..Performance..

Today performance has largely become associated with the media and modern technology. In many ways performances are heightened and promoted by this, but at the same time the traditional aspect is taken away. For example we can now download almost any play or film etc. that we like to watch in the comfort of our own home for no charge. Now this seems amazing, as well as convenient, cheap and easy but where have the days gone where an audience would consist of all types of people, standing for two straight hours or sitting on wooden benches in the middle of nowhere, where the stage is simply an open space. Even today the traditional and classic theatres and performance spaces have all been tweeked by modern techonology and largely exaggurated and promoted by the media. So how can we define performance? As times are changing, people may say the definition is changing too. Is there even a definition? Every person shares different opinions and views about what performance is. For me personally.. performance is something we do for others whether it be intended or just subconciously. Performing doesn't have to be on a stage, we all perform in some way every day. As discussed in class, the modern world of facebook is a classic example of performance. We have our own little world in which we can portray ourselves however we want to, and we "act" the way we do in order to impress or put across an image of ourselves for other people.
Philip Auslander a writer on performance studies and aesthethic and cultural performances has a particular interest on the relationship between performance and media and technology. He sees a conflict between live performances whether they be traditional or not and the modern and technologial forms of performance. He sees traditional theatre as intimate as in comparison to performances enhanced by the media as limited whereas the media enables repetition and shows popularity shown by a continual mass audience. Auslander does not want to be biased as he sees like myself personally, ways in which both types of performances can be positive as well as negative. Auslander is not suggesting one is better than the other, but only that performance has changed over time, and now can be portrayed as many different meanings due to the many different options we have today. The question is can we find common ground between the live traditional performances and those enhanced by the media. Auslander closes his discussion with "the live can exist only within an economy of reproduction"..