The Technological Age: A Dystopian or Utopian World View.

The area of community which our group found most interesting was the older generation, there
were many reasons for this, one of them being that we felt strongly about bridging the gap between
the older and the young through similar interests in ideas and to represent this in a performative
way. From this the group developed upon exploring the relationship between to technology and
members of the community aged over sixty. The ideas for the workshop began to manifest as it
seemed to be particularly current is the news it was reported that as there had been accounts in the
news about an elderly woman that had committed suicide as she felt that she couldn't keep up with
technological advancements. The mirror reports: Anne, the 89-year-old woman who took her own
life rather than live in digital-barmy Britain (Routledge, 2014, para.2). This situated the project
very close to our hearts and seemed to not only be important but necessary to the community. In
James Thompson and Richard Schechner's view: community theatre supports self-esteem,
builds confidence, manages anger, heals sociopsycholoical wounds, creates new approaches
to learning, promotes participatory community development, and/or can operate constructively
in the face of all kinds of traumatic experiences. (2004, p.12). Through this, the workshop would
aim to use theatre within the community as a catalyst to utilise interdisciplinary techniques to
enlighten and educate people over sixty. Paul Sermon (1966-) would our main focus for such aims.
Stephen Wilson gives insight into Sermon's work by stating that it provides an environment for the
investigation of several cultural themes raised by telecommunication, such as the meaning the
physical body in a world dominated by virtual representation (2002 , p.520). Sermon's work was
an important part to the process as in implemented various forms of interactive performance while
challenging the topics relevant to the group further centering it within the community. This essay
will explore the process undergone when challenging these issues and will reveal our discoveries of
the process, specifically whether the older generation view technological advancements within a
dystopian or utopian context. Laura, Sanisha and I decided to establish a company name in order to
situate the the group of 6 into a company dynamic, in addition to this Les Essif's expresses that the
name [is] very important to our identity, focus, morale (2006, p.102). The group decided upon The
Silver Surfer Players as it resembles the groups motives well, while adding a light element of
comedic value too. We believe this name made the working process a more fun and enjoyable
experience which would be a creative benefit to the group and increase the approached to playing
with new ideas.
With an established company name and group ethos. Seeing as [a]pplied theatre works overtly
either to reassert or to undermine socio-political norms (Prendergast, & Saxton, 2009, p.8), Laura,
Sanisha and I decided together that we wanted to enter into a project to which the participants
attended by their own will and with a personal willingness to perform. Tim Prentki states that [t]he
terms which the outsider enters the chosen community may well determine the response offered by
participants to the proposed project or workshop (2009, p.181). Being that the nature of the process
relied heavily on the opinions of the older generation we decided that it was imperative to approach
a group who were keen to explore our intervention into the community, as Prentki continues that
intervention is implicated in issues of power and the right to speak on behalf of others (2009,
p.181). And it was through this the group wished only to include members of the community who
were independently involved in the project in order to avoid these predetermined inequalities
(2009, p.181) within the groups process. Therefore the work produced could be held in the hands of
the community and sculpted through their pure personal input. After contacting many community
centres and arranging meetings with already situated arts groups, we were instructed to contact the
Greenwich Court Retirement Home. The community there was already interested in the arts, as they
had previously been involved in university projects, and thankfully they were very interested in
experimenting with different forms of practice. This was helpful to us as it showed that the group

could be transported to our performance space. Schechner and Thompson state that [s]ocial theatre
is not or at least in our view, ought not to be limited to taking performance practices to
nontheatrical space, as a meeting of two distinct unrelated wholes: theatre and social work.
(2004, p.12). With this in mind we recognised that, in order to truly immerse the older group in
performative technology we would have to integrate them within a performance space. This would
therefore combine the elements of technological performance, integrate the older generation with
us,and include the groups personal input on technology.
To establish a connection with the group at Greenwich Court, my peers and I found it necessary to
first build a personal relationship with them. We achieved this by meeting them at their homes to
have a talk about their past experiences with technology. The company Age Exchange, who work
with the connection between the older community and art, were a helpful source for us as they gave
us an insight into how we could approach the group in a way which is beneficial to them. On the
Age Exchange website they comment that Age Exchange works with older people to improve
their quality of life by valuing their reminiscences (Mission and aims, 2012). It was from this that
our group understood that the small community of older people would appreciate sharing their past
experience with us. And so we decided to set up regular meetings in which we would discuss the
groups personal relationship with technology and their previous affiliations with it. Not only could
we therefore have personal accounts of their experiences but also shape the preparation of the
workshop around their ideas. We realised the way in which our whole group began and ended the
workshop was important to entering and leaving the space in the right mind set, Pretra Kuppers
states that [d]uring an arts workshop, people usually experience a different attention to the world, a
different pace, a different way of being with others. Find a way to release participants back into the
'normal' world. (2007, p.129). We were therefore able to apply these discussions and came to the
understanding that we would meet to converse at the beginning and end of the workshop in order to
immerse and detach ourselves from the working environment, which reciprocally gave an account
of our experiences.
In order to use applied theatrical techniques in an interdisciplinary context we decided to present a
range of practitioners that would influence the creation of the workshop process and further the
groups aims to critique the technological world. We began researching practitioners who themselves
dealt with the use of technology in performance to represent society's position's on such areas. Paul
sermon (1966-) uses technology in the community in a theatrical sense by using interdisciplinary art
installations, as is shown in The Teleporter Zone. The original intention of Semon's The Teleporter
Zone was to encourage outpatients to subconsciously relocate themselves to a different time and
space, helping to remove their thoughts from the confines of the waiting area (2007, p.428). Within
a performative context the group was able to use this idea to immerse The Silver Surfer's into the
performance space. This meant that the audience went from being passive to active. Sermon
comments how the relay of live video images between two sites, [combines] audience participants
within the same telepresent installation (2007), p.428). Therefore the performative context of the
piece means the group transports their awareness (2007, p.427) to a heightened sense of
performativity. As a group we developed this further by using a transaction of gestures in the
Telematic space, the group used this to frame and critique how society is losing human elements
when interacting through media. Through Jean Baudrillard who states [t]he loss of meaning is
directly linked to the dissolving, dissuasive action of information, the media, and mass media.
(1981/1994, p.79). With advances on the idea that the personal gestural communication is being
sidelined by the overuse of mediated technologies. In conjunction with this idea Schechner and
Thompson state that [w]hat the most effective social theatre does is to rub up against and reveal
the performative in the setting, complementing or undermining it, challenging or further
heightening it (2004, p.13). The Silver Surfers were therefore able to critique their view on how

