MEDIATED MESSAGES: Constructions of Intimate
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MEDIATED MESSAGES: constructions of intimate communication through the use of digital technologies, and the extent to which such encounters can be conceptualised as one-to-one performance Jason James Crouch PhD 2017 MEDIATED MESSAGES: constructions of intimate communication through the use of digital technologies, and the extent to which such encounters can be conceptualised as one-to-one performance A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the Manchester Metropolitan University for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Department of Contemporary Arts, Manchester Metropolitan University 2017 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS My thanks go to my supervisory team of Dr Jane Turner and Dr Martin Blain for their wisdom and guidance, and to Neil Mackenzie for his thoughts on relevant practice. I’d also like to acknowledge the creative push from Dr Peter Petralia, without whom I’d never have gotten into this situation in the first place. Warm thanks go to the colleagues and friends who’ve provided illumination, insight and intelligence over many years. For this research period most especially Sarah Myott-Meadows, Lowri Evans, Tassos Stevens, the font of inspiration and wisdom that is Cristina Delgado, and Sarah Wishart fellow warrior and academic pilgrim. Much love goes to the world-wide connected family: Jesse Ricke and all at culturehub, online fellows Lisa Parra, Daniel Pinheiro, Annie Abrahams, and to all the other networked performance makers who express big thoughts with small pixels. Connecting through the network is impossible without people to connect with. Thank you to close friends, travellers, advisors and guinea pigs who brought such playful joy to the process: Tiia Veneranta, Rich Warburton, Alice Tatton-Brown, Sam Shaw, Hebe Reilly, Steph Reynolds, James Monaghan, Ross McCaffrey, Paul Mayers, Spencer Marsden, Elliot Hughes, Seth Honnor, Erik Geelhoed, Kate Daley, Andrew ‘Crofty’ Crofts, Tricia Coleman, Maddy Costa, Josh Coates, Ian Biscoe, Charlotte Berry and Lauren Banks. Thanks also to the folks at Contact for all their support both technical and personal, most especially Alex Willy. For opportunities to test drive experiments in public thanks to Tamsin Drury (hÅb), Re-Con class of ’14 and Derelict Festival. I would like to acknowledge the institutional support of Manchester Metropolitan University. This research wouldn’t have been possible without the PhD offer and the studentship attached to it. I’m also indebted to the library access afforded to alumni of Manchester University, which helped me throw the research net as wide as I could. Thanks to the giants who gave me opportunities to look over their shoulders: Tim Etchells, Richard Gregory, Nick Tandavanitj, and Ghislaine Boddington. Thank you to my family, those who are here and those who are no longer. It’s a blessing that cannot be underscored enough to be supported and believed in by your mum and dad. Finally thank you my true partner, now wife, Yvonne for her unflagging support, who married me despite and in full knowledge of the continuing long and arduous trajectory of this project. ABSTRACT In the 21st Century a majority of the world’s population carry in their pockets devices that promise connection to others over distance. The instant connectivity offered by technologies of communication is somewhat of mixed blessing combining the allure of interaction and the threat of availability. Much of the advertising gloss for the technologies of communication – smartphones, video conferencing and social networks – relies on selling the idea of real human connection at a distance. This study sets out to explore the nature of mediated communications between individuals in the context of a perceived opposition that conceptualises technology as either distancing or enhancing what it is to be human. The research frames mediated interactions as one-to-one performance, an approach which encourages the unexpected and playful whist embracing vulnerability. In exploring the nature of the one-to-one performance scholars and audiences stress their experiences as personal, at times intense and certainly intimate. Here intimacy is engaged with as both a subconscious technological fluency as well as intrapersonal closeness, placing such interaction in the socio-cultural context of late capitalism. It is concluded that rather than technology enframing a commodified experience of the world, intimate interrelations are possible and inevitable. Chapter 1 serves as an introduction to the research question and contextualises the inquiry in regard to my own personal and professional background. Chapter 2 details relevant concepts, scholarship, performance practice and cultural context and serves to place the work in a lineage of other practice. Chapter 3 describes, documents and interrogates the research practice, including inspirations and experiments alongside the final works. Chapter 4 conceptualises the practice within a phenomenological framework, analysing contemporary communications technologies as part of an expanding perceptual toolset with which we co-shape our reality and placing technical infrastructure within a framework of late capitalism. The final chapter concludes the complimentary writing and clearly enumerates the findings. Introduction .................................................................................................... 1 A Personal Context .......................................................................................... 10 2. State of the Art .......................................................................................... 28 2.1 Introduction ............................................................................................... 28 2.2 Connected, relational selves. .................................................................... 32 2.3 Art and Technology ................................................................................... 38 2.4 Encounters and Relations .......................................................................... 43 2.5 Performance and performativity ............................................................... 53 2.6 Reality bytes .............................................................................................. 58 2.7 Being there (or over here) – Liveness and Presence ................................. 60 2.8 The one-to-one, intimacy in performance ................................................ 65 2.9 Through a wide angle lens ......................................................................... 71 2.10 Artworks in a lineage ............................................................................... 81 3. Practice .......................................................................................................82 3.1 Introduction to the practice #1 - Theatre in technology ........................... 83 3.2 Introduction to the practice #2 - Intimacy, from performance to the everyday ........................................................................................... 89 3.3 Practice Methodology ............................................................................... 97 3.3.1 Practice Methodology – Design and build .............................................. 97 3.3.2 Practice Methodology – Records and reflections ................................. 104 3.4 Prelude and Études .................................................................................108 3.4.1 Prelude: Mojave Phone Booth ............................................................. 109 3.4.1 Étude: Burner ....................................................................................... 113 3.4.2 Étude: Small Talk (various) ................................................................... 119 3.4.3 Etude: Cave Project .............................................................................. 141 3.5 Final Compositions .................................................................................. 151 3.5.1 Small Talk ............................................................................................. 154 3.5.2 Conversation Piece ............................................................................... 164 3.6 Coda ........................................................................................................ 177 4. Critical Engagement. ................................................................................ 180 4.1 Introduction ............................................................................................. 180 4.2 A Philosophical Interrogation .................................................................. 181 4.3 Making Meaning ...................................................................................... 214 4.4 Revisiting the wide angle lens ................................................................. 228 5. Conclusions ............................................................................................. 243 Bibliography ................................................................................................ 249 Appendix 1: Artworks in a Lineage ............................................................... 273 A.1.2 Real-time video artworks ..................................................................... 273 A.1.2.1 Hole in Space – Galloway & Rabinowitz (1980) ................................ 273 A.1.2.2 Hello - Allan Kaprow (1969) .............................................................. 275 A.1.2.3 Telematic Dreaming – Paul Sermon (1992) ......................................