III. When is performance cinema?

Obviously, Now. But also, very much, Tomorrow. Performance Cinema is happening as we speak and is gathering momentum due to technological developments of the past few years.

This is a good enough juncture to point out some of the converging technologies and forces that are sweeping quickly through our world. One major point is the increased power of personal computers, per the actions of Moore’s Law.

Continuous innovations in software and software development environments are now showing brilliant fruits, and to discuss some of that, I am very happy that Joshua Clayton, the programmer responsible for developing the Jitter software development environment from cycling74 is here today. I’m sure he’ll have many illuminating perspectives for us in this regard. If I were performing today, my work would be indebted to his efforts, but also to Peter Nyboer, who developed the program I normally use for Performance Cinema, and he used Jitter to do it!

Anyway – this march of software and hardware will continue, and will continue to empower artists to acquire the tools they need to realise their creative vision and practice, and the focus of this software and hardware revolution has been increasingly to facilitate live performance practices.
As an emergent art form, it is important that we, the practitioners of this form, develop the language, theory, and discourse that informs our practice before others do it for us, or, an even more horrifying prospect, that it might be determined by commercial forces.

IF it is left in the hands of art critics, the language will be exclusionary and academic and prone to the kind of postmodern tail chasing that has plagued critical thinking for the past few decades.

IF it is left to the hands of film critics, it will be necessarily marginalised by the forces of their own industry – they have a specific interest in maintaining the hegemony of the of fictional narrative. At the same time, I strongly believe, indeed, I am thoroughly convinced, that for Performance Cinema to thrive and expand it needs to address the very issues of fictional narratives through narrative practices in Performance Cinema works – but more on that later.

IF it is left to the vagaries of the market, it will be balkanised and stillborn, marginalised and ignored. Given the potentials inherent to this practice and technology, I feel this co-option and devitalisation would be a major crime against culture, and is one of the many driving reasons for this very symposium.

However:

IF we as performance cinema artists work together and find common ground in our variant practices, we can bring about a significant change in the practice of cinematic art – rather than be eaten by Hollywood, we can create a truly vital and valuable cinematic practice which would shift the cinematic experience from one that is nearly a wholly passive experience, to, at the very least, that of the active concert experience. Therefore as we work and describe our work, Performance Cinema will grow in value and interest, which can only serve to benefit us as artists, and the culture at large as it is rewarded with a new and vital avenue of creative endeavour.

Some of the signs of the growing popularity of Performance Cinema can be seen most everywhere: in terms of the more academic art world and the gallery / museum industrial complex, the works of Barney, Viola, Kelly, and many many others point to public acceptance of projected video imaging as art. A number of manufacturers of electronic musical instruments are rapidly coming out with video processing devices. Some are so excited to jump into this growing market, that they are repurposing audio processing devices to do video – Korg’s latest version of the Kaoss Pad a case in point.

Performance Cinema is a growing reality. From here there is no turning back. We have initiated the cultural form of Performance Cinema with this Symposium, and are now helping define its parameters and content.

Another aspect of the technology coming into play is the growing ubiquity of digital projection in traditional movie theatres. The Landmark Cinema Chain is installing digital projectors in all of its theatres. ILM, Pixar, Dreamworks, all are pushing for passive digital cinema to become the rule rather than the exception.

Now, there are problems of "gatekeeping" with digital projection in cinema. However, not all theatres are parts of an automated chain, and not all chains are huge megalithic corporations, and not all theatres in chains are managed by mindless minions of the entertainment industry. Therefore I do feel that we can, and in fact, we MUST, work to repurpose theatres so as to permit, if not encourage, performance cinema.