Schön’s (1983) analysis of professional practice: ‘reflection-in-action’; ‘tacit understanding’ and ‘post hoc reflection’, to engender a five-phase feedback cycle:

(1) Post hoc reflection on existing practice (2) Conscious framing

(3) Reflection-in-action

(4) Tacit understanding

(5) Post hoc reflection on developed practice

– Have I been playing; and how? – I am consciously using a frame of play to guide or inform my design process – I am aware that I am playing, and how, but my principal focus is the process – I am fully immersed in the process; I am playing but am unconscious of this – Have I been playing; and how? is there a qualitative difference from (1)?

Contributing to the meta project, Bryden reports that such tools have provided him with what might itself be identified as a frame of play – the license and the protection within which to play. That he began with an inclination to experiment outside his ‘safety zone’ was of course crucial (Figure 2). Caillois’ categories of play have been directly exploited early in the Hoverflies process, with each member of the design team in turn leading the others in a play-based activity prompted by their initial self-briefing. Playing between the striations of play categories and the smoothness of open experiment (Deleuze and Guattari 1980), the team thereby generated a complex system of prompts for their design process through inductive experiment. The intention is to allow the nature of the process itself to project into the designed object which, in turn, will encourage playful shifts between roles of performer, participant and observer – as defined in the model of tripartite interaction (Bayliss, Lock, Sheridan 2004). Schechner (1988) adapted the notion of the frame of play to consider what might otherwise be called determinations on the performer’s playful creativity: it happens within concentric frames of play, from the logic of the part through the director’s desires to the prevailing performance conventions. While ambiguous – which is the most potent frame, the nearest or all-encompassing? – Schechner’s model provides a useful tool for the negotiation of internal and external determinations on the design process. In other words, it provides a metaphorical space in which a complexity of determinations – the contradictions of interdisciplinary praxis; funding imperatives; scheduling, etc. – can be managed by the group as a group. Further, Schechner’s model became for some in the SpiderCrab group a ready means to figure towards the outer frame of Bryden’s emergent

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Figure 2. John Bryden interacts with a SpiderCrab prototype limb, entwined with a full-scale mock-up of the robot. Photo: Neil MacPhail. software design solution for scripting the robot’s gestures. We established early that a palimpsest of determinations would frame its movement: external signal; current state; ‘disposition’; ‘game’ and so on. By way of discussions around object-related computing, these have settled into a fundamental model to generate emergent behaviour through the complexity of a system comprising successive simple levels: stochastically-generated

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‘random’ movement is over-determined by a number of constraints, themselves simply designated ‘high-’ or ‘low-level’.

Embodied knowing Recourse to Schechner’s frames of play for the understanding of complexity mediates between the modes of knowledge and knowing. On the one hand, a reified map of determinations begins to precipitate out; on the other, the ambiguity and mobility of the model tends to dissolve precise boundaries. Our formulation here draws on Williams’ (1973) notion of a ‘structure of feeling’: while we may feel able to objectify historical data into clear structures, our grasp of the present necessarily remains fluid, more a matter of feeling. Structure remains emergent. Arguably, one challenge for the cultural historian is to retain the ‘structure of feeling’ dialectic when addressing the past; to grasp the ‘knowing’ that precedes ‘knowledge’: to re-imagine the emergence of seeming historiographic artefacts from the complexity of human interaction. Such knowing requires an open body, and the EO2 Briefing foregrounds the role of the designer’s own body as much as it asks what kind of embodied relations we want our designed objectiles to draw their human co-agents into. The SpiderCrab team have reflected, for instance, on the habitus – defined by Bourdieu (1998) as ‘the deeply-installed set of cultural frames within which our physical improvisations can occur’ – that we bring to the designing process. Allowing, as many do, habitus to include intellectual and emotional as well as physical dispositions, we might suggest that two vectors of Bryden’s habitus at the start were his openness to experiment and his discomfort at the lack of a clear brief. Physical games in particular assisted him in his desire to experiment outside his ‘safety zone’. Professor David Hogg, also from the Leeds School of Computing, described the early initiation into physical play as at first ‘terrifying’ and then liberating: the habitus frame was recalibrated within the frame of EO2. Popat and Palmer (2005) report on a mask exercise by Popat and Wallis in experiments with Shadow Robots in late 2003. Dancers contemplated a robot so as to identify fully with it, to embody it. Drawing on regular mask technique, the exercise proved to have significant value in the context of technological design. The performer contemplates the mask so deeply that it can ‘possess’ – fully inhabit or in-form – their body when worn. In 2003, this embodied performance of the robot by the dancer, one instance of knowing, served also as a second. Designers and mechanics from Shadow in turn had the sensation of haptic, kinaesthetic, encounter with the danceras-robot. Their knowledge of their robot was for a time supplanted by a more immediate knowing. New perspectives on the robot, its design and potential, emerged with a palpably exciting rapidity. SpiderCrab adopted the mask exercise as a foundation. The protocol of knowing aligns broadly with Heidegger’s (1949) techne–, a kind of relationship with the world, its objects and processes that works through an attitude of in-dwelling. Truth is not extracted; rather, space is made for the essence to make itself manifest. And when complexity theory