technology is disrupting human interaction by experiencing it first-hand and performing it.

The intention of the live feed camera within the Surveillance space was to displace the immediacy
of the performer, representing how the person perceived in the television was different person to the
person viewed in the real world. Jem kelly recognises that the immediacy of performance refers to
the reception and perception of the physical (phenomenal) body in performance (2010, p.50). The
performer was not only projected in the virtual space but also, the action of their performance was
therefore situated in a less immediate and less real performance. By using technology in this way
this section works against immediacy and synchronicty of reception and perception of all the
signifying elements perceived in relation to performed action p.50. Through this the group was
able to represent the loss of natural live action in society by highlighting the representation of the
body in cyber-space losing key human traits. This benefited The Silver Surfers as it allowed them to
understand a different experiment with new technology and become the eye behind CCTV and this
adheres to Augsto Boal's Theatre Of The Oppressed, as Richard Schechner and James Thompson
states [t]he purpose is to enable individuals and groups to identify, express, and act out alternatives
to situations and systems that are oppressing them. (2004, p.15). Ideally we would have liked the
group to use Petra Kuppler's approach and [p]lay with perspective [allowing] videographer and
dancer to interact in different ways(2007, p.127). Unfortunately when it came to workshoping the
logistics of the section, we realised that this would not be feasible as the way in which the
performer would have to constantly position and reposition the camera's would pose a health and
safety risk.
Being that some members of the group were physically disabled we understood that there would
need to be certain exceptions made. Schechner and Thompson state that workshops for student
with physical disabilities requires a complex understanding of the needs of the group and clarity
about the demands of the theatre projects. (2004, p.13). When we opened this up to the group of
elders they suggested to challenge such beliefs, in order to disrupt the fabric of community based
theatre. Therefore to challenge this approach and identify The Silver Surfer Players into the
performance environment we found it necessary to first identify their age and physical condition.
This process was used to empower the bodies in the performance space and to represent that their
physical condition is not a hindrance to their capability as performer. Petra Kuppers continues this
by suggesting [i]f limping is part of your way of navigating in the world, it doesn't necessarily feel
subjectively negative, or 'secondary' to some idea of 'normate' walking [...] and not necessarily
experienced as inferior (2007, p.127). Through this, the way in which the participants performed
their actions and moved in the space highlighted the fact that they were disabled but in a
performative way. This did not resemble an inferiority but introduced new perspectives and
different sensibilities (2007, p.127). By drawing attention to disability Kuppers comments it is a
form of different and therefore valuable access to the world in its own right (2007, p.127). In itself
this questions the political and social view of elderly people in society and through their process of
performing in a contemporary context, there is an amalgamation of questionable social values.
Instead of existing within the realms of conventional theatre techniques, Laura, Sanish and myself
all chose to explore the concept of technology through the lens of Paul Sermon and The
Surveillance Camera players. Through this we could not only challenge the social values of how
technology has affected the modern world but also integrate the older generation into the modern
world, challenging the social view of the older generation and their relationship to technology. One
way in which this process was successful was that it managed to utilise the passion of their past
experiences and teach the older generation how to use new technologies and present them in a
theatrical sense. The groups aim was to create interaction that can change both disciplines
(Schechner and Thompson, 2004, p.13), and this was met by combining an applied concept with

technological performance. The purpose and use of applied theatre in this context was to open up a
dialogue to between the older generation and their views within technology which was mainly
achieve through active performativity. The outcomes for this process were in no way to find a
solution to the questions we were proposing but to experiment and explore ways of representing
benefits and problems that the older generation experience with technology in the modern world.

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