NETWORKED SPACE

My studies at NYU’s Gallatin Division (2002-2004) were focused on performance & technology. Not only the use of digital tech in theatre, but the reliance of streaming media in the decades ahead. 

I worked with a task force of artists who were taking advantage of the Abilene Network, also known as Internet2. This was a proprietary network with no commercial traffic connecting 200+ universities for training purposes. But once the artists got ahold of it, many cool collaborations took place. 

Around that time, I had a presentation in Plymouth, UK in 2009 about Networked Collaboration, and the possibilities of the future. 

At that time, there were thousands in chat rooms discussing the theoretical (and actual) concept of PRESENCE, how it is experienced, captured and how it may be used in the future. *Haptics* was a buzz word thrown around a lot. That’s when you can feel the pressure of my touch through a vibration through the Internet. You can imagine where that went. No masks. No gloves. 

The foundation for networked collaboration was set early on. Fluxus collaborations with astronauts and satellite art. The Zoom approach is not new, of course, but the server array built in the Nevada desert is. 

The Network can, and sadly, will support the new performance space.

While a depressing thought, there is an opportunity looking forward.

The LaMaMa site is already doing this. Joe Papp. Among others. Another platform called LiveStream used to be free, now Jazz at Lincoln Center is their main client broadcasting satellite quality performances. You’ve stumbled upon others. Opera. Broadway. 

This marginal space may become even more mainstream, standard and the artists will thrive as the new filmmakers. The theorists will wax philosophical and the space station will house resident poets. 

“How will digital media affect how we think, create, and collaborate? How can new authoring systems and story models shape how we communicate? What types of stories are made possible when new telematic technologies can blow a hole in the theatre wall into the performance space of another dimension? How could a networked collaboration be transformative? What needs to take place to ensure ‘good theatre’ while taking advantage of the power of new media to manifest nightmare visions, to capture the haunting of a restless spirit? Or, more importantly, to entrust new audiences with new powers? How to maintain intimacy and immediacy with the performers/performance? How to warm up a cold distant space?”

If you have time on your hands, feel free to jump around.

The above is referenced at 5:00 minutes in:

https://vimeo.com/74390658

(*Constituency, Joe, not contingency)

—j.2u

THE KOALA OF MY MIND

In 1985, at the age of 18, I traveled to Australia to hold a Koala Bear in captivity.

I don’t recall the name of the nature reserve, but I do remember the leather touch of the Koala’s nose.

Growing up, I had a fascination with Koalas. I don’t know from where this obsession derived, but there it was: A shrine of pictures, stuffed animals, Koala Bear beer bottles, postcards, soap dishes and those little clip bears for the sun visor in your car.

Over the years, I climbed higher. Book reports were focused on the chemical reaction Koalas experienced as they chewed Eucalyptus leaves; the elixir making them sedated and well-oiled. In truth, without this libation, they were fierce creatures who could rip the face off a man.

In a stroke of genius to elevate our formative years, my mother presented each child in our family an airplane ticket to anywhere in the world for the summer before heading to college to travel and learn about the world.

We earned our spending money, but our parents provided the ticket. My eldest sister, Brinda went to France. Years later she lives in France, first working at the United Nations, now a Jungian Therapist. My second eldest sister, Kelly went to Israel and worked on a kibbutz. Years later she became a celebrated immigration attorney. My older brother Greg went to Spain. Years later he became a master of the hand-drums and a prolific musician.

I went to Australia to hold a Koala Bear in captivity and years later I became an interdisciplinary digital storyteller/streamlined business designer/virtually-spontaneous expressive media consultant and Prince Scholar.

Makes sense if you think about it.

The other day, my sister Brinda sent me a screenshot from Zurich where she now lives. She dropped an image into a portal and a millisecond later the image was in my hand.

Crazy.

The screenshot was of a comment beneath a blurry Instagram image:

thilo_hoffmann Annegret recently enrolled in an online degree program offered by the prestigious Transnational University of Random Knowledge, Fancy Facts and Post-functional Learning (aka TURKFFPFL. So far, she’s learned that Koala Bears:

1. Aren’t bears
2. Sleep 20 hours a day
3. Don’t drink
4. Absorb water from eucalyptus leaves, which for most humans and non-human animals are poisonous.
5. Are able to eat the deadly eucalyptus because they host a microbial death community in their digestive tracts established by being bold enough to eat their mother’s excrement as babies.