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identifies or conceives of self-developing closed systems, it suggests essences. Idhe (1993), like others, has celebrated the power of Heidegger’s intervention in the ‘Technology’ essay, while resisting his romanticism and recourse to foundationalism. Wallis (2005) subjects the essay to a rhetorical critique to much the same ends, while proposing the theatrical apparatus as a collective subject of techne–. One thread that runs through the EO2 Meta Project is a similar conception of the individual design process as a creative iteration of objectifications and phenomenal encounters, simultaneously drawing on and contributing to the human-crafted environment. Delegates to an international Emergent Objects symposium in June 2007 expressed satisfaction that the project has opened up new perspectives on the role of emergence within the design process, as well as the design of emergent interactions between technological objects and human agents. Meanwhile, the frame of D4C21 has opened up our own awareness of the 4D and complexity design communities, especially through the initiative of Alec Robertson. We leave it to him to weave those connections here. References Bayliss, K.A., Lock, S. and Sheridan, J.G. (2004), ‘Understanding Interaction in Ubiquitous Guerilla Perfomances in Playful Arenas’ in: S. Fincher, P. Markopolous, D. Moore, R. Ruddle (eds.), People and Computers XVIII – Design for Life: Proceedings of HCI 2004, Springer-Verlag, pp. 3–18. Bourdieu, P. (1998), Outline of a Theory of Practice, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Caillois, R. (1958, 2001), Man, Play and Games (trans. M. Barash), Chicago: University of Illinois Press. Cavallo, D (2000), ‘Emergent Design and Learning Environments: Building on indigenous knowledge’, IBM Systems Journal, 39: 3/4. http://www.research.ibm.com/ journal/sj/393/part2/cavallo.htm Cox, G. (2005), Cox Review of Creativity in Business: Building on the UK’s strengths, London: HMSO. Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1996), Creativity, Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention, New York: HarperCollins. Deleuze, G. (1993), The Fold: Liebniz and the Baroque (trans. T. Conley), Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. Deleuze, G. and Guattari, F. (1980, 1987), A Thousand Plateaus. Capitalism and Schizophrenia (trans. B. Massumi), London: Continuum. Fischer, G. and Scharff, E. (2000), ‘Meta-Design: Design for designers’, Proceedings of Conference on Designing Interactive Systems: Processes, practices, methods & techniques, New York: ACM Press, pp. 396–405. Garner, S.B. (1994), Bodied Spaces: Phenomenology and Performance in Contemporary Drama, Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. Heidegger, M. (1949), ‘The question concerning technology’ in The Question Concerning Technology, and other essays (trans. W. Lovitt), New York, London: Harper and Row, 1977. Huizinga, J. (1949), Homo Ludens: A Study of the Play-Element in Culture, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul. Iacucci, G., Iacucci, C. and Kuutti, K. (2002), ‘Imagining and Experiencing in Design: The Role of Performances’, Proceedings of 2nd Nordic Conference on

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Human-Computer Interaction, October 19–23 2002, Aarhus, Denmark, New York: ACM, pp. 167–176. Idhe, D. (1993), Postphenomenology. Essays in the postmodern context, Evanstown Ill: Northwestern University Press. Kozel, S. (2005), ‘Revealing Practices: Heidegger’s Techne Interpreted Through Performance in Responsive Systems’, R. Gough and M. Wallis (ed.), Performance Research, 10: 4, pp. 33–44. McKinney, J. (2005), ‘Projection and Transaction: The Spatial Operation of Scenography’, M. Wallis (ed.), Performance Research, 10: 4, pp. 128–137. Muller, M.J. (2002), ‘Participatory Design: The third Space in HCI’, The HumanComputer Interaction Handbook: Fundamentals, Evolving Technologies and Emerging Applications, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum, pp. 1051–1068. Popat, S. and Palmer, S. (2005), ‘Creating Common Ground: Dialogues between performance and digital technologies’, International Journal of Performance Arts & Digital Media, 1: 1, pp. 47–65. Redström, J. (2006), ‘Towards User Design? On the shift from object to user as the subject of design’, Design Studies, 27: 2, pp. 123–139. Robertson, A. and Woudhuysen, J. (2000), ‘4D Design: Applied Performance in the Experience Economy’, Liminality & Performance Conference, Brunel University, 27–30 April 2000, http://people.brunel.ac.uk/bst/documents/alecrobertson.doc. Accessed 16 June 2007. van Rompay, T. Hekkert, P. and Muller, W. (2005), ‘The Bodily Basis of Product Experience,’ Design Studies, 26: 4, pp. 359–377. Rust, C. (2004), ‘Design Enquiry: Tacit Knowledge and Invention in Science’, Design Issues, 20: 4, pp. 76–85. Schechner, R. (1988), Performance Theory, London: Routledge. Schön, D.A. (1983), The Reflective Practitioner: How Professionals Think in Action, NY: Basic Books. Testa, P., O’Reilly, U., Weiser, D. and Ross, I. (2001), ‘Emergent Design: A Crosscutting Research Program and Design Curriculum Integrating Architecture and Artificial Intelligence’, Environment and Planning B: Planning and Design, 28: 4, pp. 481–498. Trimingham, M. (2002), ‘A Methodology for Practice as Research’, Studies in Theatre & Performance, 22: 1, pp. 54–60. Wallis, M. (2005), ‘Thinking through techne’, Performance Research, 10: 4, pp. 1–8. Williams, R. (1973), Drama from Ibsen to Brecht, Harmondsworth: Penguin.

Suggested citation Bayliss, A., McKinney, J., Popat, S., & Wallis, M. (2007), ‘Emergent objects: Designing through performance’, International Journal of Performance Arts and digital Media 3: 2&3, pp. 269–279, doi: 10.1386/padm.3.2&3.269/1

Contributor details Alice Bayliss is Lecturer in Applied Theatre and Intervention at the School of Performance and Cultural Industries at the University of Leeds, UK. She is an active researcher in the field of interactive performance, club culture and play, creating Digital Live Art works and installations for free parties and underground club spaces. In particular she investigates new technologies for performance and strategies for enhancing mutual engagement and participation within creative collaborations. She is co-convenor of the (re)Actor: International Conferences on Digital Live Art

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(2006, 2007). Contact: School of Performance and Cultural Industries, University of Leeds, Leeds, LS2 9JT, UK. E-mail: [email protected] Joslin McKinney is Lecturer in Scenography in the School of Performance and Cultural Industries at the University of Leeds, UK. Her practice-led research investigates the nature of the communication that occurs when audiences encounter design for the stage. Recent work includes ‘Projection and Transaction: The spatial operation of scenography’ Performance Research 10(4) 2005. Contact: School of Performance and Cultural Industries, University of Leeds, Leeds, LS2 9JT, UK. E-mail: [email protected] Sita Popat is Senior Lecturer in Dance at the University of Leeds. Her research interests centre on choreography and new technologies. Current projects include the AHRC-funded ‘Projecting Performance’ with Scott Palmer and KMA Creative Technologies Ltd, and the AHRC/EPSRC/JISC-funded ‘Relocating Choreographic Practice’ with Helen Bailey, Simon Buckingham Shum and Michael Daw. She is author of Invisible Connections: Dance, Choreography and Internet Communities (Routledge 2006). Contact: School of Performance and Cultural Industries, University of Leeds, Leeds, LS2 9JT, UK. E-mail: [email protected] Mick Wallis is Professor of Performance and Culture and Director of Research at the School of Performance and Cultural Industries. He is Principal Investigator for ‘Emergent Objects’ and for the AHRC-funded ‘Village Theatre Survey’, investigating the use of amateur theatre in inter-war England. Recent work includes Drama/ Theatre/Performance with Simon Shepherd (Routledge, 2004) and Performance Research 10: 4, ‘On techne–’ (2005) edited with Richard Gough. Contact: School of Performance and Cultural Industries, University of Leeds, Leeds, LS2 9JT, UK. E-mail: [email protected]

