Re: [microsound] Laptop, etc as Performance device

[devslashnull <dev@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Noel Peters wrote:

> Is this barrier simply a short term obstacle present until the audience
> is able to understand the performative language of the laptop?

No. There is no performative language of the laptop. Or more aptly, yes 
there is a language, but it is only one syllable, and it is misspelled. 
Unless someone does something performative, then there really is no 
performance in practical terms. Laptop "performance" is boring period. 
Just because someone gets up in front of people and does something on 
their laptop does not mean that the entire history of the performing 
arts should be re-calibrated to allow for that act to be "good 
performance". It is a slap in the face to anyone who has honed those 
performative skills. It is a slap in the face to the audience to blame 
the lack of engagement in the performance on them (the audience). You 
either have a good performance or you don't. That definition is broad, 
and should be explored by anyone who wants to "perform" using a laptop. 
The days of the novelty value of someone getting up in front of people 
and doing something in real time on their laptop are gone. Good 
riddance.

REZNIC9@xxxxxxx wrote:

  | A performance is about what is felt not what is seen.

This seems a very narrow definition of a performance. What if the 
performance is explicitly related to the intermediality of audio and 
video? I assume your statement is specific to the genre of audio you 
are exploring, which is noise, but the concept of noise extends much 
further than the audio realm. Perhaps an investigation into those areas 
would be a way to expand the scope of that work, and to bring a much 
broader field of view to the exploration of noise. Perhaps an 
investigation into the modalities of performance would inform your 
writing as well.

dev


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