ABSTRACT
Materiality. Material is a term fraught with historical connotations and contradictions. Within 20th-century media studies, certain theorists (e.g. McLuhan, Kittler) have typically, though not incontestably, drawn upon a concept of materiality to emphasise the physical characteristics of communication media, rather than focus on the minds, spirits or souls of individuals. Cultural expression, this line of thinking argues, always has a materially embedded character, from processes of inscription (writing, painting, printing) to practices of iteration (performances, recitals, rituals). In order for meanings to be produced, communication processes require complex arrangements of material forms including technologies, human bodies, languages, buildings, and environments. “Materialities of communication” can thus be defined as “all those phenomena and conditions that contribute to the production of meaning, without being meaning themselves” (Gumbrecht 2004, 8). This understanding of materiality has two implications for researching theatre and performance. First, theatre and performance can be studied in terms of media history, since the introduction of new mechanical and technological possibilities – from lighting and sound effects, to set and costume design, to today’s digital technologies – have contributed to the capacity for theatrical invention and production in any given era. Second, theatre and performance can further be regarded as a form of “exteriorisation”, a material embodiment (← term: embodiment) which, when the performance is over, deposits cultural expression in cultural memory and also leaves any number of material traces (programmes, posters, reviews, blogs, images, sound bites, interviews), all of which can return to affect later performative work (→ term: feedback loop). (Michael Darroch)