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International Journal of Performance Arts and Digital Media, Volume 3 Number 2 & 3. © Intellect Ltd 2007. Article. English language. doi: 10.1386/padm.3.2&3.281/1

An approach to the design of interactive environments, with reference to choreography, architecture, the science of complex systems and 4D design Alec Robertson De Montfort University Sophia Lycouris Edinburgh College of Art Jeffrey Johnson The Open University

Abstract

Keywords

This paper introduces a transdisciplinary approach to the design of interactive environments, including digital new media created for urban spaces, with reference to choreography, architecture, the science of complex systems and 4D design. Relationships between architectural structures of buildings and the hybrid flux of bodies, moving images, sounds and choreographic designs are discussed. A number of issues about ‘static’ and ‘dynamic’ aspects of the built environment in public spaces are raised. It embraces ‘movement’ as an important element in the processes of conceptualisation and design of architectural space and also discusses wider uses of choreography of movement in the building itself as what might be termed ‘applied choreography’ along with notions of 4D design and ‘complexity theory’. This framework can facilitate developments in expanding the context for application of choreographic knowledge through taking into account the full potential of the dynamic properties of the built environment. The paper concludes with some provocations as to future design possibilities.

applied choreography architecture interactivity urban space 4D design complex systems

Introduction Making connections between architecture and choreography has been encouraged by recent developments of new digital media available for urban spaces and technologies for the sensing and control of interactive environments. Significant use of computers to control building services and systems started in the 1980s, with pioneering development of computerised control in large buildings, such as the NATWEST Tower in London (Vincent and Peacock 1985). In the early 1990s notions bubbled of the ‘intelligent building’, cyber-control systems (in contrast to automatic), archionics engineering (analogous to avionics for aircraft) and ‘kinematic buildings’ (in contrast to static) (Robertson 1993). Performance and dance events in public spaces have also been happening since the 1970s. In 1973, American choreographer Trisha Brown created Roof Piece, in which fifteen PADM 3 (2&3) pp. 281–294. © Intellect Ltd 2007.

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dancers were placed across the roof of buildings in Manhattan, NYC and were instructed to copy from each other a series of choreographed movements, so that a ‘telegraphed message’ travelled from one person to the next (Robertson and Hutera 1988: 196). Similarly, during the 1970s British choreographer Rosemary Butcher created a number of outdoor pieces such as Passage North East (Jordan 1992: 169) and White Field (Tufnell and Crickmay 1990: 83). Since the early 1990s there has been a proliferation of dance performance work, which employs interactive technologies, created for professional performers and theatre stages – such as the work of American company Troika Ranch (Coniglio and Stopiello 2007), or interactive installation work created by dance artists such as Sarah Rubidge (2007) for audience participation, however this has been happening in specially set up installation spaces rather than as part of ‘everyday’ environments. Therefore, until recently the control of media displays within public spaces through movements of the regular users of these spaces has not been used in relation to the development of artistic work and was limited to problem-solving in relation to traffic on the roads. For example, design research was done in the early 1970s on targeting a traffic message to one driver (Robertson 1977). Here, messages on road-side signage were designed to help keep vehicles a safe distance apart by warning an individual of dangerous driving behaviour. A sensor in the road picked up the speed and distance between vehicles and with a road side sign flashed a message at the driver. Incidentally human behaviour with such designs can be unpredictable, as it was found in interactive road signs designed to reduce speeding. In some locations it was noticed vehicles occasionally speeded up! The reason was found to be children in the cars saying, ‘Daddy . . . daddy light up the sign please!’ More recently, complex systems scientists have used computer simulation extensively to investigate the movement of human beings in constrained environments. For example, Helbing et al. (2005) report studies that investigate the rules underlying the emergent group behaviour based on experiments of human subjects and mathematical models derived from the observations. Creating bridges between the use of complex systems, choreographic practices, architectural approaches and design communities can add significantly to these developments. Unpredictability in complex design situations will be briefly discussed later. More economical and technologically sophisticated digital media are now available for design of interactive environments. With expanding understandings of choreography as a compositional method generally, new possibilities arise. The idea of ‘applied choreography encourages application of useful choreographic knowledge into everyday life situations (outside theatre stages and without trained dancers). It expands the influence of performing artists. The distinction made in the fields of science between pure and applied science, and also in the traditional object based arts of fine arts and applied arts can be useful too in the performing arts field. In addition, there are transdisciplinary theoretical connections that can be made with this kind of ‘performing’ work. For example, ‘complexity

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science’ provides notions that can be applied to both human situations and the design of the built environment. ‘Complex systems’ is a general term used to describe systems that are diverse and made up of multiple interdependent elements (Johnson 2006). It is a multidisciplinary and holistic approach concerning interactions between component parts and subsystems, and their relationships to each other and their environment. The next section gives an overview of the science of complex systems from the perspective of Jeffrey Johnson. This is followed by the notion of 4D design as described by Alec Robertson at the 4D Dynamics Conference in 1995, along with a brief discussion of the choreographic proposal IntelligentCITY made in 2002 by Sophia Lycouris, Yacov Sharir and Stan Wijnans. The purpose is to make tentative connections of relevance to design research speculation of new possibilities for creating a more engaging aesthetic experience within architectural contexts and urban space.

