Tuesday, October 20, 2009
A large-scale test of using the internet for performance
Backstage at BackstageJobs.com: "This past Monday, I was privileged to be working part of the national simulstaging of The Laramie Project: Ten Years Later, An Epilogue. Over 150 theatres across the US and around the world (in fact, more than were listed on the website) took part in this event, which included many of them starting their performances in sync with the “lead” performance at The Lincoln Center. The Lincoln Center provided a live internet feed of the opening remarks and greetings, as well as of the Twitter based question and answer session following the performance."
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3 comments:
I really wish I had been able to observe the event in its entirety; I was able to watch the Q&A after strike let out, however, and it was fascinating. Twitter was a great way to send questions for the Q&A, but the talkback hit several dead air moments while waiting for a question from Twitter or for a question to come up from the rather timid audience at Lincoln Center. The video feed appeared to work very well, and it was great to be able to see/hear the comments directly from Tectonic after the close. The author of this article was upset that the website was not up-to-date, but another technological thing I would have liked would be a playback of the opening remarks and Q&A sessions. I would love to be able to go back and watch these once I get the chance to read the 10 Years Later script or see a performance of it in the future.
The internet is changing the scape of art as we know it. Those who are embracing the idea of Web 2.0, and live streaming comment are coming up with incredible new mediums to work in. I loved this Laramie Project as a way to use the internet and new technology to further art.
I never thought about the technology behind coordinating the simultaneous performances of this, nor would I have thought to use twitter. I think the idea of using a social network tool like Twitter was clever, because they are designed to handle the load, so the tech staff of 10 years later didn't need to put something together on their own (and load test it). It also looks like they came up with a good list of areas to improve on for the next time they do something like this: Hopefully the next group to coordinate a show in over 150 venues like that can learn from 10 years later and make the technology work even smoother.
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