THE DIGITAL SHOCK

The aim is here to trace back the historical link between performing arts and technologies, to introduce the pioneers of stage innovations and to show how throughout the twentieth century artists have taken hold of technical and scientific discoveries and progressively turned the stage into a complex digital environment.

The great steps of this evolution shall be broached and illustrated starting from the invention of the "magic lantern" to Robert Lepage' s more recent works, including the Bahaus' s "mechanical actor", futurist stages, the EAT movement in the U.S., scenographic innovations made by Svoboda, Radok, Cincera, and others.

This historical overview includes two stages :

 "The Precursors"

This stage presents all avant-garde scenes from 1900 to 1960 ("Focus on Technologies") and will link the specific relation between the artist and the engineer through the example of the Experiments in Arts and Technologies movement ("The artist-engineer relation : the EAT example").

 "The digital shock"

This stage presents great contemporary directors (from 1960 until today) who work with technologies ("Contaminations and deployment"). Denis Marleau will explain how he decided to use digital technologies in his productions ("Technologic Avatars, the example of the Theatre Ubu").