The emerging science of complex systems The science of complex systems is a relatively new academic field investigating aspects of ‘complexity’ that occur across many disciplines. Researchers in this field may find it useful to consider aspects of the performing arts, which inherently deal with the complex. Similarly, those in the field of performing arts may find it useful to be aware of aspects of the science of complex systems. This section outlines basic notions that might be applicable in choreographic contexts. Complex systems are generally diverse and made up of multiple interconnected elements. They are adaptive in that they have the capacity to change and learn from events. The scientific study of complex adaptive systems encompasses more than one theoretical framework and is highly interdisciplinary, seeking the answers to some fundamental questions about evolving, adaptable, changeable systems. The science of complex systems is still very young, and there are many different views on what constitutes this science. Most people (Bourgine and Johnson 2006) agree that complexity can emerge from the interaction of autonomous agents – especially when those agents are people. Complexity is often a feature of multilevel systems, with intra and inter-level dynamics at micro-, meso- and macro-scales. The dynamics of complex systems can be path dependent, with future events depending on previous events over long periods of time. One defining feature for a large class of complex systems is that it is not possible to make predictions of their precise state at precise points of time in the future. Certainly this appears to be the case for systems that include human beings: no-one knows for sure where they will be and what they will be doing ten years from now. There are many reasons as to why a system might be considered complex, including their having one or more of the following characteristics: • • •

many heterogeneous parts, e.g. cities; complicated transition laws, e.g. economic systems for sale of goods; unexpected or unpredictable emergence, e.g. accidental events;

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dependence on initial conditions, e.g. weather systems; path-dependent dynamics, e.g. qwerty keyboard evolution network connectivities and multiple subsystem dependencies, e.g. ecosystems; dynamics emerge from interactions of autonomous agents, e.g. road traffic; self-organisation into new structures and patterns of behaviour, e.g. businesses; non-equilibrium and far-from equilibrium dynamics, e.g. military aircraft; discrete dynamics with combinatorial explosion, e.g. telecommunications; adaptation to changing environments, e.g. retailing; co-evolving subsystems, e.g. land-use and transportation; ill-defined boundaries, e.g. pollution, terrorism; multilevel dynamics, e.g. aircraft, the internet, multinational companies.

Various systems exhibit many of these characteristics. Any one of them can make systems appear complex, but together they can make systems very difficult to understand and control (Johnson 2006).It would be nice to give a simple definition and to have a single, easily applied test for complexity. In his paper ‘From Complexity to Perplexity’, Horgan (1995) quotes 31 definitions of complexity, and selects the following to illustrate the diversity: entropy (disorder), information (surprise), fractal dimension, effective complexity (regularity versus randomness), hierarchical complexity, grammatical complexity, thermodynamic depth, time computational complexity, spatial complexity and mutual information (between parts). Edmonds (1999) gives a list of some fifty approaches to measuring complexity, varying between concepts of size, variety, information, connectivity, decomposability, irreducibility, computation and description. This illustrates the impossibility of reducing complexity to a single measurement, or even a simple definition. In 1956, W. Ross Ashby wrote, ‘Science stands today on something of a divide. For two centuries it has been exploring systems that are either intrinsically simple or that are capable of being analysed into simple components. The fact that such a dogma as “vary the factors one at a time” could be accepted for a century, shows that scientists were largely concerned in investigating such systems as allowed this method; for this method is often fundamentally impossible in the complex systems’. In fact there are further points of departure for the new science of complex systems. Traditional scientific approaches include experiment and replicability, but this may be impossible in complex systems. For example, if one party is voted into power we cannot know what would have happened if another party had been elected? So, what can we know about the behaviour of complex systems? One possibility is the set of states that the system might take in the future. Another possibility is likelihood of a particular state in the future. Another possibility is how dangerous a possible future state might be. Another

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possibility is the trajectories of states that start from the current state and end in some future state. In this context managing or controlling complex systems can be seen as the attempt to keep the system on a relatively ‘good’ trajectory, steering it towards desirable states and away from undesirable states. Complex systems research attempts to provide an holistic approach that views whole systems based upon the links and interactions between the component parts and their relationship to each other and the environment within which they exists. It is accepted that it may not be possible to analyse systems in terms of independent subsystems. In complex systems small changes can cause large changes: a change in one part of a system can adversely affect another apparently decoupled part of the system. One way that complex systems scientists try to explore future possible states depends on computer simulation. This has the ‘can you trust it?’ problem in which one can question the underlying model, the quality of the data, the correctness of the computer programme and the interpretation of the results. Nonetheless, it is the best we have at present as we grope in the dark towards new ways of understanding systems that can behave in very perplexing ways. This is the context in which we ask the question as to whether art can contribute to the new science of complex systems. Where so many of the old certainties have had to be abandoned, why should we not look to unconventional sources to new approaches to scientific investigation? Sciences must develop new methods of representing systems, new ways of seeing and interpreting what we see, and new ways of communicating new kinds of synthesis. That visual arts such as drawing, painting and photography can contribute to science is not so challenging, since all these modes of expression can readily be found in scientific publications. That performance art might contribute to science is less obvious, and that is what we are investigating in this paper. A simple example of a complex system is a team game, which is both ‘evolutionary’ and ‘behavioural’. The dynamics emerge from the interaction of players, who are autonomous agents, yet all have a common aim. Although the rules of a team game provide some certainty, what actually happens is unpredictable. Minor changes in one area of the field can be catalytic and cause significant changes in another. The components of a ‘complex system’ are often ‘adaptive’ with the capacity to change and learn from events, as teams and their players are in this example. The choreography of dance performances using new interactive media is an example of ‘complex systems’ in action, as are the ‘everyday’ actions of ‘everyday’ people having a performative effect on the built environment. A broad philosophical article entitled ‘Complexity Theory: Actions for a Better World (Calresco.org 2007), argues that a better world will result when rich interactions within a system (a dynamic collection of interconnected parts) allow it to self-organise by being critically connected, that is, neither static (with disconnected parts) nor chaotic (with over connected parts) arriving at an improved state in-between. It adds that (positive) evolution can occur through random mutation, through internal learning or through selection

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by trial-and-error interaction. The parts of the system can be people and interactive media, where these dynamically evolve with a set of rules from choreographic theory and complexity science to create an improved state. Herbert Simon in his seminal book ‘Sciences of the Artificial’ defines design as the ‘transformation of existing conditions into preferred ones’ (Simon 1969: 55). A definition of design that is close to the multifarious framework of the science of complex systems is that of 4D Design – ‘the dynamic form resulting from the design of the behaviour of artefacts and people in relation to each other and their environment’ (Robertson 1995). However, the 4D design notion is centred in the field of art and design with a more intuitive approach than the science of complex systems and focuses on a cultural and aesthetic context. The next section explores the notion of 4D design to illuminate the potential of the choreographic character of everyday life in relation to notions of complexity above.

