From Firepit to Kindle Fire, the Rise of Digital Media

Thousands of years ago, a storyteller sat beside a fire and shared a tale with an audience. This is theatre in its most raw and ancient venue. Since then, theatrical forms and functions have evolved through thousands of permutations and cultural adaptations. From civil discourse in ancient Greece to hip-hop musicals on Broadway, the way we tell theatrical stories has advanced with each new technological invention or shift in artistic aesthetics or societal mores within the world’s vast cultures. The techniques for creating theatrical productions do not exist in a vacuum; the practices used in theatre are an amalgamation of tools and methods from the cultures it exists within. Yet, we remain working with the same basic fires and shadows.

The theatre has evolved by embracing the methods of related disciplines and mediums, such as dance, fine art, scenography, lighting, fashion, sound, engineering, architecture, and music, to name a few. Since humans first discovered fire, theatrical storytellers have always been expanding, always experimenting and implementing society’s latest technical achievements into the theatrical performance.

Robert Edmond Jones toured the US during the 1940s and 1950s, lecturing about the future of theatre. His vision was a fusion of theatre and cinema. He was fixated on the notions of blending both cinematic language and stage language to create a “wholly new theatrical art, an art whose possibilities are as infinite as those of speech itself” (Broadhurst and Machon, 25).

Yet, from the early 1900s through the 1950s, inclusion of film recording and projection saw only minor use in theatre, with some spectacular results, but they failed to infiltrate the mainstream theatre due to technical fragility and the cost of producing film. In the 1970s, designers such as Wendall Harrington used slides, which were cheaper than film as a projection method, and helped to usher in the modern age of projection design. From the 1970s to the end of the twentieth century, the widespread use and affordability of analog video technologies created a large surge in the use of projections in theatre, dance, and performance art. Compared to 35mm film and slides, video was relatively inexpensive. With video the need for expensive lab costs to develop film was gone. This meant it was not only cheaper for artists to create moving images but also faster.

Video’s immediate adaptability and ease of use over film led many artists to experiment with the inclusion of moving images into their performances. Video could be affected and altered in numerous ways, creating images that were more immediately expressive than could have been achieved previously. Video art became a new field for artists like Nam June Paik and Bill Viola, who held showings in small galleries, museums, and in some cases much larger event spaces. At the same time, sensor systems and circuit systems became more affordable and these elements also began to be integrated into the live performance by artists such as Laurie Anderson.

Not since the invention of man-made electricity has a technological innovation so deeply impacted our daily lives as the rise and advancement of the personal computer. The prevalence of the personal computer, from desktops to powerful handheld devices, has given birth to an analog-to-digital revolution that has continued to take place since the 1970s. Today’s computing technology and processors have become small and fast, while simultaneously decreasing in cost. Because of this, the accessibility to these technologies has steadily become more ubiquitous and computers are part of nearly everyone’s daily life. The computer’s ability to simulate most any logical construct has ensured that there is basically no remaining vocation that does not rely on computers in some way.

The ease of twenty-four-hour access to information and entertainment has made a significant impact on how information is stored and accessed. The Internet has dramatically impacted the way in which we communicate and the varied ways we create and distribute all forms of media-rich entertainment. The expansion of the Internet allows for us to send large amounts of video data across town or across the globe all in the matter of minutes without the need to send physical objects by courier or our own hands and feet.

Our society has grown into a much more visually focused culture, with a television in every home, screens on the back of seats in airplanes, and video screens seemingly following us wherever we go. We live in an age when the average twelve-year-old carries a more advanced digital multimedia-enabled computer in her pocket than the average artist could afford in 1995. The camera in a 2017 smartphone is more powerful and affordable for the average citizen than a dedicated still or video camera was in 2000.

Once only the tools of the rich and privileged, professional video and digital media hardware and software are now more reasonably within economic reach of students, artists, and technicians. This low threshold of cost has flung open the door to accessibility, leveled the playing field, and allowed for huge advancements in the field of digital media design for the theatre in ways that were not affordable by the masses only twenty years ago.

Digital technology is changing at a breathtaking speed. It is no wonder that all but the wealthiest theatres and producers can barely manage to stay current with technological advances and, more importantly, to integrate digital media and technologies into performance in compelling and meaningful ways.

Defining Digital Media in Terms of Theatrical Performance

What exactly is digital media design for theatre? We understand it as an artistic practice and technical trade with five interconnected interfaces.

The first interface is that of the professional theatrical production paradigm. From script selection to budgets to opening night deadlines, the constraints of what it means to create theatre heavily define what is and what is not possible in a given production.

The second interface is the collaborative nature of design within the theatre paradigm. Digital media designers must be ready to work with the director and other traditional design houses of theatre: sound, lighting, props, costume, and scenery.

The third interface is between the designer and his or her primary modes of digital media content creation. The only thing separating a digital media designer from a technician is the ultimate responsibility for generating the aesthetic vision which includes creating content and helping to decide the display method.

