Reading Assignment: Live Media: Interactive Technology and Theatre by David Z. Saltz

In this article, David Saltz talks about using technology to aid a theater performance by giving the performers a way to interact with technology. First, he gives a definition of interactive media by outlining three key principles:

• Random access
• An arbitrary link between trigger and output
• Media manipulation

These serve to highlight the distinction between interactive media and simply using technology in a performance.

Shaw then turns to his own examples of using interactive media, through his lab at the University of Georgia. My favorite of these was his interpretation of the play Hair. He used interactive media to enhance the trippy drug induced hallucinations.

I thought this was such an effective example because it does a great job of enhancing the performance by augmenting what the viewer sees with what the actor is portraying.

Saltz then turns his focus to the relationship between the performer and the media. Although he cautions that it is not exhaustive, he gives us a great list of possible interactions:

• Virtual Scenery
• Interactive Costumes
• Alternate Perspective
• Subjective Perspective
• Illustration
• Commentary
• Diegetic Media
• Affective Media
• Synesthesia
• Instrumental Media
• Virtual Puppetry
• Dramatic Media

This list is something I will definitely turn to while working in this class because it presents some very insightful ways to use the techniques we will be developing.