4D Design 4D design, as ‘the dynamic form resulting from the design of the behaviour of artefacts and people in relation to each other’, focuses upon designing cultural expression within dynamic situations in the everyday ‘designed’ world. Figure 1 depicts Alec Robertson’s conception of 4D design showing the relationship of the performing arts with functional action of people and dynamic technologies. The diagram depicts four basic domains of practical knowledge. Two cover the physical dynamics of intangible media and artefacts – robotics

Figure 1: 4D design diagram (Alec Robertson 1995). 286

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and multimedia technology, the other two the dynamics of people in work and play – ergonomics – the study of people in their functional working context; and, the performing arts – involving dynamic cultural expression and meaning. In the diagram above there are sub-set domains shown, and these are as follows: the new discipline of ‘interaction design’, focusing on the usefulness of digital technological objects; ‘interface design’, focusing on the usefulness of digital informational media, for example, screens and surfaces; the ‘electronic arts’ which deals with expression through intangible digital media; and ‘kinetic sculpture’ which focuses on dynamic expression of material art objects. The arrows added to the original diagram here pass through the ‘4D design’ core and highlight that 4D designs can involve mainly with ‘the artificial’ of digital multimedia with robotics technologies, or mainly with people and both the utilitarian perspective of ‘ergonomics’ and the more playful performing arts. In other words, 4D designs can result in artefacts alone acting in relationship to each other, such as robots dancing interactively with digital graphics on screens, or people acting (without much technology) in relationship to each other, such as the elegant performance of an up-market restaurant waiter (perhaps using a portable credit card reader) with a customer. The professional design of this service is a creative challenge. (Robertson 1994 2001). As digital media is advancing and getting easier to use, the 4D perspective is developing in the arts within the built environment, as outlined by Guest Editor, Lucy Bullivant of the Special Issue of Architectural Design – ‘4dSocial: Interactive Design Environments’ (Bullivant 2007). The following section provides a specific example of a design proposal for a choreographic project called ‘IntelligentCITY’, within which people, who are ‘doing their own thing’ while shopping, interact in a performative context with a variety of digital media involving sound or image or both in a shopping mall.

The IntelligentCITY project People use everyday built environments for various agreed purposes (e.g. shopping in shopping centres, waiting for trains in train stations and so on). They move, speak and perform various actions in order to fulfil their needs. These everyday activities become ‘events’ defined by the nature and limitations of the environments within which they take place and the character of their architecture. The ways in which people perceive the relevance of these environments to their everyday lives is affected by their physical as well as emotional relationship to these environments, personal stories, memories which are superimposed, attached, fused, inserted, adapted, negotiated with the structure, materials, physical parameters and other qualities of these architectural manifestations. IntelligentCITY is introduced here to merely indicate potential approaches to the design of interactive environments, with reference to 4D design and tentatively with the science of complex systems. It is a choreographic proposal initially developed for Grafton Shopping Centre (Cambridge, UK) by choreographer Sophia Lycouris, Dutch multimedia

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IntelligentCITY (http://www. futurephysical.org/ pages/programme/ commissions/intel_ city.html, accessed 11/09/07) has been a FUTURE PHYSICAL commission (http://www. futurephysical.org/ pages/programme/ commissions.html, accessed 11/09/07) by Shinkansen (London, UK) and East England Arts (East England, UK) also co-commissioned by The Junction (Cambridge UK), an artistic centre committed to new artists, new art and new audiences (http://www.junction. co.uk/, accessed 11/09/07). The project received a Research & Development grants by London Arts (London, UK) and The Nottingham Trent University (Nottingham, UK) plus support in kind by various organisations including the Department of Dance of The University of Texas (Texas, USA) and The Jerwood Space (Art centre, London, UK). Finally, IntelligentCITY was the last phase in a series of practice-based research projects exploring the nature of interdisciplinary choreography which were undertaken between 2000 and 2003 by Sophia Lycouris with the support of a three-year Fellowship for the Creative and Performing Arts awarded in by the Arts and Humanities Research Board (Bristol, UK).

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Figure 2: Grafton Shopping Centre – view of the Mezzanine and glass roof.

Figure 3: Architectural features of Grafton Shopping Centre worthy of attention of shoppers.

composer Stan Wijnans and American choreographer/multimedia artist Yacov Sharir.1 The project was designed to use the dialogue between choreography and interactive technologies in order to generate a ‘re-newed’ perception of everyday built environments (with particular emphasis on public spaces) for the regular users of these spaces. The proposal suggested the use of an interactive system inserted in Grafton Shopping Centre, which would be triggered by the movements of the visitors through the Centre. These movements would be captured through camera-based sensors in order to trigger visual, sonic and dynamic transformations of the space, manifested as multiple video screenings and surround sound. In this way, the physical presence of the Shopping Centre’s visitors and their movement reactions would generate a media space, appropriately inserted into the physical space of the building. The design of the interactive system had an additional purpose of encouraging the visitors to initiate their own journeys in the Centre, and augment through play and interaction their perceptual experience of this public space, which is part of their everyday lives. Figures 2 and 3 below show visual details of the venue, which would be brought to the attention of users of this environment. However, a question to briefly address here is ‘what is a public space’? Bunschoten (2000: 5) suggests that ‘public spaces must have a prototypical character’ in the sense that they should function as instruments of change. He explains that because a ‘prototype is a programmatic condition’ it has dynamic properties. By being a model for testing, a prototype inherently contains a number of different sets of possibilities that could give rise to new qualities. Bunschoten (2000: 6) perceives public spaces as the playground of society, ‘the playground in which society re-invents itself’. With reference to ‘complexity theory’, which explains how new forms ‘emerge’ from unpredictable interrelationships between relatively autonomous elements which have a common goal, it becomes clear why public gatherings are prohibited in some circumstances, particularly those which are politically volatile. IntelligentCITY’s main commissioning bodies (Future Physical and The Junction) requested an amended proposal so that the project could be used to celebrate the opening of Junction’s new building in 2003. This building

