Page 57 - AC/E Digital Culture Annual Report 2016

performing Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, to o er the audience an intense and immersive experience.Holograms and other ways of being presentAs pointed out by Dennis Gabor, winner of the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1971 for inventing holography, you cannot predict the future, but you can invent it. And when it comes to inventing and reinventing futures, what better than the world of show business to put into practice the ability to present the audience with someone or something – oating three- dimensional gures that can be seen from di erent angles – that is not physically in that space, and to explore its interactive potential? To what extent will we need to interact with artists’ materiality? Can we experience their emotions without their real presence? Will holographic elements make direct interaction possible?The main area where the performing arts still have a long way to go towards digital transformation is precisely the production stage.• The company Obscura Digital62 developed technology that made it possible for singers M.I.A. and Janelle Monáe to give a joint performance through holographic devicesat the launch of a new Audi model, even though the artists were physically locatedin two di erent cities, New York and Los Angeles. The added value was provided by the use of 3D projection mapping to create a sense of depth through animated graphics.• In the duet Emergence63 John McCormick experimented with creating a virtual and interactive dancing gure that responds to the movement of an actual dancer by changing colour and brightness.• A few experiments with holograms have gone particularly viral online, such as those of the composer Yoshiki,64 who came musically face-to-face – piano versus piano– with his own hologram at a performance; the late rapper Tupac Shakur at Coachella festival;65 or Michael Jackson’s stellar appearance at the Billboard Music Awards.66© abcThe performance by the Michael Jackson hologram at the Billboard Music AwardsAct IIIFrom the curtain rises... to the show must go onBut the performing arts sector still has a long way to go towards digital transformation asfar as the production phase is concerned. Organisations and managers need to make a concerted e ort to incorporate more technology in order to move forward in developing their stage projects: digital stages, videographic designs, sound reinforcement and sensorisation are concepts that are increasingly present in the day-to-day running of the sector.In an environment where tailoring the cost of producing shows to their potential takings is a primary concern, any alternative that adds to audience appeal may also entail greater artistic risk. And in this respect technology can make interesting contributions. What processes will digital rede ne? Will new technologies allow organisers to go in for more ambitious productions based on digital resources that bring costs down?• In the case of stage production, LED technology has signi cantly revolutionised stage lighting, as has occurred in otherAC/E DIGITAL CULTURE ANNUAL REPORT 201657Smart Culture: Impact of the Internet on Artistic Creation