content

Lizard Jones

William Yang

Judy Radul

Michael MacLennan

Alex Ferguson

what we do

acknowledgements

editorial

It's a living (or life-long) love story that occasionally sucks the gastropod. Ah! Life and being alive. Yes, but what has this to do with Theatre, Culture and Ideas? As we tumble along into our future, what is at stake, for me, is how and why we communicate.

For the second issue of transmissions we invited four 'individual' writers to comment on a question. Three of the four also perform their work. The fourth writes for stage and film. The writers are Judy Radul, Lizard Jones, Alex Ferguson and Michael MacLennan. They also have one other thing in common; they use other mediums or media to express their work. The question was this:

The relationship between 'live' performance and the audience is interactive and immediate and possibly intimate. Being alone with a book, CD or computer (CDROM, internet) or even visiting a gallery is a much different experience for an individual than is participating in a live performance. The individual immerses herself as part of a collective experience. She is positioned, by the very nature of being present, in a direct relationship with the performer who is then affected in return. (Cause/ effect, cause /effect, a beat, a rhythm, an exchange.)

There is an immediacy and a specifically intimate exchange that can only happen in a 'live' performance situation.

How does this affect your work as performers, as writers, or in the case of Michael MacLennan, as one who writes for different performance mediums? It is a question about performance and the 'live' situation, but it also deals with artists who work using different media. Norman Armour calls this process 'transmedia'. This is not to be confused with interdisciplinary work. It is not about connecting different media to make a whole; the whole is a different medium altogether. For example: photography is a discreet and uniquely separate experience from writing a novel, while'live' performance art distinguishes itself from other media and mediums in exposing intimacy and meaning in a collective and public place.

Our other feature is drawn from a conversation Adrienne Wong had with William Yang last December. Yang, as writer, photographer and performer, comments on his work and his process.

It was a pleasure to be the guest editor of this issue. Thanks to our contributors, and Jeff Burnett and Dave Olsson for the invaluable job of proof reading. In future issues of transmissions we want to discuss the role of the critic, and explore the meanings of collaboration. We invite your feedback and hope to include a 'Letters to the Editor' section in our next issue.

Cheers
Michelle Frey

Letters to the editor - email: transmissions@rumble.org