Salihbegović, Fahrudin (2013) Directing Cyber Theatre. Academica - Akademska grupa, Belgrade, Serbia. ISBN 9788688835060

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Abstract

In a series of essays assembled under the heading ‘Directing Cyber Theatre’, Salihbegovic is offering his understanding about several technical and aesthetic aspects of the contemporary digital performance and 'cyber theatre' as vast, versatile, and ever expanding artistic disciplines.

The roots of digital performance can be traced in the history of multimedia theatre, avant-garde visual performance art (live art), and interactive computer multimedia art. Even though digital performance, with its apparent multimedia character and extensive use of modern technology, remarkably resembles Richard Wagner’s and Bauhaus concept of ‘total theatre’, this new art discipline is rarely examined in this historical context. The theatre works of the Italian Futurists and the German political theatre of Erwin Piscator, for example, have much in common with some of the latest multimedia digital performances of Studio for Electronic Theatre. The sixties multimedia theatre of Josef Svoboda, furthermore, anticipates recent developments in contemporary digital performance, for example, the work of Kevin Cunningham.

What distinguishes digital performance from what went before in multimedia theatre is digital interactivity. Inherited from computer multimedia art, interactivity is the new and distinctive technological feature characteristic of digital performance today. Interactivity can be established between the performer and the multimedia content of the performance, or between the spectator and the work of art. The latter practice has its historical roots in the last century, in the works of John Cage, Allan Kaprow, the Fluxus group, and other avant-garde visual artists.

The second part of the book is dedicated to the analysis of Salihbegovic’s practical artistic work. Together with his group, the Studio for Electronic Theatre, he made a platform for research in the field of cybernetic theatre. He analyses the ‘techniques and aesthetics’ of the three theatre projects Waar is daar? (Where is There?), Gadget Project and Slaughterhouse 5. These performances represent his attempt to migrate an old idea of immersive ‘total theatre’ into a new digital and technically highly sophisticated artistic environment.

The book is published as an augmented book in partnership with Aurasma (Augmented Reality Platform).

The augmented book is extending the experience of the traditional book by adding the strong digital element to it. One is able to watch the video clips pointing her/his smartphone to the dedicated images in the book so that the still images from the book ‘come alive’ when the video clips from the phone get superimposed over them. This new technology very much corresponds to the subject matter of the book.

Item Type:	Book
Subjects:	N Fine Arts > N Visual arts (General) For photography, see TR
Pre-2014 Departments:	School of Humanities & Social Sciences School of Humanities & Social Sciences > Department of Communications & Creative Arts
Related URLs:	Author
Last Modified:	14 Oct 2016 09:24
URI:	http://gala.gre.ac.uk/id/eprint/10200

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