Critical Thinking On Reading Summary

After examining the text of the 2005 interview between David Pledger, the artistic director and producer of the Melbourne company Not Yet It’s Difficult (NYID), with Rosie Klich of Performance Paradigm regarding his 2004 collaboration with Jeffrey Shaw on the production Eavesdrop it appears the concerns the author addresses are themes of voyeurism and surveillance pervade Pledger’s work and what truly motivates him to imbue his art with these particular motifs.
At first glance it seems these components would generate a negative view of human nature as well as interaction, but inherently makes sense when Pledger explains he feels this characteristic lies within every homo sapien and he is fascinated by their attempts to ignore this predisposition. In Pledger’s opinion, the subjugation of this urge he likens to an animal instinct, elicits itself adversely in forms of human interaction because it blinds a person from honestly being able to see what makes them tick and ultimately it holds them from progressing spiritually and emotionally.
The writer’s main objective is to delve deeper into the realm of new media and to obtain a better grasp on what this entails. Namely will it involve greater involvement of the spectators? Will they be allowed to essentially create their own experience while being guided? What impact will this relatively new art form have in the future?
The work of Lev Manovich, in which he describes new media as a window on how the performers and spectators will view the environment while interacting with one another, is used to buttress the author’s opinion that new media can indeed be a revolutionary direction for the theatre as they are not told a narrative but have control over their own experience and from what they make of the performance as active participants. Klich also buttresses her assessment by stating her own involvement with Eavesdrop made her feel as if she was actively molding and participating in a form of theatre which has traditionally been with a stringent barrier between performers and spectators. She then further details her point by asking Pledger to describe his perspective on the user-interaction embedded within his show and explains to him how enthralled she was by it.
The writer’s arguments are clearly supported by Manovich’s work, as stated above, and Pledger’s admission Eavesdrop is a complete digression or shall we say new direction from nearly every other performance in the history of theatre because most of them can only be experienced individually. With Eavesdrop spectators actually engage by wearing a headset listening to whatever conversation intrigues them and have the free will to switch that off and try another in a communal environment with their peers. Pledger also acknowledges new media definitely has the means to transform the expression of art through technological advances, but he intends to employ it in a way that benefits humanity instead of denigrating it.
Honestly, this transcription has drastically altered my personal viewpoint on the very nature of a live performance. It is rather enticing to settle back in a chair, analyze and gauge what the performers are striving to portray, then reveal your own assessment, but this type of performance, which is actually created by the user is a novel concept with tremendous implications for the future of theatre. It is certainly one of the most exciting twists the art form has underwent in quite some time.