Presence

David Dowhaniuk

The separation of “the present” and “presence” was important for Henri Lefebvre in his seminal book and theory Rhythmanalysis. Lefebvre believed that dialogue, using time, speech, and action is what makes presence. The present is a singular moment of presence which has been captured and displaced from the original to create a product. “The present is a fact and an effect of commerce; while presence situates itself in the poetic: value, creation, situation in the world and not only in the relations of exchange” (Lefebvre 47). What does this mean when all our artforms are guarded by commerce? What is “the present” and “presence” in theatre if every performance has an exchange of money (commerce)? What is “presence” when even monetarily free platforms (e.g., YouTube) charge you with your personal data and time-consuming advertisements?

The COVID-19 lockdowns prevented co-presence in both the stage and screen theatres while also forcing many to have excess time on their hands. Theatre still prevailed, muses Sarah Bay-Cheng, existing without physical proximity between performers and audiences. “[P]erformance presence was never exclusively about live bodies in physical proximity to one another, but, throughout the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, presence was defined increasingly through digital online interactions” (Bay-Cheng 11). Bay-Cheng highlights the need for theatre and performance studies scholars and practitioners to consider the rich history of media arts and film history where presence, co-presence, and authenticity have been highly debated.

In 1935 Walter Benjamin was grappling with the same debate as theatre is now, that when captured by a camera, theatre loses its’ authenticity (Pietrzak-Franger et al.; Bay-Cheng). The reproduction of the original artwork loses its’ aura, in the case of theatre this was moving the actor onto a soundstage away from the audience. For Benjamin, when an artwork is reproduced mechanically the presence is depreciated. Not that the camera cannot make something new as photography “can bring out those aspects of the original that are unattainable to the naked eye yet accessible to the lens” (Benjamin 3). As this is the point where film and theatre deviated, during the COVID-19 pandemic the lockdowns have brought the disciplines back together with the same questions of presence and authenticity in the digital realm. Who has the privilege of time and access to be Schipper’s digital flaneur (Schipper)? Who has the privilege of time and access to intake beauty?

TV Buddha was first created by artist Nam June Paik in 1974. The artwork contains a live video feed of Buddha statue in front of a camera mounted behind a TV which displayed the Buddha. Here Buddha at any given moment is both in the present and presence. A physical sculpture, within the digital lens of the camera, on the tube of the television, and finally situated within the art gallery. A piece that doesn’t lose its’ aura or authenticity if one of the electronics fail and must be replaced or if it is exhibited with a different statue of Buddha. The art is in Paik’s concept and use of technology, and what it says about presence. The dialogue, Bay-Cheng’s ‘autopoetic loop’ and ‘autopoetic feedback loop’ (Bay-Cheng), is between the digital objects rather than the physical objects and their aura. Presence and co-presence connects the physical and digital in Paik’s sculpture. Does the privilege of being a flaneur in a gallery constitute commerce?

Yoko Ono created Sky TV in 1966. An art piece where live video feed of the sky above the gallery space displayed on a tv screen within. Considering Ono’s 2021 tweet about the art piece, we can understand that she is asking questions of privilege and access to the presence nature and beauty. Furthering these questions, Ono uses tools of surveillance bringing the presence of nature into the present of the art gallery, making nature the performer. Many of the discussions about presence and co-presence in theatre around digital performance can be considered by replacing sky with theatre in Ono’s tweet. Yes, the actual sky is best but what about when it is inaccessible? This is what the stage and screen theatre communities were forced to grapple with during lockdowns.

Kyle McDonald’s Exhausting a Crowd takes 24-hour recordings from security cameras in public spaces and invites people to watch online. The initial performers, who do not know they’re performing, have their presence turned into the present when it is captured and timestamped by the camera. When viewed online the initial present then becomes the (digital) presence for the audience. However, with the ability to comment, the online audiences’ presence is turned into the ongoing present of the art piece. Co-presence is also possible in McDonalds’s artwork as multiple audience members’ conversations may be captured simultaneously thus furthering the nesting instances of presence and ‘the present.’

Questions around presence and co-presence are great starting points for critical analysis of access and inclusion in theatre and performance studies. Performance studies allow for very specific entrances into presence. Nursing programs are investigating applied drama to improve ‘in the moment’ patient empathy or ‘sympathetic presence’ (Jennings et al.). There is always going to be live and recorded performances—some more and some less like traditional European theatre—but what can the presence theatre and performance studies offer outside of fine arts and commerce? As Bay-Chang concludes “presence is as presence does” (Bay-Cheng 21).

Works Cited

Bay-Cheng, Sarah. “Digital Performance and Its Discontents (or, Problems of Presence in Pandemic Performance).” Theatre Research International, vol. 48, no. 1, Mar. 2023, pp. 9–23, https://doi.org/10.1017/S0307883322000372.

Benjamin, Walter. The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction. Illuminations, 1969.

Lefebvre, Henri. “The Media Day.” Rhythmanalysis : Space, Time and Everyday Life, Continuum, 2014, https://doi.org/10.5040/9781472547385.ch-005.

McDonald, Kyle. Exhausting a Crowd. 2015, https://www.exhaustingacrowd.com/.

Ono, Yoko. “‘SKY TV, 1966/2005.’” Twitter, 4 May 2021, https://twitter.com/yokoono/status/1389626214801977346?lang=en.

Paik, Nam June. “TV Buddha.” NamJunePaik.Sg, https://explore.namjunepaik.sg/artwork-archival-highlights/tv-buddha/. Accessed 16 Apr. 2023.

Jennings, Matt, et al. “Acts of Care: Applied Drama, ‘Sympathetic Presence’ and person- Centred Nursing.” Performing Care, edited by Amanda Stuart Fisher and James Thompson, Manchester University Press, 2020, pp. 187–203.

Pietrzak-Franger, Monika, et al. “Editorial: Presence and Precarity in (Post-)Pandemic Theatre and Performance.” Theatre Research International, vol. 48, no. 1, Cambridge University Press, 1 Mar. 2023, pp. 2–8, https://doi.org/10.1017/S0307883322000360.

Schipper, Imanuel. “From Flâneur to Co-Producer.” Performing the Digital: Performance Studies and Performances in Digital Cultures, edited by Martina Leeker et al., 2017, pp. 191–210.