Internet 2 Musings

The artistically collaborative possibilities inherent in the new strain of Internet 2 technologies has caused me to think on future projects in a new light. I have an idea for a rock musical, for instance, but because such a notion of "rock musical" is already tainted with cliché connotations, why not make the thing into an event, one with as much an element of the unpredictable as there is of the rehearsed? Perhaps I could explain this in the program, and announce the specific moments when the experimentation will occur. Given the beta-ever-evolving nature of the medium at this stage - and the economics of charging high tickets prices to cover overhead in NYC - I don't think it would be fair to trick audiences into thinking they'd get the same thing every time. Then again, with practice I suppose the whole thing could be made seamless. Clearly, though, a spectator has to go into this with a much more open-minded view of what theatre is and could be.

I am encouraged by the egalitarianism of bringing this capability to the masses via iChat, although clearly the difference between an amateurish vaunt and a more professional one requires some pretty pricey equipment (mixers, monitors, cameras, projectors, screens, and the like). Many of those putting on events like this in the future may choose to bypass many of these components, in which case an already prominent trend of bringing the arts to a more casual home play space is likely to continue in that direction. As with any artistic endeavor, you have to play to the space, and if that space is increasingly people's laptop screens then producers of events in larger traditional theatre and concert hall spaces are to have even more to compete with since the first fallout of the domestic entertainment revolution, the surround sound home theatre. Can the arts survive this? What may finally trump this threat is that man is indeed a social animal... so if someone at home can log in and watch an event from anywhere, they become exposed to it, and may want to bring their friends to it live thereafter, thereby making the streaming version a form of advertising for the real thing (because, clearly, the quality cannot be as good without some parts that are truly in the flesh). We'll see, if we get to the point of 3-D holograms and perfect precision in audio with zero latency then the living real time arts may one day be dead.