The fourth interface is technical—the gear needed for a design and how you use all the software and hardware.

The fifth and primary interface is that of the story being told. Regardless of whether it is a script written by a playwright or a devised work, the designer is a storyteller using the digital media and technology to create meaning. As designers, we should not be guided solely by the specifics of the equipment we are using. Instead our muse should be the needs of the story we are telling and the aesthetic and dramaturgical goals of the theatrical directing and design team.

Defining the Role of the Digital Media Designer

To be a digital media designer means to be a jack-ofall-trades. One must be both an artist and a technician. Like a lighting designer, a digital media designer must not only understand art, composition, design, story, light, angle, and so forth but also have basic technical chops with the use of computers, networks, projection equipment, media servers, and so forth.

The designer needs to have one foot in the world of content creation (animating, drawing and video production, etc.) and one foot in the technical world (system integration, rigging displays, etc.). While it is natural to be more inclined toward either the artistic or technical aspect of the job, it is essential that the digital media designer be proficient in both areas. It is common that the designer is responsible for creating the content along with being responsible for or at least heavily consulting on the technical systems that display it. Preferably, a designer should have as much control over the qualities of how the content is displayed as possible.

It is virtually impossible for one designer to be able to have all the design and technical skills necessary for realizing every aspect of a complicated and technically demanding design. In a larger production, it is the designer who comes up with an overall design idea and then oversees a team of artists and technicians to implement the design. This is ideally how it should work, but it is not uncommon in smaller-budget productions for these tasks to become the responsibility of one or two individuals.

Depending on the production’s content budget, a digital media designer might be able to hire any number of the following specialists: graphic designer, 3D animator, filmmaker, interaction specialist, and so forth. In most productions, the digital media designer needs to fill one or more of these specialized roles, depending on the requirements of the story and the design. In large theatre and academic settings, you may find that there are technicians and other support staff available who are familiar with setting up and configuring digital media equipment in their venues. But this is not always the case, especially in smaller theatres. Sometimes neither a media server programmer nor a video technician can be afforded to work with you, so you need to design, program, and install all the equipment yourself, relying solely on your skill set.

The breadth of the skills needed and the rapid changes in technologies prevent us from truly defining what the limits of the digital media designer are or may be in terms of specific technology. In the last few years we’ve seen designers tasked with creating 360-degree virtual reality environments, interactive applications for smartphones, and systems that allow audiences’ text messages to be immediately displayed. We’ve also witnessed advances in both hardware and software that ease the learning curve and investment needed to accomplish these types of projects. A digital media designer’s foundational skills in theatre, video, and computer technology ultimately allow them the flexibility to create in new ways on nearly every project.

While it is vital for the digital media designer to understand the tools he or she will use to display video and media assets smoothly and with proper fidelity, it is ultimately recognized that content is king. The content (images and video) is what the audience remembers and what actually drives the story. The content is what the designer is ultimately responsible for in a production, so the designer needs to be concerned with the dramaturgical purpose of the content’s contributions to a theatrical production. This is not to discount that the technical system and implementation of technology itself establish aesthetic elements necessary for any number of storytelling devices and meaning.

Basic Skills of the Digital Media Designer

Given the production’s needs and the team available to help, a designer’s responsibilities often look like a laundry list of different job titles with their own set of duties. A design often requires a digital media designer to learn a new tool or design principle, like typography design or architectural blueprint drawing. Willingness to learn something new is often necessary to best satisfy your or a director’s vision and the story.

Ultimately, there is no one answer to the question, “what are the basic skills of a digital media designer?” It is almost impossible to prescribe one particular set of must-have tools and skills for this field, as each designer finds that she or he is expert in one facet and not another and any one show provides opportunities for any number of different design solutions. Yet, there is a core set of skills that are actually common in the field and when mastered serve those who choose to conquer the demands that arise from working in a theatrical context. These core skills include the following:

• Advanced ability to create artistic digital media content.
• An intimate understanding of the content creation production workflow and its relation to the theatrical production timeline.
• An ability to collaborate with the creative and administrative members of a theatre design team.
• The ability to correctly specify for installation and rigging all of the equipment needed for the design.
• The ability to organize all the digital media content the design demands.
• The basic skills to program a media server for operator playback for all of the digital media content.
• General curiosity in and knowledge of technology, such as computers, video systems, and theatrical equipment and standards.

Digital media design combines visual, aural, technological, computational, theatrical, temporal, and architectural forms. The technical aspects of displaying content often include projections on screens, the set, the performers, or other two- and three-dimensional items. Designers also use emissive displays, such as television screens, LCD screens, LED panels, monitors, smartphones, and tablets. Many designers, such as David Saltz, have seen their work expand the medium with robotics, stereoscopic projections, and virtual reality headsets. The meaning of the content placed in, on, and through these devices emerges from many existing modes and disciplines of storytelling.

