When we met a year ago to discuss SpiderWebShow, before it had a name or URL, there were some core things we wanted to achieve guided by a desire to both enhance and channel performance chatter and to develop new spaces where creators could make and show their work. Here’s what’s happened so far:
- Regular Weekly Editions of #CdnCult Times have begun to establish it as a way to talk about theatre in Canada.
- The early beginnings of centering this discussion around the #cdncult hashtag.
- Weekly YouTube Commissions by theatre artists have begun to create a living online archive of work by theatre creators.
- Regular tweets by @Multimanteau via #CdnTheatreThrowback (once RT’d by @MargaretAtwood) have brought increased Canadian Theatre History to the twittersphere.
- Maps with visual representations of artists making work in Collaboration with The English Theatre at the NAC, and a “Makers Map” of anyone who has contributed to the site with links to their SpiderWebBio including social media tools.
This was the video we made to explain The Commissions this summer before they launched.
A good start but we want the site to do more.
We want it to be a home for experimentation and a theatre of online theatres. A (newly dimensioned) place (space, URLs where?) where digital performance can be conceived and performed. A site that is both necessary and novel. A home for ideas and concepts that have not, and may never, be proven.
We suspect this new space will occur somewhere at the intersection of what is live, and how performance can integrate with online tools to explore the fundamentals of live-ness the internet presents.
“what we are facing is the notion of a live performance. There is a parallel with the music industry. The way technology evolved over the last ten years totally imploded the model of the music industry. The business model was created with selling CD’s. It was about selling a format and the live performance was just a means to an end. Now with easy access of that format, they had to reinvent, trying to use the Internet to give more value to live performances. It’s true for music and social change. “
National Theatre School CEO Simon Brault, interviewed this weekend in The Charlebois Post.
This tenth edition of the #CdnCult Times is the final of our first volume (V01E10). The first edition of the second edition (V02E01) will be back after the holiday season on January 14. The Commissions (2.0) will be back that week with a new one on January 16.
As we look ahead to the upcoming second season of The SpiderWebShow we hope achieve three things:
1) Build on the successes of the first season by continuing to be a meeting place for online theatrical expression.
2) Become a venue for new and exciting experiments with performance and online integration.
3) Make an announcement that we think will have big impact on the above
Are you creating theatre that requires online integration? This post is an open call with no deadline to let us know about what you think should/could be here.
Season two begins with you.
Happy Holiday Season to all!
Sincerely,
Michael and Sarah
