Overview

This trans-historical collection explores analogue performance technologies from Ancient Greece to pre-Second World War. From ancient mechanical elephants to early modern automata, Enlightenment electrical experiments to Victorian spectral illusions, this volume offers an original examination of the precursors of contemporary digital performance.

Full Product Details

Author:   Kara Reilly
Publisher:   Palgrave Macmillan
Imprint:   Palgrave Macmillan
Dimensions:   Width: 14.00cm , Height: 1.50cm , Length: 21.60cm
Weight:   0.490kg
ISBN:  

9781137319661

ISBN 10:   1137319666
Pages:   269
Publication Date:   22 October 2013
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In Print  
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Table of Contents

List of Illustrations Acknowledgments Notes on Contributors INTRODUCTION; Kara Reilly PART I: INTERROGATING HISTORIOGRAPHY 1. Heron of Alexandria's 'Toy Theatre' Automaton : Reality and Illusion; Richard Beacham 2. Manufacturing Elephants: the Mythic, the Mechanical and the Credible in Theatre History; Odai Johnson 3. Performing Technology, Performing Reality: Steele MacKaye's Actors and Machines; Victor Holtcamp 4. Forgotten Wizard: The Scenographic Innovations of Mariano Fortuny; Brandin Barón-Nusbaum PART II: INDUSTRIAL BODIES AND DANCE 5. Pantomime and Modernity: The Fairy and The Navvy; Kate Newey 6. The Tiller Girls: Mass Ornament and Modern Girl; Kara Reilly 7. Retro-Engineering; Jo hannes Birringer PART III: PERFORMING SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY 8. Shocks and Sparks: Participatory Electrical Performances in the Enlightenment Period'; Ciara Murphy 9. Modern Nation and Rural Idyll: Reconciling Progress and Purity through Performance ; Naomi J. Stub bs 10. Spectres and Spectators: The Poly-Technologies of the Pepper's Ghost Illusion; Beth Kattelman 11. Recalling the Theatre Phone; Adrian Curtin 12. 'Like Unto A Lively Thing': Early Modern Performance of Artificial Intelligence; Michael Chemers

Reviews

'These explorations of intriguing oddities of performance history, interspersed by 46 illustrations, covers projects ranging from Richard Beacham's minutely re-created Roman-era toy theatre with mechanized movable parts to Michael Chemers's ongoing work with robots whose artificial intelligences lack (to date) what is understood as empathy... Recommended [for] graduate students, researchers, faculty, technical students, professionals, general readers.' - CHOICE 'Reilly's collection is important in challenging technology's tendency to impose a hegemony of the new through extending con - versations about the interrelation ship between performance and technology to a long and rich pre-digital past.'- Maria Chatzichristodoulou, New Theatre Quarterly

'These explorations of intriguing oddities of performance history, interspersed by 46 illustrations, covers projects ranging from Richard Beacham's minutely re-created Roman-era toy theatre with mechanized movable parts to Michael Chemers's ongoing work with robots whose artificial intelligences lack (to date) what is understood as empathy... Recommended [for] graduate students, researchers, faculty, technical students, professionals, general readers.' - CHOICE

Author Information

Odai Johnson, University of Washington, USA Richard Beacham, King's College, UK Victor Holtcamp, Tulane University, USA Brandin Barón-Nusbaum, University of California, USA Katherine Newey, University of Exeter, UK Kara Reilly, University of Exeter, UK Johannes Birringer, Brunel University, UK Ciara Murphy, University of Pennsylvania, USA Beth A. Kattelman, Ohio State University, USA Naomi J. Stubbs, LaGuardia Community College, CUNY, USA Adrian Curtin, University of Exeter, UK Michael M. Chemers, University of California, Santa Cruz, USA

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