Beckett on Film (2001) Artists for the Extraordinary Interviews That They Gave to Me, Some of Whom Are Quoted Here
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This electronic thesis or dissertation has been downloaded from Explore Bristol Research, http://research-information.bristol.ac.uk Author: Balaam, Annette C Title: Samuel Beckett in Virtual Reality General rights Access to the thesis is subject to the Creative Commons Attribution - NonCommercial-No Derivatives 4.0 International Public License. A copy of this may be found at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/legalcode This license sets out your rights and the restrictions that apply to your access to the thesis so it is important you read this before proceeding. Take down policy Some pages of this thesis may have been removed for copyright restrictions prior to having it been deposited in Explore Bristol Research. However, if you have discovered material within the thesis that you consider to be unlawful e.g. breaches of copyright (either yours or that of a third party) or any other law, including but not limited to those relating to patent, trademark, confidentiality, data protection, obscenity, defamation, libel, then please contact [email protected] and include the following information in your message: •Your contact details •Bibliographic details for the item, including a URL •An outline nature of the complaint Your claim will be investigated and, where appropriate, the item in question will be removed from public view as soon as possible. Samuel Beckett in Virtual Reality. ANNETTE CAROLINE BALAAM. A dissertation submitted to the University of Bristol in accordance with the requirements for award of the degree of PhD in the Faculty of Arts, Graduate School of Arts and Humanities, October 2019. Word Count: Eighty-Five Thousand, Four Hundred and Fifty-one. 1 Abstract. Samuel Beckett’s death occurred at the inauguration of the digital age in 1989 activating certain latent tendencies within Beckett’s work and de-activating others, provoking this projects investigation into how Beckett pre-figures our experience in the digital and virtual world. Returning to the source text and Beckett archives reveals the unique ontological locus of any Beckett text and its creative genesis, identified as a locus for being human in the digital and virtual realm. The second part interrogates this principle through contemporary practitioners of Beckett’s work. Both lines of enquiry will draw on Beckett’s, Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s, Paul Cézanne’s and Pierre Lévy’s questions regarding the nature of what constitutes subject and world construction, in the process of bringing a world into being. Chapter one proposes that Beckett’s work pre-figures our experience in the digital and virtual world through embodying an interpretation of Merleau-Ponty’s principles. Chapter two explores how Beckett and digital and virtual reality exists in a space in-between being and nothingness, through Pan Pan’s 2011-2016 high-tech productions of Beckett’s radio plays All That Fall (1956) and Embers (1959). Chapter three investigates the degree of separation in-between the actual and virtual realms within this locus of process, through Company SJ’s 2009-2017 site-specific productions of Beckett’s plays. Chapter four explores the notion that the body has become site and subject of meaning making, through Gare St. Lazare’s productions 1998-2019. Chapter five interrogates the contemporary designation of ‘live’ through UNMAKEABLELOVE (2008), a mixed reality production by Jeffrey Shaw and Sarah Kenderdine. This chapter develops the notion that it is the holistic nature of the body to body and world relationship that is the act of creation. The conclusion suggests that in identifying the lineage of the ontological genealogy of the digital and virtual human, points forward to a Quantum human and world. 2 Dedication and Acknowledgements. This project has taken me on the most extraordinary journey, through many varied and as yet undiscovered lands. Realms that were revealed through the most extraordinary teacher and guide, my Supervisor Professor Simon Jones. I have been incredibly lucky, honoured and privileged to have taken this journey through some breath-taking landscapes with such a teacher and guide. I will be forever grateful to Professor Simon Jones for this journey. And grateful to the University of Bristol who gave me the honour and privilege of being able to go on this journey through awarding me a University of Bristol Scholarship, thank you. And many thanks to my Secondary Supervisor Dr Ulrika Maude, whose time was always gratefully received. The University of Bristol Alumni Association opened up a new world of knowledge and possibilities concerning where this project could take me in the future. I will always be extremely grateful for their