The internet, theatre and time : transmediating the theatron

This article considers recent instances of theatre on and through the Internet, to examine relations between the two media. It considers ‘transmediation’ as a process whereby characteristics of one medium are conveyed or refunctioned in another. It addresses the specific mediality of the theatre and the Internet, to assess ways in which space and time are extruded in the latter. In particular, the article considers the matter of temporality, observing that the Internet both complicates and extends performance’s characteristic dealings with liveness and presence. It examines performances by companies including New Paradise Laboratories, elastic future, the Hamnet Players, Station House Opera and Forced Entertainment, along with the phenomenon of live-streamed theatre, to argue for the importance of a distributed present as a feature of online performance transactions

Living in the moment : duration now and then

This essay explores duration as the notion of time passing there and then in the life of the performer/spectator. It reprises the Bergsonian account of duration (as less a measure of time, and more a function of the feeling of time passing) to suggest that Bergson’s work has a fresh charge. The construction of time in digital culture – to do with simultaneity and synthesis, where an accumulating past is held within a continually reforming present – provides points of connection with Bergson’s interest in experience as a succession of moments lived in the present. The essay takes a longer historical view, looking at accounts of renaissance painting, nineteenth-century melodrama and contemporary performance art, along with works and ideas by Abramović, Barthes, Beckett, and Cage, to examine relations between (hetero)chronology, duration, spectatorship and experience. It argues that in many instances duration in artworks is formed of proliferated moments, whose effects are to emphasize aspects of actuality by putting us in the face of the lived experience of action and consequence, and our own awareness of this (and our own) particular lived experience. Performance itself has a further charge, for its (re)presentations are encountered chronologically, precisely in and through a passage of time inhabited by both the work and the spectator/participant. The essay argues that duration is nonetheless always cultural; and is expressed and experienced in relation to a particular historical moment. The value of duration varies, whether it is a particular length of time, a passage for endurance, a field for ethical contention or a commoditized span of engagement. In a contemporary performance economy that privileges encounter and experience, duration provides the substrate for extensive and realisable kinds of living in the moment

Reflections upon the ‘post’ : towards a cultural history and a performance-oriented perspective

The prefix ‘post’ by definition comes before something, in order to signal its afterwards. Discussions of (for example) postmodernism, posthumanism, the post-industrial, and indeed the post-digital have remarked that the ‘after’ or ‘beyond’ suggested in these framings is not necessarily categorical, nor even clearly demarcated by way of a date. In this case, the ‘post’ often contains significant features of what came before, and the presence of a name (the modern, the humanist) marks a continuity however much it is also always renounced. As Hal Foster suggested in 1983, addressing a trajectory from modernism to postmodernism, ‘modernism is now largely absorbed. Originally oppositional, ... today, however, it is the official culture’ (Foster 1985: ix). This raises a fundamental question concerning the ‘post’ as a cultural descriptor. To what extent does it mark a radical break, and to what extent is its precedent figured in the very shapes and expressions of the thing that it now describes? This tension is at the heart of cultural process, and thinking about the ‘post’ can help us understand principles of change within culture, society and politics, and therefore also within performance

Theatricalising protest : the chorus of the commons

This essay considers five instances of costumed political protest between 2008--19, by way of the Red Rebel Brigade, the Guy Fawkes mask, the Handmaid’s Tale costume, the pussyhat and the yellow jacket (gilet jaune). It explores the cultural resonances and significance of the costumes and accoutrements involved, and in particular how they draw upon a domain of fiction, symbolism and representation in order to perform resistance in the public sphere. It argues that a ‘chorus of the commons’, where costumed individuals operate as a group, presents both an aesthetic mode of political intervention and an oppositional theatre of the real