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was part of a recently developed public space, comprising a leisure centre, a cinema, restaurants, shops and a hotel, all arranged around a central open space, a Plaza. The main objective of the revised project became the development of an interactive environment through which the regular users of this area of Cambridge would have the opportunity to experience an augmented perception of the architectural arrangement of the entire Plaza. Thus the revised version of the proposal was developed for a new site, which in some ways fulfilled better Bunschoten’s criteria of a public space. However, the initial research undertaken in relation to the development of an interactive environment for Grafton Shopping Centre informed a project which was reliant on the spatial and architectural coherence of that site. A shopping centre is a well-defined and ‘continuous’ architectural space, in most cases, it can be considered as a single building. Therefore, work created in (and for) it becomes easily integrated within its architectural space. In the revised version of the proposal, IntelligentCITY would engage directly with more than one buildings. The project’s main function would be to create links between the buildings of the Plaza, to activate additional and alternative pathways for the users, to imaginatively add a sense of coherence that may not originally be present. The Plaza could become a ‘playground’ in the way Raoul Bunschoten (2000) suggests, a prototypical space which contains the seeds of its own transformation. It becomes clear that the development of this proposal would have benefited from the consideration of notions of ‘complexity’ as outlined earlier in this paper to enable a richer framework to design the software operating the display hardware. In addition, an assessment of the functionality of the interactive mechanism from within an awareness of how complex systems work and the knowledge that unpredictable situations, phenomena and behaviours can emerge due to this complexity, would support a more effective evaluation process in this project and provide appropriate hints about how the mechanism could be further developed so that the system and its underlying concept could both reach their full potential. It remains to examine more closely the nature of the dialogue between choreography and architecture and how concepts of 4D design can make this dialogue more productive. These two issues are discussed in the following two sections.

Architecture and choreography Architecture and choreography both engage and develop spatial structures in their own contexts of the 3D urban environment and stage sets respectively. In IntelligentCITY, the aim was to create a series of dynamic environments within which the viewers can circulate freely and physically experience the impact of various types of movements (including the movement of sounds and images) which take place around them. It is a step towards the synthesis of an interactive playground within architectural spaces. The difference to be explored was that images and sounds would be fully integrated into the fabric of the building to allow it to function as a more dynamic entity that reacts to the movement of its users. Through capitalising on the relationship between the architectural structures of the

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buildings and the hybrid choreography of bodies, images and sounds, this project was aimed, amongst other things, for attracting the viewers’ attention to the 3D architectural features themselves. As a result visitors should notice architectural elements they had not seen before, or see them differently, and access in this way the opportunity for a renewed perception of a familiar space, which can enrich their everyday lives, in addition to the delight of physically engaging with this interactive environment. Porter (1997) suggests that the perception of the architectural space is caused by the interrelationship between body, movement and space. McCullough (2004: 13–14) further indicates that ‘the modern space was all about freedom of movement . . . the act of design became the shaping not of buildings, but of space . . . space became conceived in relation to a moving point of reference’. Indeed the perception of the architectural space as static has been challenged by various theorists, practising architects such as Lars Spuybroek and Peter Eisenman, as well as hybrid artists with architectural background such as Marcos Novak. Additionally, the fusion between new technologies (or other disciplines such as ecology) and architectural practices in highly challenging interdisciplinary articulations has also supported the development of appropriate conceptual frameworks for an understanding of architecture as a discipline which can accommodate change, instability, as well as material and conceptual flexibility (Brayer and Simonot 2002). The work of Peter Eisenman has significantly contributed to a new understanding of non-linear conceptions of space, employing deconstructive methods which question static notions of the architectural space and prioritise dynamic techniques through which architectural designs are developed. Galofaro (1999: 59) suggests that Eisenman’s methodology criticises the prioritisation of the sense of vision in the experience of the architectural space and generates buildings which offer ‘a tactile, emotional experience, which contains a strong realistic connotation based on body sensations’. The advantage of creating architectural space with an integrated understanding of its dynamic potential is that such space can increase the corporeal responses of the viewer/user, in the sense that as they move through the building, they perceive it more intensely as a result of the generation of multiple physical sensations. Eisenman’s ideas allow for the consideration of an example of how contemporary architectural discourse could share a partially common language with choreographic theory and practice. This opens up possibilities for the development of a productive dialogue between the two, with the potential to push each others’ boundaries, thus expanding the applicability of their core concepts towards multiple interdisciplinary articulations. Indeed the concept of ‘applied choreography’ as mentioned in the introduction of this paper would not be operational without the support of architectural theory which recognises the relevance of movement into the users’ experience of architectural space. Furthermore, the very idea of ‘applied choreography’ would be almost inconceivable without the understanding of space as a dynamic

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entity (which includes objects and animate agents such as humans and animals) as this has been made possible by theories of 4D design. Therefore, another challenge of the static character of architectural design conceptions and manifestations generally, can be made through using Alec Robertson’s concept of 4D Design (1995) also mentioned earlier in this paper. It makes conceivable the integrated choreographic understanding of all manifestations of movement in a given physical space beyond the typical use of interactive digital displays in the built environment. In the architecture of public spaces, the concept of 4D design brings together physical objects, media and the activity of people in the situation within spaces and can thus engender a dynamic multisensory expression of culture. Some speculation on design possibilities can be made. Experiments with animated architectural lighting are beginning to show some dynamic possibilities in the built environment beyond visual display screens (Bruges 2007) and indicate future potential of alternative dynamic technologies. The changing environments through generation of local climate, the function of buildings with changing organisational functions, all these instances provide examples of the ‘kinematic building’, where a building incorporates motion through use of dynamic technologies. For example, at a simple level solar heat collectors that follow the path of the sun across the sky would create a changing building form, and at a more complex technological level, windows may ‘act’ like super environmental filters that operate in a similar way to the iris of an eye. Light, heat, air and noise might be filtered by intelligent and dynamic membranes allowing buildings to develop ‘moods’ and ‘personalities’ defined by physical changes in localised environments. It may well be that the architectural structures themselves could be made significantly more responsive to the people in the space. A building could be as beautifully responsive as a plant is physically to its environment, and as graceful as a ballet dancer with gentle articulation of its components on an urban stage. This gives rise to dynamic architectural expression within the whole public experience; designs involving choreographic expression within articulated artefacts, media displays, and people. This perspective may empower the choreographer in transdisciplinary projects to influence designs of the built environment. When taken with a number of other conceptions relating to the use of new technology that can be incorporated into design this indicates emergence of new architectural possibilities.

