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REVISTA DE ESTUDIOS CULTURALES DE LA UNIVERSITAT JAUME I / CULTURAL STUDIES JOURNAL OF UNIVERSITAT JAUME I

Convergence and Creativity in Telematic

Performance: The Adding Machine
GEORGE H. BROWN
BRADLEY UNIVERSITY

GERHARD HAUCK
U N I V E R S I T Y O F WAT E R L O O

ABSTRACT: Between December 2005 and March 2007, the Department of Theatre
Arts and the Multimedia Program at Bradley University, USA; the University of
Waterloo, Canada; and the University of Central Florida, USA developed a unique
theatrical enterprise that encompassed four creative artists, over one hundred
students from seven academic departments, and an array of sophisticated rendering
and communication technology. The fully mediatized production of Elmer Rice’s
expressionistic play The Adding Machine integrated virtual scenery, live, real-time
telematic performances facilitated via Internet2, recorded composite video, avatar
performers, photographs, graphics and sound.1 This paper reports and analyses
some of the artistic, dramaturgical, and technical discoveries made from the
production and offers some theoretical insights about convergent telematic
performances.

Keywords: Telematic performances, teleconferencing, virtual theatre, intermediality,

new media dramaturgy, theatre technology, DVTS (Digital Video Transfer Systems),
telepresence

RESUMEN: Entre diciembre de 2005 y marzo de 2007, el Departamento de Arte

Dramático y el programa Multimedia de la universidad de Bradley, la universidad
de Waterloo y la universidad de Central Florida desarrollaron un acontecimiento
teatral único que agrupaba a cuatro artistas, alrededor de cien estudiantes de siete
departamentos universitarios y una ingente cantidad de tecnología de la
comunicación. La versión completa de la representación transducida de la obra

1. For more information on this production see the Bradley University website: http://addingmachine.
bradley.edu/
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expresionista The Adding Machine, de Elmer Rice, integraba decorados virtuales,

actuaciones telemáticas en vivo y tiempo real a través de Internet2, grabación de
vídeo analógica, actores digitales, fotografías, gráficos y sonido. Este artículo
presenta y analiza algunos de los descubrimientos artísticos, dramatúrgicos y
técnicos realizados y ofrece una reflexión teórica sobre las representaciones
telemáticas convergentes.

Palabras clave: representación telemática, videoconferencia, teatro virtual,

intermedialidad, nueva dramaturgia digital, tecnología teatral, DVTS (sistemas de
transferencia de vídeo digital), telepresencia.

Murder Montage Composite Scene with Thomas C. Lucas as MR. ZERO and John Wayne
Shafer as THE BOSS. Photo by Duane Zehr of Bradley University

Written in 1923 by Pulitzer Prize winning playwright Elmer Rice, The

Adding Machine is one of America’s first expressionistic plays. From a
dystopian perspective on technology, the play takes a look at the dehumanization
of society in a technocratic age that is both funny and terrifying. The play’s anti-
hero, Mr. Zero, is a downtrodden wage-slave who is sacked after 25 years of
loyal service as a bookkeeper. Angered by having been replaced by an adding
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GEORGE H . BROWN , GERHARD HAUCK Convergence and Creativity in Telematic Performance 103

machine, he subsequently murders his boss. He is tried and executed for his
crime. After his death, Zero reaches the Elysian Fields – an idyllic countryside,
unbounded by the prison walls of human conventions. But Zero has no use for
unlimited freedom, so he jeopardizes his chance of happiness with his devoted
co-worker Daisy and opts instead to work in a «celestial repair shop» for worn-
out souls. There, he works diligently on an adding machine for what he expects
to be eternity, but after 25 years he is again sacked and sent back to earth where
he will become an even sadder cipher.
The Adding Machine provided a wonderful vehicle to explore the creative
potential of the new digital media in theatrical terms through the convergence of
theatre performance, production, and dramaturgy, with multimedia and
streaming video technologies. This paper reports and analyses some of the
artistic, dramaturgical, and technical discoveries made from this production, as
well as from several other productions on which we have previously
collaborated.
In the space of convergence in which intermedial theatre is created, we have
discovered that it is imperative to work with both halves of the brain
simultaneously: creative problems needed technical solutions and technical
problems needed creative solutions. Consequently, in what follows we will be
navigating between the two, discussing technical and logistical as well aesthetic
and dramaturgical issues.
Fully cognizant that the technical and dramaturgical complexity of this
staging of The Adding Machine would justify the discussion of many production
facets – conceptualization, collaboration, mediatization, processes and
pedagogy, to name just a few – here we will focus on those aspects which appear
to us the central ones: the technology involved in telematic performances and the
nature, problems, pleasures and justification for digitally enhanced and
facilitated performance.
Geographically, Bradley University served as the primary performance
venue for the production, where some 3000 audience members watched the
production unfold. There were three remote sites that fed telematic performances
into the primary performance venue:

1. The University of Central Florida (1100 miles away), where our colleague John
Wayne Shafer performed from his office;
2. The University of Waterloo (800 miles away), where theatre student Brad Cook
performed in a studio theatre with a local support crew;
3. An additional studio had been set up for local actors to be included telematically
in the production, which was situated less than 100 feet from the main stage on
the Bradley campus.
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In addition, there was a remote audience observing a live video stream of

the performances, via Polycom, in a media room at the University of Waterloo,
albeit with no live local actors present.

Rehearsal shot with George H. Brown (Director) in Peoria IL and, on screen, Brad Cook as
SHRDLU in Waterloo, Ontario. (Rehearsals facilitated via a Polycom videoconferencing
system). Photo by Scott Cavanah of Bradley University

To create the virtual space required for telematic collaboration we needed

significant amounts of internet bandwidth to stream video signals. For this we
utilized Internet2 in the USA and the CANARIE network in Canada. Internet2 is a
consortium of 300 member institutions, including leading U.S. universities,
corporations, government research agencies, and not-for-profit networking
organizations working to develop and deploy advanced network applications
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GEORGE H . BROWN , GERHARD HAUCK Convergence and Creativity in Telematic Performance 105

and technologies.2 Collaborating with over 50 international organizations and

networks, Internet2 has established global partnerships to help ensure inter-
operability and connectivity.3 CANARIE Inc., Canada’s advanced Internet
development organization is a corporation supported by its members, project
partners and the Canadian Government. Its mission is to accelerate Canada’s
advanced Internet development and use, through facilitating the widespread
adoption of faster, more efficient networks; and by enabling the next generation
of advanced products, applications and services to run on them. It is supported
by the Ontario Research and Innovation Optical Network (ORION).4 Serving as
the backbone for Internet2 in the U.S. is the Abilene Network, with a data transfer
speed of 10 gigabits per second and a goal of offering 100 megabit per second
connectivity between every Abilene connected desktop.5 The speed of the
Abilene Network enables the real-time connectivity necessary for telematic
performance.
Rehearsals and production meetings for The Adding Machine were
facilitated through various videoconferencing technologies including Polycom
and Apple Computer’s iChat. For final rehearsals and the actual performances,
however, we used a recently developed software program called Digital Video
Transport System (DVTS), which enables digital video and sound distribution on
the Internet.6 DVTS is an open-source program that runs on various operating
systems, though we did have trouble running it on a Mac. By connecting DV
cameras through Firewire interfaces to PCs running DVTS it is possible, with very
little investment, to distribute high-quality images and sound. The systems
function uni-directionally, so it is necessary to have both a send and receive unit
to create a two-way video connection.
For The Adding Machine, each partner institution was responsible for
acquiring the necessary computers, monitors, and cameras to create the Digital
Video Transport System. At Bradley, the system assembled consisted of four
recycled PCs with Pentium 4 processors running on the Windows XP platform.
Firewire cards were added to hook the computers to the video switcher. Similar
computers were utilized at both Waterloo and Central Florida to complete the
system. These eight computers, four at Bradley, two at Waterloo, and two at
Central Florida were networked through Internet2 and CANARIE to create four
send/receive video systems, which interconnected the remote performance sites
with the main performance venue at Bradley. Combined, the four systems

2. «Internet2: About Us», <http://www.internet2.edu/about/>, [8-6-2007].

