New Media as an Area of Dialogue Between Theatre and Film: “There is Still Time.... Brother” by The Wooster Group and “Eavesdrop” by David Pledger and Jeffrey Shaw on the AVIE (Advanced Visualisation and Interaction Environment) Platform

Ryszard W. Kluszczyński

Abstract

The AVIE platform, developed at the Center for Interactive Cinema Research at the University of New South Wales in Sidney, emerged as a result of many years of experimentation by Jeffrey Shaw, who explored artistic possibilities of interactive panoramic forms. Their distant sources were the early work by this artist belonging to the circle of expanded cinema. One therefore might be tempted to think that considering the source and the final context of AVIE, all artistic phenomena associated with AVIE fall within the formula of expanded cinema, and the AVIE itself is only the latest form of film dispositive. Meanwhile the AVIE platform proved to be no less attractive for theatre artists. The Wooster Group and David Pledger used AvIE in the production of spectacles that make up anew format of visual theatre, or post-theatre. Both of these works meet in a common technological context, yet arise from dif­ferent aesthetic sources. The Wooster Group emerges from the tradition of cinematification of theater, having its origins in the second and third decade of the 20^th century, while Pledger’s spectacle has its origins in intermedia art of the second half of the 20^th century. Kluszczyński analyses aspects characteristic for each of these works, and those in common, he interprets the impact of the technical virtual framework for their aesthetic characteristics and paints a scenario of future common history of cinema and theatre, developing and finding common ground in the digital environment. Interaction, participation and agency of the audience play the primary role in this scenario.