Arthur C. Clarke hat behauptet, dass genügend fortgeschrittene Technologien und Medien nicht mehr von Magie zu unterscheiden seien. Und ist es nicht tatsächlich erstaunlich, wenn plötzlich eine Stimme durch einen leeren Raum geistert oder eine Schrift auf einer leeren Wand aufscheint? Technologien und Medien – hier: der CD-Player, der Beamer – sind wie Tricks: Sie funktionieren am besten, wenn sie nicht oder nicht mehr als solche wahrgenommen werden. Medien lassen wie in einem klassischen Zaubertrick Dinge nach Belieben erscheinen und verschwinden, sie erzeugen Anwesenheit in Abwesenheit, sie machen evident, was in reiner Präsenz banal erschiene.
In der Performance Art, als deren herausragende Merkmale gerne die 'Unmittelbarkeit' und die 'leibliche Ko-Präsenz' genannt werden, gewinnt der Medieneinsatz deswegen ein ganz eigenes Potential. Das Seminar wird in der Bearbeitung klassischer und aktueller Performances die je spezifischen Figuren der An- und Abwesenheit untersuchen, die durch je spezifische Medien eröffnet werden. Neben einiger Theorie-Arbeit wird es für die Teilnehmerinnen und Teilnehmer vor allem darum gehen, die eigenen Überlegungen und Hypothesen in kurzen eigenen Präsentationen mittels durchdachtem Medieneinsatz zu demonstrieren.
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AFTER SEEING HIS EXHIBITION THIS WEEK YOU CAN HAVE A THOUSAND THRILLS AT HOME.
BE YOUR OWN MEDIUM.
IT IS POSITIVELY EASY AND SIMPLE.
harry houdini: performance poster. the palace at keith theatre, cleveland // ohio, ca. 1920.
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samuel f b morse: patent concerning mode of communicating information by signals by application of electromagnetism. us patent usre79, jan 15, 1846.
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“Spiritualist beliefs crossed the country along with the unreeling cables of the telegraph companies.”
jeffrey sconce: haunted media. durham & london 2000, 24.
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the ‘celestial telegraph’.
andrew jackson davis: the present age and inner life. ancient and modern spirit mysteries classified and explained. a sequel to spiritual intercourse revised and enlarged. 1853 (reprint: rochester: austin publishing 1910)
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check:
jeffrey sconce: haunted media. electronic presence from telegraphy to television. durham & london: duke university press 2000, 13.
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benjamin west: benjamin franklin drawing electricity from the sky. ca 1816.
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benjamin franklin: “letter to mr. peter collinson, concerning an electrical kite”,
in: philosophical transactions (1751/52), 47, pp. 565-567.
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dickens, charles: the haunted man, and the ghost’s bargain. london 1848.
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“No one could actually make a misty, glowing ghost materialize on stage, haunt the scene, then dissolve through walls or disappear in front of your eyes. Before 1862 those sorts of ghosts could only be imagined.”
“The ghosts a the [Royal] Polytechnic first materialized on December 24, 1862, to enhance a dramatic scene from one of Charles Dickens’s Christmas stories, “The Haunted Man”. […] The curtain opened on a simple story in pantomime. A student toiled at his desk, studying by candlelight. Suddenly a ghost image appeared in front of him, a glowing skeleton draped in gauze […]. Perhaps the most alarming part of the demonstration was the way the skeleton materialized from thin air - hazy at first, then brighter and brighter, until it seemed to glow in a transparent, unearthly way. The student lunged from his chair, grabbed a sword, and swung it at the ghost, which suddenly disappeared. […] The audience response was intantaneous and electric.”
steinmeyer, jim: hiding the elephant. how magicians invented the impossible. london: arrow books 2005, pp. 24/25, 29/30.
check: http://www.jimsteinmeyer.com
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giambattista della porta: magia naturalis // natural magick. naples 1558 // london 1658.
book 17: on strange glasses.
chapter 12: how we may see in a chamber things that are not.
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count orloff - the transparent man (1864-1904)
Ivannow Wladislaus von Dziarski-Orloff was born in Hungary in 1864. His skin was paper thin and his musculature so atrophied that – with the aid of a bright spotlight – spectators could actually see the blood coursing through his veins. Not only that, but when a bright light was placed behind Orloff, the warm glow could actually been seen from the other side.
[Some promoters claimed] that a person could read a newspaper through the body of Orloff. Orloff was known primarily as “The Transparent Man”, but later in life he adopted the moniker of “The Human Window Pane”. Eventually he went into business for himself – he owned his own successful sideshow.
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http://thehumanmarvels.com/?p=112
http://www.phreeque.com/orloff.html
http://sideshows.wikia.com/wiki/Count_Orloff
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shakespeare, william: the tempest. london 1611. act ii, scene i.
“enter ariel, invisible.”
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shakespeare, william: the tempest. london 1611. act i, scene ii.
prospero [to ariel]:
“be subject to no sight but thine and mine, invisible to every eyeball else.”
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john p. muller: beyond the psychoanalytic dyad: develepmental semiotics in freud, peirce and lacan. london: routledge 1995, p.120.
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harold g. fitzgerald: projector for handling transparent slides, 1947.
us patent 2,564,057.
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“Der Overheadprojektor ist ein Oszillator zwischen Präsenz und Präsentation.”
Claus Pias: “‘electronic overheads’. Elemente einer Vorgeschichte von PowerPoint”, in: Wolfgang Coy // Claus Pias (Hgg.): PowerPoint. Macht und Einfluss eines Präsentationsprogrammes. Frankfurt/Main: Fischer 2009, 16-44, hier: 21.
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monochrom: farewell to overhead (the song):
http://www.monochrom.at/farewell-overhead/monochrom_at—-farewell-to-overhead.mp3
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