—

With that said, the connection between the Koala and Prince makes even more sense.

-j.2u

FORESIGHT IS 02020

The folks at the LongNow.org Foundation have built a 10,000 year clock to click every 100 years and chime every 1,000 years, but you’ll need to stick around to hear it.

The idea is to set a clock for the amount of time we’ve been hanging out since the agricultural age kicked in. Brian Eno (aka God) was one of the original conceptual artists behind the LongNow movement, which in simple terms promotes long term thinking; slow down, you move too fast.

Funded by Jeff Bezos and designed by a team lead by Danny Hillis, one of the creators of modern parallel computer technology and Stewart Brand of The Whole Earth Catalogue, The Clock of the Long Now is the manifestation of this idea and will eventually sit in the side of a cliff near Van Horn, Texas. For real.

Philosophically, The LongNow had a positive impact on this artist as a young man; long-term thinking afforded me my superpower: A level of patience unparalleled by any of my peers; there’s a perception that comes with the LongNow that allows one to wait and see; a Taoist approach I found Prince shared with his visions of the Future.

A childhood friend once said to me on New Year’s Eve, “New Year’s Eve is just another day, no reason to get so caught up in it.” But the truth is, it matters. We like to reset clocks. To start over. A fresh start!! Another chance to get things right.

This year, 2020 suggests great promise: Our Political landscape promises to be a mess; VR promises to tease the market and fail; Blockchain promises to annoy and TikTok promises to disrupt (What’s TikTok?..Ok, Boomer...).

One promise that is certain: Stories will be told.

In 2020, I will have my first Storylines Connect client. I’m not sure who they will be, but I’m confident they will receive tremendous value from the work we do together.

I have several opportunities to provide a pilot program; which one will sign up first remains to be seen, but in the big picture, The LongNow, I’m patient.

Joe Wachs
Storylines
Make Connections

http://StorylinesConnect.com

Angels with Dirty Faces

New Perspectives in Storytelling

I watched a lot of television when I was a child.

Many in my generation did. We were fixed to the tube during a time when programming moved further away from the Golden Age of Television to the likes of The Brady Bunch, Gilligan’s Island, The Love Boat, Fantasy Island, Three’s Company, Welcome Back, Kotter.

In hindsight, these were terrible shows (though we all have a sweet spot for Alice).

I remember reading Barry Williams’ memoir, Growing up Brady about his days on the set as a teen. His tales were striking because we were there. The stories to strike the biggest chord were those when Robert Reed, a prominent stage actor in his day, would march into the office of Sherwood Schwartz (creator of The Brady Bunch and Gilligan’s Island) to complain about the lack of depth and richness in the scripts. Reed was Shakespeare-trained and I related to his petulance.

At a young age, I preferred better stories. While I was entertained by the Professor and Mary Ann, I was more passionate about throwback programming from the 1940’s, such as The Bowery Boys or Shirley Temple films.

One day, I was probably 10-years-old, I stumbled upon the James Cagney movie, Angels with Dirty Faces, starring Cagney with the cast of The Bowery Boys, also known as the Dead End Kids; a cross-over experience that immersed me into a world I never knew, but would eventually feed my soul: The streets of New York.

Angles had a giant impact on me as storyteller. The twist at the end exposed me to how a story could trigger emotions by twisting perspective. 20 years later, I begged my future wife to watch the movie start to finish. Luckily, I found a copy on something called VHS at a place we used to call Blockbuster.

BE KIND, REWIND

If you have the opportunity this holiday season, watch Angels with Dirty Faces. The storytelling, especially the noir shadows of the ending sequence will leave you stunned and inspired.

***

STORYLINES.connect is a team-bonding program designed to foster a competitive edge through storytelling.

If you’re curious about how storytelling can elevate your company’s aspirations with great confidence, please reach out for information about our workshops.

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