'Visibility brings with it responsibility': Using a Pragmatic Performance Approach to Explore a Political Philosophy of Technology

Authors

  • Geraint D'Arcy University of South Wales

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.21476/PP.2017.3139

Keywords:

Theatre technology, performance technology, pragmatism, instrumentalism, scenography, technology, technoculture, Genet, Merleau Ponty, Foucault, Multi-media, intermediality, visibility

Abstract

With the emergence, suspicion and social acceptance of ubiquitous communications technology thoroughly plumbed and the digital age already wondering what it is going to rename itself in light of ever more fluid and complex technologies, this paper asks: what can theatre and performance provide to the production of a political philosophy of technology?  Using the work of Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Michel Foucault and an analysis of a recent inter-cultural adaptation of Jean Genet's The Maids, this study examines the politics of visible theatre technologies in performance and offers a pragmatic, or instrumentalist, approach to developing a political philosophy of technology.

Author Biography

Geraint D'Arcy, University of South Wales

Geraint D'Arcy is a lecturer in theatre and drama at the University of South Wales.  He has published papers on aspects of the manifestation of technology and information in popular culture and upon theatre technology and scenography.  His 2011 PhD was entitled Towards an Aesthetics of Theatre Technology.  Geraint is currently writing a book on film and television set design.

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Published

25-06-2017

How to Cite

D’Arcy, G. (2017). ’Visibility brings with it responsibility’: Using a Pragmatic Performance Approach to Explore a Political Philosophy of Technology. Performance Philosophy, 3(1), 178–198. https://doi.org/10.21476/PP.2017.3139

Issue

Vol. 3 No. 1 (2017)

Section

Articles

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