Live Media: Interactive Technology & Theatre

In this paper, David Z. Saltz writes about his experiences of using "interactive media" in theatre productions as Assistant Professor of Drama and Director of the Interactive Performance Laboratory at the University of Georgia. Dr. Saltz begins the paper with a discussion on "defining interactive media" in a general way. He discusses how interactive media is a way to store and "summon" media through interactions with sensory triggers. His three major determinants of interactive media are random access, arbitrary links between trigger and output, and media manipulations. These three concepts separate interactive media from both stagnate media and linear media. They require dynamic reactions and indeterminate programmatic flow. Saltz then discusses the connection between interactive media and theatre. He talks about the fact that dancers have clear connections to interactive media, as they often want specific reactions to accompany their movements. He then details the possibilities of using interactive media in scripted performances. He illustrates how linear media does not fit in this situation, and interactive media can have a real niche in it. In the next part of the paper, Dr. Saltz talks about productions that he directed at the University of Georgia with the Interactive Performance Laboratory (IPL) which heavily utilized interactive media. In their productions of Hair, Kaspar, and  The Tempest, the students at UGA were able to integrate media into live, scripted performances of theatre. To end his paper, Dr. Saltz then focuses on twelve different ways he has found that can connect media and performers in live productions. Virtual scenery and interactive costumes provide interesting setting opportunities. There are several perspective options including "alternate perspective", "subjective perspective", and illustration that give audience members a greater understanding of what is going on in a scene. In addition, the last elements: commentary, digetic media, affective media, synthesia, instrumental media, virtual puppetry, and dramatic media can all serve to breathe more life into a production, by way of adding more possibilities for failure as well as more dynamic cues to the actual human performers. To end, Dr. Saltz's paper was an intriguing study into the possibilities of using media in theatre in a way never before seen.