3. «International partnerships», <http://international.internet2.edu/index.cfm>, [8-6-2007].
4. «Canarie», <http://www.canarie.ca/about/index.html>, [8-6-2007].
5. «Advanced Network for Leading-edge Research and Education», <http://abilene.internet2.edu/>, [8-6-
2007].
6. «DVTS Consortium: What’s DVTS », <http://www.dvts.jp/en/dvts.html>, [2-5-2007].
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required 30 megabits of bandwidth each. Since there were times when the
production required up to 120 megabits of processing speed, we did experience
occasional video latency or break-up. To resolve this we capitalized on the play’s
episodic structure and alternated our connection to receive signals either from
Florida or from Waterloo. This kept the performance operating at around 90
megabits:

Graph of Internet 2 bandwidth usage. Peak usage during Jan – March reflects production
of The Adding Machine. At times during the process, over 120 megabits of bandwidth was
required for the production

Video quality was central to the aesthetic appeal of production. Because all
telematic performances were played in front of a green screen the streamed
performances were keyed mechanically into the graphic backgrounds designed
by Jim Ferolo, the director of Bradley University’s Multimedia program, and his
team of multimedia students. These were high-quality composite video pieces
that required months of development and rendering time. One video sequence
that served as the transition into the Elysian Fields took over 100 hours to render
on an array of some 35 computers. A planning bid for the project submitted to a
commercial rendering firm estimated the cost at over $100,000 for this sequence
alone.
Directorially, we shared the belief that honouring the integrity of the play
was paramount. Consequently, all choices relating to mediatization and
telematics were made with the support of, and in support of the text. Thus, the
authority figures in the play, for example, appeared on screen, oversized in scale
to Zero, the insignificant protagonist.
Similarly, the character of Shrdlu, lost in his isolated, angst-filled world,
existed only in the virtual world of the production, while Zero’s companion
Daisy, who perpetually longs for the warmth of human companionship, had a
physical presence on stage. In terms of colour design, the dramaturgical choice
was to present all screened performances, with the exception of the Elysian
Fields scene, in black and white, symbolizing Zero’s drab life. For the scenes in
the Elysian Fields we transitioned to full colour in all the media elements in
order to represent a joyous paradise – an environment totally unfamiliar to Zero.
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Rehearsal shot from Control Booth with crew running Video Mixer and Isadora Software.
Photo by Scott Cavanah of Bradley University

DVTS Cyberperformance Scene with John Wayne Shafer in Orlando Fl as THE BOSS and
Thomas C. Lucas in Peoria IL as MR. ZERO. Photo by Duane Zehr of Bradley University
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Integrated Composite and DVTS Cyberperformance Scene with Brad Cook as SHRDLU in
Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, and Thomas C. Lucas in Peoria IL as MR. ZERO. Photo by
Duane Zehr of Bradley University

Integrated Composite as Background with Thomas C. Lucas as MR. ZERO and Lindsey
Schawahn as DAISY. Photo by Duane Zehr of Bradley University
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The transition to a new world was mirrored through the costumes as well.
Designed by Becki Arnold, identical garments were created for the actors, with
one outfit in a dark pallet for the drab world of Zero’s daily life and the twin
costume in white for the Elysian Fields. In this way, the production team was
able to blend the virtual world of the telematic space with the physical world of
the theatre, merging stage craft with mediatization.
As with all telematic technologies currently available, we did experience
occasional latency of image transfer lasting up to three seconds. As latency is
based on the time it takes a video signal to travel the fibre optics system and
return, there is always some delay; even the speed of light takes one whole
second to travel around the world seven times. Latency is determined by
numerous factors: transmission speed, bandwidth, the number of switches the
signal has to travel through, and is still largely unpredictable. In fact, we had
lower latency between Illinois and Ontario than between Illinois and Orlando,
while we had better video quality between Illinois and Orlando. We solved the
problem by incorporating latency into the characters, for example, Zero’s Boss
became continually preoccupied with his work and had difficulty remembering
names or facts. His «sluggish» perception and «delayed» responses highlighted
his preoccupation and even created a comic effect.
One significant DVTS issue that plagued this production was the persistent
presence of audio loops. When a performer at a remote site spoke into a
microphone, audio signal was streamed via the DVTS over a thousand miles to the
performance site at Bradley. The signal was then amplified and broadcast
throughout the Bradley theatre sound system so that both actors and audience
could hear it. Unfortunately, the microphones used at Bradley to send actors’
voices to the remote sites also picked up the locally amplified voices, creating a
sound loop that repeatedly echoed across the continent. Since we were unable to
resolve the sound loop issue in the DVTS application, we solved the problem by
having actors in the remote sites use ear buds to break the loop, even though they
would still hear themselves, and then used electronic equipment such as a gate
and a ducker to make the microphones at Bradley sound cancelling. The solution
worked sufficiently well that the audience in Peoria did not notice a problem but
it forced the remote performers to deal with significant audio difficulties.
One additional technical area that influenced the aesthetics of telematic
performance was the limitation of current projection technology to create a
three-dimensional space. We do not live in a 640 by 480 pixel two-dimensional
world. The flatness of images projected onto traditional screens, no matter how
ingeniously the screens are integrated into the stage scenery, work against the
dynamics of human movement and the sculptural qualities of the human body.
Significant collaborative discussions took place concerning the placement of
projectors and screens to overcome this limitation. Erich Keil, the scene and
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lighting designer, created multiple designs, many of which were rendered in 3D

