"From Milton Cohen's Space Theater to EMPAC"
by Franck Ancel

ARIAS / INHA 2, rue Vivienne 75002 Paris France
Monday 07 janv 08 from 6pm to 8pm.

Abstract by Franck Ancel

In 1957, a few years after the famous performance in the United States 
at Black Mountain College (1952) called "Untitled event", Artist 
Professor Milton Cohen created his "Space Theatre". In Ann Arbor - and 
mainly in his loft until 1966 - he experimented with a 360-degree form 
of theatre construction, presenting visual, light and sound shows in 
collaboration with other artists. These events eventually led to the 
creation of the "Once Festival" (1961-66) and later the "Once Group". 
The founding members of this group are the composers Robert Ashley, 
George Cacioppo, Gordon Mumma, Roger Reynolds, Donald Scavarda, and 
Bruce Wise; the architects Harold Borkin and Joseph Wehrer; the director 
George Manupelli; the painters and sculptors Mary Ashley and Milton Cohen.
Some of the problems of future multimedia performances when dealing with 
electronic music arose here. (1)
Ten years after the official inauguration of the Centre for Art and 
Media Technology in Karlsruhe, Germany, this concept was continued in 
the USA with the construction in Troy, situated halfway between New York 
and Montreal, of a theatrical venue unique in the world: EMPAC, which 
became the first type of theatre to turn entirely towards our digital 
era, while maintaining a "traditional" layout. For its official 
inauguration during the first weekend of November 2008, one of the key 
projects was a 360-degree immersive environment especially created by a 
theatre company, The Wooster Group. (2)
The conference was animated with visual documents (some never seen 
before), sound documents and interviews (in English) carried out or 
discovered during a research trip to Ann Arbor, Cambridge, New York and 
Troy, in November 2007, and was sponsored in part by the ARIAS 
Laboratories, CNRS (National Committee for Scientific Research).
One year after the conference held on the French scenographer "Jacques 
Polieri: beyond theatre", this historical and current study aims for a 
better understanding of the challenges of contemporary creation in the 
making.

(1) http://sonhors.free.fr/panorama/sonhors11.htm

(2) Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center
http://empac.rpi.edu/

THX to Harold Borkin, Karen Dorn, Johannes Goebel, Gordon Mumma, Pat 
Oleszko, Jacques Polieri, Richard Trythall, Karen Tsao, The Wooster 
Group, Gene Youngblood.

Biography of Franck Ancel

Franck Ancel has been raising questions about technology for twenty 
years, tracing a line from the avant-garde art movements of the last 
century to the recent changes in creation on a planetary scale.
He has organised and coordinated conferences, exhibitions and 
performances, including a retrospective of /"Jacques Polieri: creator of 
a modern scenography"/ at the French National Library in Paris in 2002.
Since the 9/11 attacks, he has set up an interactive, collaborative 
triptych called "A.I.T.", which raises questions about architecture, 
images and technology, on 20th century heritage sites.
In 2005, he concluded a cycle of five communications for five continents 
entitled /"From scenography to planetary network/" with a world première 
on the Internet, from a plane in flight from Shanghai to Munich.
In 2006, he held a conference /"From scenography to planetary network 
for Shanghai 2010/" in Silicon Valley during the ISEA/ZeroOne Festival.
In 2007, it will celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the first 
satellite sent into space with the performance "From Sputnik Satellite 
to Explorer Art" in the huge ONERA wind tunnel in France.

http://www.franck-ancel.com/atx

The art of theatre and new technologies
Cycle of conferences conducted
by Béatrice Picon-Vallin and Clarisse Bardiot

Presentation by Béatrice Picon-Vallin
The art of theatre has always revelled in technological progress. For 
instance, the conversion of lighting from gas to electricity profoundly 
modified stage procedures. New changes are underway with computer 
science and digital technology. Artists-researchers will be at the heart 
of the questions being asked that must attempt to mark the course of the 
commitment of the art of theatre today. They must enable an analysis to 
be made of the new relationships that link creation team members, which 
are increasingly numerous and complex. They must define the functions of 
technologies employed and their contribution, and, finally, they must 
reflect on the evolution of the role of the director andon the 
transformation of the role of the actor. During this cycle of 
conferences we must try to understand the new facts of the current 
perspective, by linking them to the history of technologies that the 
theatre has always succeeded in integrating.

http://www.arias.cnrs.fr/article.php3?id_article=233