Since digital media design encompasses aspects across many disciplines, a basic foundation or understanding in some of the fields ahead is important when creating a salient design that considers the multiplicity of various media and their different meanings. No one designer may truly master all the skills required of this far from exhaustive list of relevant disciplines:

• Cinema
• Lighting design
• Sound design
• 2D and 3D animation
• Scenic design
• Architecture
• Graphic design
• Photography
• Digital video production and editing
• Video special effects
• Computer networking
• New media theory
• Game theory
• Computer programming
• Human computer interaction
• Virtual reality
• Augmented reality
• Interaction design

Digital Media Design as a Career

Rest assured that there is a career behind all this passion of yours. As indicated by near ubiquitous integration of digital display technologies into professional theatre spaces and the ever-growing inclusion of digital media design programs at universities, there are an increasing number of professional theatrical opportunities for the designer. Like any role in the professional theatre, becoming a successful and consistently working digital media designer is difficult. But you should find that the wide variety of interdisciplinary skills gained as a digital media designer for theatre makes you nearly irresistible to many theatrical companies and productions, especially if you are willing to move or travel to where the work is.

Beyond designing there are even more opportunities for the digital media technician, such as projection technician, media server operator, or video editor. The need to have steady, well-paid work in addition to the fulfillment of being an expert at one thing often drives people to choose one focus area within the breadth of digital media design.

Jobs for a Digital Media Designer beyond the Theatre

The essential qualifications and the specific expertise of any one digital media designer are diverse and interdisciplinary. Since these varied skills are often specifically related to an individual’s technical and content-creating aptitudes, there is a broad set of potential jobs and career paths available to the designer beyond a theatrical stage. All the skills that are discussed in this book can be directly applied to all areas of live performance, such as designing for dance, opera, performance art, art installations, video mapping, and musical concerts.

There are additional career paths outside the performing arts that a designer might follow, including designing corporate events, live TV broadcast events, videography, graphic design, photography, VJ-ing at clubs, and working as an animator in film and video, to name just a few. There are several well-paying careers to be had as a designer (and often technician) for religious organizations, fund-raising, political events, architectural and interior design, museum and exhibition design, and so forth.

Why use Digital Media?

Designers should ask themselves why digital media should be used in a production. How can technology and digital media help tell the story, create meaning, and become essential to the audience experience? The answer to these questions comes down to the specifics of each individual show, but keep in mind this basic question: “What story are we trying to tell and how does the inclusion of digital media help us tell that story effectively?”

The play might call for a conversation from across time or even the grave. Projections are a great tool to create these types of special effects or to represent surreal or unnatural characters, such as ghosts. Projections can also be used to great effect to reveal the inner thoughts/life of characters. Perhaps you might create computational visual noise that underscores a character’s inner emotional monologue.

Another application of digital media is the use of actual news or historical footage in a production. Plays that tell stories based on real-world events can benefit from the use of archival imagery as it can allow the production to move forward with a sense of validity, and may reinforce the narrative’s objective to make the argument or tell the story of an important historical happening.

Yet another common and often successful example is the use of digital media as backdrop that helps establish the different locations and environments in a play’s various scenes. Using projections as digital scenery by projecting the environment onto screens or structures instead of painted backdrops and physical scenery can allow for faster changes and a larger variety of scenic options.

Sometimes the answer may have nothing to do with story and is as simple as making sure that the performer can be seen by the people in the back of the theatre, so a live camera and projections might be used as image magnification.

Not all of these examples answer the question of why in terms of story. Some answers are simply solving problems, such as ease of scene changes. There are few limits in what is possible for those who intend to heavily integrate digital media into their theatrical collaborations and practices. Regardless of how you are using digital media, everyone on the creative team needs to understand why it is being used.

Meaning making and the Language of Digital Media in Theatre

The inclusion of digital media into a production can radically change the meaning and dynamics of performance. In the opening of Digital Performance: A History of New Media in Theatre, Dance, Performance Art, and Installation, historian Steve Dixon convincingly states, “The conjunction of performance and new media has and does bring about genuinely new stylistic and aesthetic modes, and unique and unprecedented performance experiences, genres, and ontologies” (2007, 5).

The advancement of technology and the blending of different art forms have made just about anything an artist can dream up possible. Yet, we must understand that when combining art forms, such as gaming and theatre, we are using shared vocabularies and symbols, thus creating new languages for shows that use digital media. While modern audiences are usually pretty adept at decoding various media messages, it is up to us to make the relationship between the digital media and live performance clear and intentional. This requires the designer to understand how the digital media’s semiotics works in its native discipline as well as how it changes and shapes the overall live performance.

Sometimes experimentation requires the need to play. When trying new things designers can’t always clearly define or predict what they are doing dramaturgically by implementing varied systems. But in the end, while it is up to the designer to make the relationship between digital media and live performance clear, the audience is always the final judge.