When I first experienced the module entitled ‘Multimedia’, I expected to be informed that we had to create a performance that involved a multitude of media in a specific way to create a specific effect. Whilst I may be able to this, it is now clear to me that the module is multidisciplinary as well as multimedia.
To begin with I was interested in finding out what our limitations would be during the process of making this performance, yet there are no limitations. We were informed that the work did not even need to be specifically a multimedia performance as long as we could explain our reasoning behind the performance.
The next term that I needed to define in context of this module was performance. Schechner has written that “[p]erformances mark identities, bend time, reshape and adorn the body, and tell stories” (2002, p.28), and I agree completely with this statement.
This research in conjunction with Carlson’s argument that “the recognition that our lives re structured according to repeated and socially sanctioned modes of behavior raises the possibility that all human activity could potentially be considered as performance, or at least all activity carried out with a consciousness of itself” (2004, p.4) suggests that a performance can come from anything.
Being sat where you are right now, reading this post could be considered restored behaviour as it is not a completely new action that has not existed in society’s past behaviour and it could also be construed as a performance. Am I performing to you by writing this blog post? Will you ever truly know?
Work Cited
Carlson, Marvin (2004) Performance: A Critical Introduction, London: Routledge
Schechner, R. (2002) Performance Studies: An Introduction, London: Routledge