for review. Choices were also affected by budgets and real-time issues
concerning rendering time. Ultimately, we chose to create a factory-like
environment with large «windows», which served as a 36-ft wide projection
screen. The windows could be subdivided into three large 12x12 ft sections, each
of which could be further divided into 9 squares, providing a multitude of
differently-sized projection units. To minimize physical comparisons of
dimensionality, the screen was placed above the actors on stage and most virtual
characters were projected at larger than life scale, which added to the
theatricality of the piece.

Integrated Composite and DVTS Cyberperformance Scene with John Wayne Shafer in
Orlando FL as THE JUDGE and Thomas C. Lucas in Peoria IL as MR. ZERO, the 12 members
of the Jury all played by Thomas C. Lucas and Michelle Ziccarelli, and THE POLICE played
by Devin Kelly and Sean Cummings. Photo by Duane Zehr of Bradley University

Ultimately, regardless of the technology we used in mediatization or

telematic performance, the focus was always on the story. Almost every
significant choice made in presenting The Adding Machine was based on
considerations relating to Elmer Rice’s script. In many respects, we attempted to
make the technology invisible, not in a stylistic or physical sense – in the
expressionistic and theatrical nature of the production it mattered little if the
audience saw the cameras and projectors – but rather as the result of a high
degree of integration into the production; to a point where the technology
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became both intrinsic and necessary to the telling of the story. Janet H. Murry
explains it in her book Hamlet on the Holodeck: The Future of the Narrative in
Cyberspace:

Eventually all successful storytelling technologies become «transparent»: we loose

consciousness of the medium and see neither print nor film but only the power of
the story itself. If digital art reaches the same level of expressiveness as these older
media, we will no longer concern ourselves with how we are receiving the
information. We will only think about what truth it has told us about our lives.
(Murry, 1997: 26)

In reality, we used technology in the same way as earlier innovators of

theatre when they first employed the mechane or the electric lamp as tools to
enhance the story. But in view of the 2,500-year history of successful story-
telling through non-mediatized theatre and the gargantuan technological efforts
it took to stage this production, one is justified in asking, «why bother?»
Canadian writer, director, designer, actor, and artistic director Darren O’Donnell
hints at one possible answer. In Social Acupuncture (2006), O’Donnell paints a
dire picture of the viability of theatre in an age when «theatre has been eclipsed
by […] other time-based representational forms: film, television and now
gaming and other online activities» (O’Donnell, 2006:16).
Conventional theatre practitioners have tried to hold on in a variety of ways
to the cultural relevance of the art form as an active part of a civic discourse, but
O’Donnell suggests it «is more or less finished» (O’Donnell, 2006:16). He
concludes that:

Theatre is caught in an eddy, in a redundant conversation with itself, out of the loop
of the cultural, philosophical, political and aesthetic development in other forms.
Information-age capitalism, with its demand that cultural products be digitized and
circulated via electronic networks, has left theatre gasping for intelligence,
relevance and currency. (O’Donnell, 2006: 17)

