Thirteenth International Conference on The Arts in Society

Abstract

For a quarter century Canadian film and theatre director Robert Lepage has explored the nature of visual-spatial communication and reinvented theatricality through the lens of contemporary technologies and new media. His recent adaptation of Canadian author Alberto Manguel’s “The Library at Night” (2016) is of particular interest for a discussion of the unfolding global transition from late print culture to the electronic/digital age. Manguel’s contemplations focus on the philosophical, architectural, and social implications that have underpinned the existence of libraries and archives throughout the print era and investigate their role for the development of culture and human knowledge. Lepage’s “adaptation” transposes his poignant insights to a three-dimensional immersive environment which juxtaposes real and online spaces by means of 360° immersion video technology. This environment takes the spectator-participant on “a fantastic online-reality voyage to the depths of ten of the world’s most fabulous and amazing libraries,” and, at the same time, invites us to focus and refocus our attention on questions of media, representation, embodiment, and – most provocatively – the intersection of different media and consciousness. The installation currently tours internationally.