The Ourobroic Hyper-tech Model

This model formed the basis of my PhD entitled "Towards an Aesthetics of Theatre Technology". Its main aim was to approach theatre technology aesthetically and create another avenue for the criticism of intermedial and multimedia performance, performative space and production. The hypertech model is model for examining the aesthetic meaning of performance technologies ahistorically. It approaches multimedia technologies from a textual framework and establishes them as works of art in their own right. It shifts focus from the technology as techne to the technology as aletheia. It examines technologies by their pyschoplastic / specific relationship with other performance technologies; this has consequences on the ways in which we consider technology as a signifier theatrically. Historically this model situates the technology in its context but also examines its diversification and reinvigorations into other strands and other cycles of technology each with their own hypertech relationships. Its ahistorical approach allows us to look at modern technologies and historical technologies to explore the underlying aesthetics of devices without the distraction of performance history or judgements of its subjective success. This can be seen in "live-feed" multimedia technologies where the underlying visual technological aesthetic is essentially that of a camera obscura and a magic lantern. Over time, other technologies may have also entered and left the cycle of those technologies but none of their aesthetics have been lost. Using this model, the signification of "live-feed" is explored in ways which do not privilege the performer or the screen image in the familiar ways, but in ways which examine the aesthetic that only the technology can provide.