Even though O’Donnell (2006: 16-17) considers the technological

advancements of the past century a major perpetrator of theatre’s demise, the
other being theatre’s inherent resistance to commodification on the same scale
as film, television, and the internet, it is, ironically, in the new interactive media
and in novel ways of involving the audience in a more productive manner where
he finds the most creative experiments and the most innovative performances.
While one may take issue with O’Donnell’s thesis, the figures relating to
ticket sales in the United States tend to support his assumption that theatre is
losing out to other media performances for well over 1.3 billion tickets are sold
to moviegoers annually, which is an average of five tickets for every American,
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whereas only 0.23 tickets are purchased by theatregoers. Even more striking is
the fact that by age seventeen the average American has spent 15,000-18,000
hours watching television, compared to 12,000 hours spent in school, and just a
few hours watching live theatre (Downs, Wright, and Ramsey, 2007: 28). The
numbers for many other western nations, one may assume, are not substantially
different.
These numbers, of course, do not tell the whole story since new forms of
theatrical, or quasi-theatrical performances have emerged, which bridge the
tradition of representational theatre with the new interactive media to create live
experiences that capitalize on the inherent strengths of both. Part of this shift is
economic – it is cheaper to make a modest film or video and have it shown
around the world on YouTube than to produce a play for the local fringe festival.
The other part of it is cultural – the explosion of interest in «reality shows» and
«docudrama» for example, The Amazing Race, Survivor, Train 48, Flight 93,
Bowling for Columbine, Sicko, Spellbound and dozens of others, which allow
audiences to partake in the questionable illusion of the tribulations of real
people. While film, television, and the internet profit from this fascination with
«real» experiences, it is, paradoxically, in live, real-time, interactive theatre
where «the real» can be generated for real, no matter if it is mediated according
to conventional paradigms or mediatized through the diverse paradigms of the
new interactive media.
Ironically, the idea that the theatre’s liveness is – in itself – a virtue and a
source of automatic, unearned moral superiority to film and television has been
exposed by theatre scholars Peggy Phelan, Denise Varney and Rachel Fensham
as «sheer bourgeois sentimentality» (Varney and Fensham, 2000: 91). Banal as
it may sound, there is a perception that the theatre may have to be brought to the
people if the people don’t come to the theatre; and one of the best ways of doing
that is to utilize the multitude of available popular media, singly or in
combination, to create live, real-time, interactive theatrical experiences.
The question that poses itself at this juncture, and which appears to get
asked every time theatre embraces one of the latest technological developments
is whether we are justified in calling this type of telematic presentation theatre.
Our argument is that it must have something to do with theatre because telematic
performances tend to happen in theatrical spaces, involve actors, use dramatic
scripts, connect with past theatrical practice, and form part of the academic
discourse of theatre studies. However, some purists might refuse to recognize it
as theatre because it contravenes, or ignores, some of the most revered
assumptions about theatrical practice: actors and audiences occupying the same
physical space, for example; the possibility of haptic exchanges and interactions
amongst actors, which can play such a crucial part in establishing characters and
their relationships; the often very subtle interactive and reciprocally affective
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responses on the part of both actors and audiences, which contribute towards the
ephemeral nature of the theatrical event, and which, in the opinion of Peggy
Phelen constitutes the ontology of performance (Phelen, 1993: 146).
So what can we call it? Cyberperformance? Cyberformance? Hyperperformance?
Hyperformance? Distributed performance? Multi-point videoconferenced
performance? Telematic Performance? Distance Theatre? All of these labels
have been attached to the type of telematic performances we have created over
the past five years. We wonder if it is necessary to label the creation and if it is
deemed necessary then who would benefit? If it is for advertising purposes the
label might be rather wordy, for example: «a fully mediatized, multi-locational
hyper drama with virtual performers in cyberspace by Jane Doe» is unlikely to
be effective at attracting an audience. Similarly, in the arena of critical discourse
academics will deconstruct any attempt at categorization. Therefore, instead of
trying to pin it down semantically or typologically, it might be more fruitful to
ask why we choose to make theatre that inhabits the realm of intermediality –
where all concerned are located quite literally «in-between media» as
performers, technicians and inter-active receivers.
There is a long list of benefits inherent in teleconferencing technology,
which makes this technology a very desirable and remarkably reliable resource
for both facilitating and researching theatrical activities. To begin with, and
speaking purely logistically, teleconferencing can be useful in facilitating
auditions and early dramaturgical brainstorming sessions, and in rehearsing and
designing a production with theatre artists who are committed to engagements in
other locations. Auditions, rehearsals, and all of the conceptual and
dramaturgical discussions between the collaborators on this project were
facilitated through telematic technology.
A more significant reason is that it allowed us to explore, in theatrical
terms, the range of communicative choices provided by this particular
technology and its associated media (video, sound, etc.). Theatre has always
embraced the latest technological advances, and following Bolter and Grusin’s
persuasive historical approach in Remediation (1999), we argue that almost any
technological manifestation has been utilized for creative expression. The lead
pencil, after all, represents a technological advance over wax stencils or stone
carving instruments and was not originally designed specifically for Dürer to
create his drawings. Nor were BMW automobile parts created for Bruce Gray to
make sculptures out of them. Telematic performances (let’s agree to call them
that for now), provided us with the opportunity to explore the creative potential
inherent in teleconferencing technology.
In this we were guided by the well-known aesthetic paradigm that
Michelangelo was merely an excavator who found the shape of David in a block
of marble in which David had resided all along. To us, teleconferencing
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technology had something of that block of marble from which we hoped to