funding of a European tour of conferences on my subject. It gave me the knowledge, confidence and ability to see that the only limits we have on what we do in this world are the ones that we place on ourselves. Thank you for a vision of the future that contains all possibilities. Special thanks go to the Archivists at the University of Reading Beckett Archives, who are extremely good at what they do. Their patience, kindness and generosity were limitless and very gratefully received, thank you. And a great debt of gratitude goes to the Beckett on Film (2001) artists for the extraordinary interviews that they gave to me, some of whom are quoted here. And last but not least many, many thanks to the Samuel Beckett community itself, which is always open, generous and patient with its students. The knowledge you have and freely share is the future, thank you. For Raine, for getting me to this place. 3 Author’s Declaration. I declare that the work in this dissertation was carried out in accordance with the requirements of the University’s Regulations and Code of Practice for Research Degree Programmes and that it has not been submitted for any other academic award. Except where indicated by specific reference in the text, the work is the candidate’s own work. Work done in collaboration with, or with the assistance of, others, is indicated as such. Any views expressed in the dissertation are those of the author. SIGNED: Annette Balaam. DATE: 20th October 2019. 4 Table of Contents. Title Page. ………….......................................................................... Page 1 Abstract. ……………......................................................................... Page 2 Dedication and Acknowledgement. .................................................. Page 3 Author’s Declaration. ......................................................................... Page 4 Table of Contents. ….......................................................................... Page 5 List of Figures. ……………………………………………………… Page 6-8 List of Abbreviations. ......................................................................... Page 9-11 Epigraph. ……………........................................................................ Page 12 Image of Samuel Beckett, Photograph by John Haynes. ................... Page 13 Thesis Title Page. Samuel Beckett in Virtual Reality. ………………………… Page 14 Thesis Epigraph. …………………………………………................ Page 15 Chapter One. Samuel Beckett’s Reality TV. ……………........................... Page 16-72 Chapter Two. Beckett in Multiple Media: Immersive Reality. .................... Page 73-105 Chapter Three. Site Specific Beckett: Augmented Re ality. ……................... Page 106-144 Chapter Four. Body Specific Beckett: Simulated Reality. …........................ Page 145-192 Chapter Five. Beckett in Mixed Reality: Hyper-Reality. ….……………… Page 193-230 Conclusion. Samuel Beckett in Quantum Reality. .................................... Page 231-241 Bibliography. ……….......................................................................... Page 242-276 Appendix; title pages: Beckett on Film Interviews. Page 277-278 Interview with Gary Lewis. ................................................... Page 279-291 Interview with Charles Sturridge. ………………………….. Page 292-297 Interview with Charles Garrad. …………………………….. Page 298-313 Interview with Stephen Brennan. …………………………... Page 314-316 Interview with Niall Buggy. ………………………………... Page 317-326 Interview with Neil Jordan. ………………………………… Page 327-330 Interview with Marcello Magni. …………………………… Page 331-346 5 List of Figures. Introductory Pages. I.1. Samuel Beckett. Photograph by John Haynes. (UoB MM/REF/PE/WR/11). Page 13. Chapter One 1.1 Mont Sainte-Victoire c.1902-1906, 73 x 91.9 cm. final period. Philadelphia Museum of Art. Cézanne. Page 28. 1.2 Bather Entering the Water. c.1885, mature period. Private Collection. Dimensions unknown. Cézanne. Page 28. 1.3 Still Life with Carafe, Sugar Bowl, Pomegranates and Watermelon. c.1900-1906. 31.5x43.1cm. Musée de Louvre, Paris. Cézanne. Page 28. 1.4. Still Life with Carafe, Sugar Bowl, Pomegranates and Watermelon. c.1900-1906. 31.5x43.1cm. Musée de Louvre, Paris. Cézanne. Page 29. 1.5. Digital Photo Shop Replica. Page 29. 1.6. Self-portrait with beret 1900, 63x50cm oil/canvas, Private Collection. Cézanne. Page 33. 1.7. Still Life with Carafe, Sugar Bowl, Pomegranates and Watermelon. c.1900-1906. 31.5x43.1cm. Musée de Louvre, Paris. Cézanne. Page 34. 1.8. Digital Photo Shop Replica. Page 34. 1.9. Cézanne, Madam Cézanne in a Red Armchair, c.1877, oil on canvas, 72.4x55.9cm. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, bequest of Robert Treat Paine, 2nd, (artwork in the public domain; Photograph © 2013 Museum of Fine Arts, Boston). Page 35. 1.10. Mont Sainte-Victoire 1902-1906, 65x81cm oil/canvas, Philadelphia Museum of Art. Cézanne. Page