Abstract
The works of William Shakespeare have entered cyberspace during the last years and his heroes are reincarnated in forms of animation and experimental visualization. The two leading companies in this regard are the Metaverse Shakespeare Company and the Avatar Repertory Theatre. The first one has created a series of productions on Shakespeare’s plays using Second Life and striving for a historically accurate presentation. The second one has explored the use of animation in order to portray fantasy worlds where Shakespeare’s plays (such as The tempest or The Merry Wives of Windsor) blend with aspects of gaming. These companies push further the boundaries of theatre and performance and explore the implementation of intermediality in order to (re)-imagine theatre. In a fusion of technology and drama the mise-en-scène of Shakespeare’s plays that is presented on the real stage with human actors is reincarnated into the digital stage of the metaverse with 3-D avatars. In the paper at hand, Ι look into the virtual lives of Shakespeare and investigate with interdisciplinary hermeneutic tools (from semiology etc.) the evolution of Shakespeare’s Folios into an experiment where Image, not Word prevails. This study builds on my ongoing research on cultural multimodalities in visual and performing arts.
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
KEYWORDS
Multimodality, Intermediality, Animation, Second Life, Shakespeare