excavate many things of beauty. Furthermore, in the generation of the frequent-
flyer business types gripped by fear of air travel in the post-9/11 world, the
popularity and quality of image and sound production and distribution of
teleconferencing technology has advanced at breath-taking speed. It has
developed into a vehicle for human-to-human and human-to-technology
interactions, which provide such a high degree of realism in image and sound
reproduction that, as Theresa Ditton, Mathew Lombard, Carlton Reeve argue, it
can provide an extremely strong sense of presence through «the perceptual
illusion of non-mediation» (Lombard and Ditton, 2004).
Multi-point telematic productions like The Adding Machine have the
potential to be interactive on a global scale that is truly inter- and cross-cultural.
They transcend limitations of space and time in an unprecedented manner and at
very limited expense; they have the potential to synchronize and synergize with
the full range of filmic, digital, phono-digital, and cyber-spatial opportunities
available. In conjunction with some of the latest developments in computer-
generated special effects, telematic performances facilitate the real-time co-
existence of live performers, with mediated performers and digitally generated
avatars; they can be streamed live onto the web to audiences counting in the
millions; and they enable theatre researchers to access an unprecedented amount
of data to back-up their theoretical meditations on as yet unresolved questions in
performance and reception studies, and thus lead to the advancement of a truly
global approach to theatre and performance research.
Telematic performances become truly intermedial when streamed onto the
web, with the potential to reach an audience of millions that are not a passive
audience but who can actually interact with the performers through the
employment of «remote approbation feedback interfaces» which are being
developed at the University of Waterloo. In addition, they may also introduce the
YouTube generation to theatre sites on the web, which, sadly, they are not keen
on visiting in actuality.
As always, there is an economic argument to be made here as well:
telematically generated theatrical interactions are extremely cost-effective –
essentially, the cost of electricity to run a computer, sound equipment, and
camera; they facilitate meetings, discussions, improvisations, and performances
without the expense associated with travel and hire rental of theatres.
Finally, teleconferencing technology has the capacity to support one of the
most striking developments in video-transfer technology – the projection of
three-dimensional full-sized holographic images of real people into a
(potentially) unlimited number of locations through «Teleportation». For
example, the New York City-based 3-legged Dog Theatre Company recently
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used the Musion Eyeliner projection system to create holographic avatars on

stage for their production of Losing Something in the spring of 2007.7 The same
system was used to allow the animated musical group GorillaZ to serve as the
back-up band for Madonna at the 2006 Grammy Awards.8
However, we recognise also that all of this good news is laden with more
questions, in particular, the issues that relate to dramaturgy. For example, are
there particular genres of plays that lend themselves to this form of
intermediality? or does the use of telematic performance depend on the
conceptual approach on the part of the director?
Here we may think of the work of the Belgian director Guy Cassiers and his
production of Rouge Décanté, which used live video transfer on stage and begin
to wonder how we may evaluate these types of performances. Can Iphigenia
partake in a 21st century rave from a remote location, as is suggested in Caridad
Svich’s rave fable Iphigenia Crash Land Falls on the Neon Shell that Was Once
Her Heart? Might it be possible to take a hypertextual environmental drama like
Tamara by John Krizanc and Richard Rose and make it linear through the use of
multi-screen presentations, and if so, then what would be the value of such a
project?
In essence, having successfully proved to ourselves that telematic
performances are possible, we need now to question the performances of The
Adding Machine in relation to «real» theatre – as defined by the theatrical action
taking place in real time, in front of a live audience in the real space of the here
and now. This raises the following questions:

1. How much of the affective theatre experience do we loose by replacing human-

to-human interaction with technologically-enhanced collaborations in
rehearsals and live productions?
2. How can telematic performances respond to the subtle shifts in audience
reactions, when audience members are thousands of miles away or partaking in
the presentation sitting alone at their home computer?
3. How can the experience be real, complete, or authentic when, as is often the
case, flawed connectivity or qualitatively divergent infrastructures or dialogic
responses are delayed, and where synchronicity between voice and gesture is
inconsistent and movements are devoid of their natural fluidity?

It seems to us that the questions ask us to compare apples and oranges. Yes,
on the one hand, teleconferenced theatre can be studied in terms of the generic
dramaturgical parameters we associate with regular live theatre – after all, the

7. See «Current Productions», <http://3leggeddog.org/mt/>, [28-8-2007].

8. See «gorillaz & madonna - grammy awards 2006», <http://www.eyeliner3d.com/gorillaz_madonna
_grammy_awards.html>, [28-8-2007].
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two share many elements and creative objectives; on the other hand, such a
discussion is preordained to focus on the perceived shortcomings of
teleconferenced theatre vis-à-vis the exclusive standards set by a reductive,
purist notion of what constitutes «real» theatre. Some of these shortcomings are,
after all, not insubstantial:

1. Actors and audience members do not share the same space; actors address
cameras in order to establish eye contact with a partner instead of looking at that
partner directly;
2. Actors participating from remote locations appear only two-dimensionally and
have no opportunity for haptic interaction with local actors;
3. At this stage in the development of the technology, data transfer limitations can
still cause latency in dialogue, jagging of movements and lack of synchronicity
between the two.

Together, these «flaws» are perceived by some as alienating for an audience

and anathema to the experience of intimacy, immediacy, simultaneity,
believability, and the resulting sense of presence we commonly associate with
conventional theatre. In spite of the gravity of these reservations, however, this
line of argumentation seems short-sighted to us, partly because we cannot blame
the technology for something it was not originally designed to do; just as we
cannot blame the mechane in Greek theatre for not bringing the gods on stage in
a less obtrusive way; and partly because the development of the technology is
still in its infancy; there is strong evidence that some of these technical
shortcomings will be overcome before long. At the same time, it is important
also to point out that some of the technical limitations will never be resolved
because they are inherent to the medium. Crucially, however, it could be
considered cavalier to fault telematic theatre exclusively on its failure to
replicate a form of theatre that is based on the naturalistic model, while other
modes of producing and presenting theatre exhibit a much greater openness to
this technology. Take, for example, the work of Robert Lepage, which includes
many instances of his interest in telematics, as well as other forms of digital
technology, because they suit his multi-layered, non-linear narratives. Consider
also Robert Wilson’s image-driven theatre in which video technology allows
him to give expression to the enormous scale of his images.
What is more pertinent to us is that part of the fascination of teleconferenced
theatre is that it challenges old ways of performing; it deconstructs conventions,
and leaves us with the joyous wonderment of how it all comes together as an
affective experience. Because the method of creation may alienate us from
conventional modes of representation and perception, it actually makes us more
aware of the creative process per se and the paradigm shift in the convention. No
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theatrical or quasi-theatrical representation has much value unless it engages an

