Liveness and the Digital
I found the discussion of photography, particular Barthes’s take on it, kind of quaint coming from the perspective where photoshop is the norm and the idea of an image being proof of something is almost laughable. We expect images to be manipulated, and indeed an inexplicable amount of digital space is devoted to memes of manipulating and juxtaposing images. However, I do agree with Dixon in his assessment that in performance the images wield more power than bodies, so has the power and seeming veracity of the image remained even though we know images can and do lie?
Of anything, I think Stone’s descriptions of Stephen Hawking and phone sex did more to bring home the idea of how the digital could replicate actual space for me than anything else. I think the Stephen Hawking story also illustrates the debate between Auslander and Phelan pretty aptly. I just had my undergraduates read Auslander and they get so upset (as do I) at his dismissal of the importance of the live, and I am always still left with the question of why we care about being present in the room, even if Hawking is speaking through a digital device?
When thinking about liveness and the digital, there is also the phenomenon of temporal liveness. This is particularly important for things like sports or the presidential debate. No one wants to watch these things on TiVo, because they have very little meaning once the moment has passed. This brings to mind for me Anderson’s concept of simultaneity, and how it is perhaps changed by the different ways we can consume and interact with information in the moment.
Live: Witnessed a) in person at the time of performance or b) simultaneously but remotely.
Virtual: replicated in some way that distinguishes it from the real.