By Karla Ptacek & Helen Varley Jamieson
This article was first published on the trAce web site and won the Process Award in trAce and Writers for the Future’s New Media Article Writing Competition, Nov. 2004
pick up an avatar hen
just doing that
ah, synchroncity within CMC
’Computer Mediated Communication’
crappy mangled chat
crap miss-communication
an innocuous acronym for what is usually a minefield
of misunderstandings, misinterpretations
and tangents
red herrings
bogus disagreements
as if speaking a different language
(len DOES speak a different language)
insults, slights, insights,
each believing we’re understanding each other
bogged down in prolonged, surreal exchanges where meanings are mangled and time & the machine seem insurmountable
no body language or intonation to guide us
jokes misfire, irony lost
Lol.
that’s our panacea: Lol.it means so much more then ‘Laughed out Loud’
yes indeed
it’s a crucial modifier. Softens the text.
yes, lol. it’s key
hang on, phone ringing
you know it’s strange that we don’t have more keys like that
one minute Hen, talking on mobile
sure
keep that thought
(pause)
Helen?
(pause)
yes, emailing
sometimes, you think you’re having a conversation, explaining a great idea only to discover you’re talking to yourself
yes
the other person is disconnected, busy, afk
This is the default condition of
not a problem,a fact of cyber-life
collaborative online performance writing
absence and presence are closely entwined
e.g.len’s superb absence the other day
during rehearsal, when she was present, but mentally absent
lol
Yeah. we hung around 4 ages wondering where she was, till she finally says ‘can we get started already’.
Who knew she wus there?
in a manner of speaking, she wasn’t there.
and Vi really really wasn’t there
?
wilderness moment
ah
But it’s more specifically problematic in cyberformance writing, because as a new genre of performance there’s an emphasis
what is?
on visuals, subtexts, theatricality and metaphors
which reference a huge range of cultural sources and multiple languages of theatre, film, video, tv,
what is more specific?
its even different from online story writing, because performance is metaphoric language PLUS
back up k
what is more specific to cyberformance writing?
CMC
there are specific online problems, you mean?
yeah, problems we encounter in communicating during process is exacerbated by the nature of performance writing in general and cyberformance genre especially
yes
and nature of any performance writing, collaboratively, is also problematic
now add stage & screen directions
visuals – avatars and video streams
audio from stage and screen text to speech plug-ins
divergent plotlines
and the requirements of the proximal performer…
RL interruptions
the needs of a proximal audience
yep
hangovers, etc
which is different from needs of online audience
dialup, late buses
not to mention unstable technology
and you have an immensely complex stew
indeed
we are crazy, really
it says a lot about how much we desire to communicate though
sorry
my browser just crashed
ah
third time it did that today, dunno why
did you get the animation link for the rough Prolog on DTN2? http://www.avatarbodycollision.org/dtn2/DTN2prolog.html
no time. Wot is it?
simple Flash version of the Prolog I made to
demo what it should look like, since Vi & len don’t read the scripts.
shit- the ghost voices have just started 4 me
Vi prefers visual versions of texts, which is interesting. We could ‘write’ whole script in animations.
are you getting them?
No. Wot are you hearing?
i hear your text fine
instead of speaking what i typed
it spoke something completely different
like it picked up an old piece of dialogue
You know wot its like Helen?
wor?
When the technology goes haywire like this
Its like being in a deranged brain
it’s a dangerous cocktail
group brain as author. composed of words, images, movement, lag
not enough written about lag.
lol
wot? we named a show after it
laggin with the lololos.
hello
hey douglas!
kiss kiss
douglas here
we have just finished rehearsal& are chatting about our processes
(and now I drop the thread because douglas, our programmer, has arrived. Unexpectedly)
do you have sound at the moment, douglas?
i am experiencing what we call the ghost voice
i have a bad habit of upgrading my software everyday
with whatever anyone wrote overnight
so sometimes sound and stuff stops working
ah
at midnight nz time?
(douglas is in NZ, Karla in London, Helen in Belgrade)
douglas do you mean the server is upgraded every night?
(Its 11:13am London, and 12:13 in Belgrade and 10:13PM in NZ).
no, it’s my computer
Unlike most collaborative writing teams
i leave the server alone as much as possible
right, that was what i thought
some members are asleep while others are awake
we’ve just been talking about our twisted process
some at work while others socialising. (UpStage is built in twisted isn’t it?)
I think the sound problem might have to do with caching
and some are steeped in winter doldrums while other lucky buggers are on summer vacation
we’re in different places
time zones
states of mind
might as well say it
we’re in different worlds
Karla Ptacek’s work spans two decades in New York City as a writer, performer and director in multimedia ensembles, involving over 50 performances Off & Off-Off Broadway. She holds an MA in Directing from Goldsmiths College, London, and a practice as research MPhil in Distributed Performance Practices, supported by a scholarship from the Arts & Humanities Research Board, UK. Together with Vicki Smith, Karla iniated World X in January 2004, a virtual exchange project between pupils in London and N.Zealand using UpStage. In her work with Avatar Body Collision she experiments with digital writing and performing formats. Her cyberscript, Screen Save Her (2002) introduced webcams into the company’s work as third performative stage for cyberformance. “What interests me is the diverse qualities of liveliness that occur across the animate and the inanimate in distributed performance practices.“ http://www.artificialstage.com
Helen Varley Jamieson has a background in theatre as a writer, director and producer, and has worked in digital media and the internet since 1996. Although she encountered chat rooms and MOOs early on, it wasn’t until she met up with Desktop Theater in 2000 that she became excited by the potential of the internet as a venue for performance. She coined the term cyberformance to describe live performance using internet technologies such as chat applications. In 2001, her cyberformance presentation at the Odin Teatret, Denmark, caused such a commotion that she was inspired to embark on a Hunt for the Body and Emotion in Cyberformance. This search began with a research project, the[abc]experiment, and continues in her work with Avatar Body Collision. She remains optimistic, saying that she has always been able to smell her goal and every performance takes her closer. http://www.creative-catalyst.com/
Avatar Body Collision (globally distributed performance troupe formed in 2001 by Karla Ptacek (London, UK), Leena Saarinen (Helsinki, Finland), Helen Varley Jamieson (Aotearoa, New Zealand), Vicki Smith (Aotearoa/New Zealand). ): http://www.avatarbodycollision.org/
UpStage (open source software creating a web-based venue for cyberformance): www.upstage.org.nz
Avatar Body Collision (Digital Creativity): http://www.szp.swets.nl/szp/journals/dc143180.htm