audience in some way. What theatre – like any other art form – is really about,
says Darren O’Donnell in Social Acupuncture «is generating affect, and that’s it.
Feelings. And, if things go well, quickly following feelings will be thoughts»
(O’Donnell, 2006: 19).
We know that the audience’s capacity for having feelings and generating
thoughts is crucially connected with its willingness to suspend its disbelief. In
this context it is necessary to ask whether or not telematic theatre has the
capacity to make an audience suspend its disbelief as willingly in the virtual
space, as it does in performances where actors and audience share the same
physical space. We believe that the audience response to The Adding Machine
confirmed that audiences are more than willing to embrace the telematic
illusions in virtual space, largely because: «theater [...] is the original virtual
reality machine» (Reaney, 1996: 38), but also because in the last few years
society generally have become so accustomed to experiencing things in a virtual
manner, that the two have become increasingly intermingled and have turned out
to be experientially similar. According to University of Kansas researcher and
virtual scenographer Mark Reaney, both theatre and virtual reality allow
audiences to «visit imaginary worlds which are interactive and immersive»
(Reaney, 1996: 28). The degree of familiarity with a particular medium either
encourages, or discourages a sense of presence and generates a greater or lesser
degree of comfort with its operational specificities.
Lombard and Ditton conclude that it is not the characters, storylines, or
actors that affect a sense of believability but the behaviour of the medium. The
experience of The Adding Machine bears this out. After some initial hesitation
and uncertainty, the actors accepted very quickly the limitations of the medium:
delayed immediacy of response; inconsistent synchronicity of voice and
movement; diminished fluidity of motion and quickly found a way of making
the medium serve their acting needs. They succeeded in creating the illusion of
non-mediated exchanges, and indeed, the success of this adaptation to the
perceived shortcomings of the medium gave them great satisfaction and
enhanced their perception of the «reality» of their exchanges. Experientially, the
actors appeared to feel little difference between performing with remote partners
in a virtual space and performing with real partners in a real space, in spite of a
certain loss of intimacy, spontaneity, and immediacy. Thus, telematic
performances like The Adding Machine problematized anew the aesthetics of
reception in the theatre – one dictated and honed by the increasingly pervasive
intermedial experiences – with critical receptors that are decidedly different
from those fine-tuned by conventional theatrical practice. They remind us also
to consider the concomitant difference in audience experience – an experience
that may be, simultaneously, more solitary and more communal; one that
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presents both performers and recipients with a very different sense of their
engagement in a performance.
In conclusion: a word of warning. Historically, we are still at the very early
stages of a technological revolution, which will very likely change the face of
live theatre over the next couple of decades, and much of what seems valuable
or exhilarating today will fall by the wayside, only to be replaced by something
that is perceived more valuable, more relevant, or more exhilarating. We must
acknowledge also that some of us are still too infatuated with, or too dismissive
of, the new worlds of virtual reality, intermediality, cyberspace, or hypertext to
see them for what they truly are. However, once our infatuation or dismissal
matures into a real understanding of their innovative and challenging prospects,
we may find ways of expressing ourselves through them, which we had not
considered before – imperfections notwithstanding. This is why it is incumbent
upon us now to gain the best possible understanding of the language of this
revolution: its syntax, and its poetry, regardless of whether we wish to conserve
ferociously the theatre of old, or if we wish to invest it, or even supplant it, with
these new prospects. Most likely, teleconferenced theatre will never replace live
theatre as we know it, and there is no reason why it should or would. It is simply
a response both to the art of theatre, to which it is next of kin, and to the new
medium which parented it, from which the art of theatre has a lot to learn. Our
hope is that one will invigorate the other.

Works Cited

DOWNS, W. M.; L. A. WRIGHT; E. RAMSEY (2007): The Art of Theatre: Then

and Now, Belmont, Thomson Wadsworth.
MURRY, J. H. (1997): Hamlet on the Holodeck: The Future of the Narrative in
Cyberspace, New York, The Free Press.
O’DONNELL, D. (2006): Social Acupuncture: A Guide to Suicide, Performance
and Utopia, Toronto, Coach House Press.
PHELEN, P. (1993): Unmarked: the Politics of Performance, London, Routledge.
REANEY, M. (1996): «Virtual Scenography: The Actor, Audience, Computer
Interface», Theatre Design and Technology, 32(1): 36-43.
VARNEY, D.; R. FENSHAM (2000): «More-and-Less-Than: Liveness, Video
Recording and the Future of Performance», New Theatre Quarterly, 61(1):
88-96.
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GEORGE H . BROWN , GERHARD HAUCK Convergence and Creativity in Telematic Performance 119

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