Grip Strength Symmetries in Division I College Baseball Pitchers and Hitters

Integrating strength and conditioning coaches and programs for baseball athletes has yielded positive performance outcomes for both hitting and throwing. Among a variety of baseball-specific testing batter, grip strength has shown to significantly correlate with increased swing and throwing velocity. However, no investigations have examined grip strength asymmetries for hitters and pitchers. PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to examine differences between right and left arm grip strength of baseball pitchers and hitters. METHODS: Division I collegiate baseball players (n = 45, height. (183.52 ± 11.77 cm) weight. (85.96 ± 17.73 kg.) performed dominate and non-dominate maximal grip strength at position specific arm and forearm orientation utilizing the Jamar Hydraulic Hand Dynamometer. Hitters (n = 22) performed grip strength assessments at 90-degree elbow flexion, neutral forearm orientation (NDN). Pitchers (n = 23) performed grip strength assessments at 90-degree elbow flexion, pronated forearm orientation (NDP). Three attempts were permitted to exert maximal force, recorded in kilograms (kg) – highest exerted force was recorded and used for analysis. An independent samples t-test (p \u3c .05) was employed to assess dominate and non-dominate grip strength differences. RESULT: The results indicated no significant differences between pitchers’ dominate NDP (57.39 ± 7.49 kg) and non-dominate NDP (56.0 ± 7.63 kg), t(44) = .624, p = .966. Likewise, hitters presented no significant difference between dominate NDN (60.68 ± 10.15 kg) and non-dominate NDN (55.27 ± 11.31 kg) t(42) = 1.669, p = .264. CONCLUSION: Contrary to common belief, these results suggest baseball players do not present significant grip strength asymmetries. While baseball skills (i.e., throwing, hitting) require adequate grip strength to produce favorable performances outcomes, these single arm/hand movements do not place baseball players in a concerning asymmetrical grip strength state. Utilization of both hands during hitting provides reasonable explanations for the results of hitters. For pitchers, glove movement and skill, along with typical strength and conditioning may contribute to improvements in non-dominate grip strength. Furthermore, these results suggest equivalent bilateral strength may be a necessity of collegiate baseball players

Sex-Specific Pre-Session PRS Difference between Bouts of Fatiguing Resistance Training

The perceived recovery status (PRS) scale, a valid psychophysiological tool, provides a scalar representation of varying levels of an individualized recovery status before or during various modes of exercise. Previous investigations recognize females as more fatigue resilient, quantified via the PRS scale, than males during repeated sprint performance. To the best of our knowledge, no investigations have examined the sex-specific PRS responses during multi-session resistance training. PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to compare male and female PRS scores for multi-session fatiguing resistance training with incremental decline intersession recovery periods. METHODS: Subjects consisted of 14 trained males (n = 7) and females (n = 7) that participated in five resistance training sessions. Session 1 consisted of one repetition maximum (1RM) testing for barbell back squat (SQ) and barbell bench press (BP); additionally, during session 1, subjects were given standardized instructions explaining how to interpret the PRS scale (familiarization). PRS was collected prior to each training session. Seventy-two hours after session 1, participants completed a standardized dynamic warm up, followed by a comprehensive, fatiguing resistance training session that began with 3 sets of 55%, 65%, and 75% 1RM, followed by 1 set of as many repetitions as possible (AMRAP) at 85% 1RM for SQ. Ten minutes of recovery was provided upon completion of SQ, before completing the same 4 set routine for BP. Upon 5-minute rest, participants completed 4 set of 2 repetitions in reserve (RIR) for barbell reverse lunge, barbell shoulder press, and barbell bent-over row in circuit format with 90 seconds rest between circuits. In order, 72hrs, 48hrs, 24hrs, and 6hrs rest periods were assigned as intersession recovery. A 2 (sex) x 4 (session) mixed factorial ANOVA was used to determine the sex-specific responses to resistance training. RESULTS: No significant main effect was revealed between males and females PRS scores across sets. However, a statistically significant main effect of PRS scores was illustrated across sets [F (2.323, 27.875) =19.363, pCONCLUSION: These results suggest males and females globally recover similarly from fatigue induced resistance training. However, these data also suggest optimal intersession recovery duration may differ between the sexes – males reported significantly less recovered 48hr after training (between set 2 and 3), while female recovery decline after 48hr was an insignificant change; thus, aligning with previous reports of greater fatigue resilience appearing in females versus males