"Digital Performance" By Steve Dixon, a Review

Book: Digital Performance

Author: Steve Dixon

Pages: 669

Year: 2007

Summary:

Seriously a tome of a book, “Digital Performance” interweaves years upons decades of theatre, musical, interactive, and artistic spectacles with an electronic or digital twist. The book is deep, both in the temporal aspects and the depth of discussion. Compounding these insights, one is opened to many exotic, forgotten, and over-looked - yet influential - pieces of contemporary performance that highlight the very nature and direction of such in a way that only historical articles seem to do.

It was very interesting to be exposed to all sorts of niche gatherings from the past. Also revealing was how many artists from many years ago were not only pushing the limits of the technology (sometimes farther than they are being pushed today) but how they were asking the same questions and running into the same dilemmas, conversations, and topics that I, and many other artists face today; across many mediums seemingly.

Another facet that was of interest was how the book dealt with the topic of post-modernism and the transition to new stages of art and essentially, society and civilization. Although the book was written in 2007, it is still relevant; however, by 2014, 7 years later, the face of art and especially digital performance has been progressed into the forms that the book was only hinting at - showing no signs of currently stopping.

The direction proposed, and one of mine that has been strengthened and broadened by this reading, is that of humans transitioning past post-modernism and into a new age. This new age looks to be populated with not only electronic lifeforms, but also forms of mixed nature, the organic and the digital. Only time will tell if this is indeed a correct tangent for the path.

Notes:
- Internet chatrooms, thought to be the next place for theatre, conversation, and community, have not yet taken off into that realm and may never because of unforeseen setbacks.

- Roman Senators used to walk around a room reciting the speech they were about to give, looking at certain features so as to embed clues of the oration around the space.