Cannon, Joshua (2022) Fresh Blood: Revamping Dracula in the search for Medium Specificity:A Practice-as-Research Project. In: International Federation for Theatre Research World Congress, 2022-06-202022-06-24, University of Iceland.
Full text not available from this repository.Abstract
This paper will examine a Practice-As-Research project titled Fresh Blood: A Revamp of Dracula which is part of a wider PhD project exploring how to use YouTube vlogging in the creation of live theatre practice. Initially, this project aims to address the medium specificity of YouTube, in order to identify some key vlogging techniques that could be adapted for use in a theatrical setting. Taking cues from Rosalind Krauss, Raymond Willams and Samuel Weber, this paper will consider the differential nature of specificity, and approach it from three perspectives: Technology, Cultural Form and Social Practice. Due to Covid-19 restrictions a live, in-person, performance was not able to take place, so instead, Fresh Blood saw theatre makers create a performance specifically for YouTube – seemingly revealing more about the medium specificity of YouTube, but also the nature of performance itself. Dracula is an epistolary novel; made up of journal entries, newspaper clippings, letters – so already offers the reader a sense of differential specificity. YouTube is the world’s largest video sharing platform, which relishes differential specificity and convergence and this project sought to update the original media references of Stoker’s Dracula, with more contemporary modes of performance found on YouTube. Fresh Blood was more concerned with the changing forms of theatre (and as such, storytelling as a whole) due to social distancing, rather than retelling the story of Dracula. The paper will explore remote rehearsing, live-streaming and interaction in the search for medium specificity.