Conclusion The tentative linking of the disciplines of choreography, architecture and complex systems in the design of the built environment relies on a robust transdisciplinary framework which can clearly define the character of the exchange between them. Through emphasising dynamics, interaction and relationships between the behaviour of artefacts and their users, rather than 3D iconic form, it should be possible to expand the potential for collaborative ventures between choreography and architecture, choreographers and architects. This dialogue can be driven by a purely practical process of

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seeking solutions to a specific problem as well as by a generative interaction through which speculative situations (without immediate practical applications) emerge. The IntelligentCITY project is an example of the 4D perspective where ‘applied choreography’ has a crucial role within a speculative venture. In this exchange there is a challenge to the boundaries of disciplines. Whether there is a practical outcome or not, this interdisciplinary dialogue produces expanded meanings of existing terms from which disciplines can benefit in the future. With regards to the development of IntelligentCITY as a case study of an interdisciplinary dialogue between choreography and architecture, the choreographer involved benefited from considering the architectural perspective, which can be further explored and then applied in other future choreographic projects. Similarly, the architectural perspective could be enriched with a number of choreographic lenses which can be later used in other architectural contexts. With notions of complexity science, particularly dealing with human movements within cityscapes, and this perspective on dynamics, can we look forward to buildings and built environments which respond kinaesthetically as well as efficiently? Can movement of commuters on pathways be designed to create a kinaesthetic spectacle? Is the ‘automatic door’ opening as one approaches the beginnings of buildings dancing with people? Could traffic flow through urban roads with automobiles embody choreographic ideas through use of intelligent traffic signals interacting with the acceleration and braking of vehicles thus creating delightful movement as well as efficient traffic flow? Could we have subtle performances of buildings in our cities equivalent to the aerial displays of the Red Arrow Jets of the Royal Air Force, or gymnasts at the Olympic Games? Should we add the term ‘archobatics’ to ‘aerobatics’ and acrobatics’? This may be a metaphor too far, however the application of choreography within the built environment, in public spaces or its artefacts themselves, using new digital media and articulated structures as well as people presents an opportunity for creativity. The tentative integration of the disciplines touched upon in this paper – choreography, architecture and complexity science through design – is only a beginning, where further theoretical nuances, especially from choreography and architecture, need further thought. However this is a step towards a very interesting future for designing in the 21st Century. References Ashby, W.R.(1956), An Introduction to Cybernetics, London: Chapman & Hall. Bourgine, P. and Johnson, J.(2006), ‘The Living Roadmap for Complex Systems’, EC ONCE-CS Report, http://complexsystems.lri.fr/main/tiki-index.php?page=living+ roadmap. Accessed 9 September 2007. Brayer, M.A. and Simonot, B. (eds.) (2002), Archilab Orleans 2002 Conference Proceedings, 31 May – 14 July, Orleans, France: Editions HYX. Bruges, J. (2007), ‘Installations, Sculptures And Environments’, Web pages available at http://www.jasonbruges.com/. Accessed 4 Sept 2007. Bullivant, L. (2007), ‘4dSocial: Interactive Design Environments’, Architectural Design, Vol. 77, No. 4., London: John Wiley & Sons. Bunschoten, R. (2000), Public Spaces, London: Black Dog Publishing. 292

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Coniglio, M. and Stoppiello, D. (2007), ‘Troika Ranch’, website http://troikaranch.org/. Accessed 11 September 2009. Galofaro, L. (1999), Digital Eisenman, An Office of the Electronic Era, Basel: Birkhauser – Publishers for Architecture. Calresco.org (2007), ‘Complexity Theory: Actions for a Better World’, Web pages at http://www.calresco.org/action.htm. Accessed 24 August 2007. Edmonds (1999), Syntactic Measuring of Complexity, Ph.D. thesis University of Manchester, Department of Philosophy. Helbing, D. (2005), ‘Self-organized pedestrian crowd dynamics: experiments, simulations, and design solutions’, Transportation Science, 39: 1, pp. 1–24. Horgan (1995), ‘From complexity to perplexity’, Scientific American, 272, pp. 74–79. Johnson, J.H. (2006), ‘Hypernetworks for reconstructing the dynamics of multilevel systems’, Proc. European Conference on Complex Systems, Oxford University, 25 – 29 September 2006. McCullough, M. (2004), Digital Grounds: Architecture, Pervasive Computing and Environmental Knowing, Cambridge: MIT Press. Jordan, S. (1992), Striding Out: Aspects of Contemporary and New Dance in Britain, London: Dance Books. Porter, T. (1997), The Architect’s Eye: Visualization and depiction of space in architecture, London: E & FN Spon. Robertson, A. (1977), A road sign warning of close-following driving behaviour: form and message design, TRRL Report, SR 324, Transport and Road Research Laboratory, UK. ——— (1994), ‘4D Design: Interaction of Disciplines at a new design frontier’ DMI Journal, Summer, pp. 26–30. ——— (1993), ‘Speculation on the Future of Engineering the Environment’. Paper in Proc. Environmental Engineering Conference, 21 September 1993, Leicester, UK. ——— (1995), ‘4D Design Futures: some concepts and complexities’, in A. Robertson (ed.), 4D Dynamics: An International Interdisciplinary Conference on Design and Research Methodologies for Dynamic Form, Leicester: De Montfort University, pp. 149–153. Also available at http://www.4d-dynamics.net/guest-ar.html. Accessed 5 July 2007. Robertson, A. and Woudhuysen, J. (2001), ‘4D Design: Applied Performance in the Experience Economy’, Body Space & Technology Journal (On-line), 1:1, pp. 2001, Brunel University. Available at http://people.brunel.ac.uk/bst/vol0101/index.html. Accessed 5 July 07. Robertson, A. and Hutera, D. (1988), The Dance Handbook, Essex, England: Longman. Rubidge, S. (2007), ‘Sensedigital’, website http://www.sensedigital.co.uk/ accessed 11/07/09. Simon, H. (1969), Sciences of the Artificial, Cambridge: MIT Press. Tufnell, M. and Crickmay, C. (1990), Body Space Image: Notes towards improvisation and performance, London: Dance Books. Vincent, G. and Peacock, J. (1985), The Automated Building, Architectural Press, London.

Suggested citation Robertson, A., Lycouris, S., & Johnson, J. (2007), ‘An approach to the design of interactive environments, with reference to choreography, architecture, the science of complex systems and 4D design’, International Journal of Performance Arts and digital Media 3: 2&3, pp. 281–294, doi: 10.1386/padm.3.2&3.281/1 An approach to the design of interactive environments, with reference to . . .

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Contributor details Alec Robertson of the Dept of Imaging & Communication Design at De Montfort University, Leicester UK, and also an independent consultant is interested in dissemination problems of design research, innovation modelling and 4D design. He has organised numerous design research events – where some archives are at www.dmu.ac.uk/4dd/. Contact: De Montfort University, The Gateway, Leicester. LE1 9BH, UK. E-mail: [email protected] Dr. Sophia Lycouris is Director of the Graduate Research School at the Edinburgh College of Art (Edinburgh, UK). Her research is concerned with the use of interactive technologies in interdisciplinary choreographic projects and the role of choreographic approaches in interdisciplinary projects which address issues of movement in the social and public space. Contact: Edinburgh College of Art, Lauriston Place, Edinburgh, EH3 9DF, UK. E-mail: [email protected] Jeffrey Johnson is Professor of Complexity Science and Design in the Department of Innovation and Design at the Open University. He is principal investigator of the Designing for the 21st Century Cluster ‘Embracing Complexity in Design 2’ funded jointly by the AHRC and EPSRC. Contact: Open University, Walton Hall, Milton Keynes. MK7 6AA, UK. E-mail: [email protected]

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Index – Volume 3 Bailey, H., Ersatz dancing: Negotiating the live and mediated in digital performance practice, pp. 151–165. Barkun, D. & Gilson-Ellis, J., Orienteering with double moss: The cartographies of half/angel’s The Knitting Map, pp. 183–195. Bayliss, A., McKinney, J., Popat, S., & Wallis, M., Emergent objects: Designing through performance, pp. 269–279. Cham, K., Reconstruction theory: Designing the space of possibility in complex media, pp. 253–267. deLahunta, S. & Bevilacqua, F., Sharing descriptions of movement, pp. 3–16. Doyle, D. & Kim, T., Embodied Narrative: The Virtual Nomad and the Meta Dreamer, pp. 209–222. Everitt, D. & Robertson, A., Emergence and complexity: Some observations and reflections on transdisciplinary research involving performative contexts and new media, pp. 239–252. Fenton, D., Hotel Pro Forma’s The Algebra of Place; destabilising the original and the copy in intermedial contemporary performance, pp. 169–181. Fenemore, A., Dialogical interaction and social participation in physical and virtual performance space, pp. 37–58. Goodman, L., Performing self beyond the body: Replay culture replayed, pp. 103–122. Ladly, M., Being there: Heidegger and the phenomenon of presence in telematic performance, pp. 139–150. MacCallum-Stewart, E., The warfare of the imagined – building identities in Second Life, pp. 197–208. Morie, J.F., Performing in (virtual) spaces: Embodiment and being in virtual environments, pp. 123–138. Robertson, A., Lycouris, S., & Johnson, J., An approach to the design of interactive environments, with reference to choreography, architecture, the science of complex systems and 4D design, pp. 281–294. Sheridan, J., Bayliss, A., & Bryan-Kinns, N., The interior life of iPoi: objects that entice witting transitions in performative behaviour, pp. 17–36. Stockburger, A., Playing the third place: Spatial modalities in contemporary game environments, pp. 223–236. Taylor, F. Scott, Metaphors and mirrors in digital performance: Dress rehearsal for social autism, pp. 59–81.

PADM 3 (2&3) Index. ©Intellect Ltd 2007.

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Volume 3 Number 2&3 – 2007 Special Issue: Performance and play: Technologies of presence in performance, gaming and experience design (Guest editor: Lizbeth Goodman with Deveril, Esther MacCallum-Stewart & Alec Robertson) 97–99

Editorial Performing and Being (There) live and online Lizbeth Goodman

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Introduction Part 1: Performance futures: Bodies in movement, viewed through multiple screens Introduced by Lizbeth Goodman

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Introduction Part 2: First, second and third spaces: Digital narratives and the spaces of performance Introduced by Lizbeth Goodman Article Hotel Pro Forma’s The Algebra of Place; destabilising the original and the copy in intermedial contemporary performance David Fenton Orienteering with double moss: The cartographies of half/angel’s The Knitting Map Deborah Barkun and Jools Gilson-Ellis The warfare of the imagined – building identities in Second Life Dr. Esther MacCallum-Stewart Embodied narrative: The virtual nomad and the meta dreamer Denise Doyle and Taey Kim Playing the third place: Spatial modalities in contemporary game environments Axel Stockburger Introduction Part 3: Complexity: The theory into the practice Introduced by Alec Robertson Article Emergence and complexity: Some observations and reflections on transdisciplinary research involving performative contexts and new media Dave Everitt and Alec Robertson Reconstruction theory: Designing the space of possibility in complex media Karen Cham Emergent objects: Designing through performance Alice Bayliss, Joslin McKinney, Sita Popat and Mick Wallis An approach to the design of interactive environments, with reference to choreography, architecture, the science of complex systems and 4D design Alec Robertson, Sophia Lycouris and Jeffrey Johnson Index

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intellect Journals | Theatre & Performance

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Article Performing self beyond the body: Replay culture replayed Lizbeth Goodman Performing in (virtual) spaces: Embodiment and being in virtual environments Jacquelyn Ford Morie Being there: Heidegger and the phenomenon of presence in telematic performance Martha Ladly Ersatz dancing: Negotiating the live and mediated in digital performance practice Helen Bailey

ISSN 1479-4713

Volume Three Number Two and Three

Performance Arts and Digital Media

International Journal of Performance Arts and Digital Media | Volume Three Number Two and Three

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