Stichomythia

A web - multimedia performance: the new limits of adaptation.

          Stichomythia is a web – multimedia performance, by Christos Prossylis. Presented in Munich, Germany (June 2004) into the frame of the art exhibition “Far-Near-Center: twelve positions in contemporary Greek Art”, that organized by European Patent Office. Stichomythia is a live internet chat room performance and an internet-multimedia installation performance; which took place directly from the European Patent Office on open day evening (June 22, 2004). Two performers chatted in the CulturalOlympics.com chat room, live from the exhibition area. The same time, from time to time, exhibition audience acts as performers exchanging positions with the original performers (Antigone and Creon). So, this final performance’ text is a multi-writing result directly from the performance action. 

Performers were use a day by day life text and texts from ancient Greek drama, as well, producing analogue and internet action. From time to time also, they used the text to produce small theatrical events and back to the chat. The performance takes 2-3 hours. The interaction between analogue and internet world, took place in the European Patent Office' art exhibition (Far-Near-Centre: Twelve Positions in contemporary Greek art) and in Cultural Olympics.com chat at the same time. This event linked the internet action with a specific analogue place: line by line talk - line by line worlds, in an adaptation without limits.

The adaptation is informed by the pursuit of a particular audience (net citizens and art exhibition audience): it asks how might the migration of material to a new medium (for example the ancient Greek text) gain a new audience or re-exploit its existing one?  What happens when this material is redeveloped in its original medium as an adapted text (for example a “traditional” theatre performance)? How and why might web performance accept or otherwise respond to material originally presented in performance, involving multimedia? Can material lend itself to, or resist, re-presentation in a web – multimedia performance?  How can the presentational possibilities or limitations of this medium resonate in this particular work?  How is material affected by dispersal over, or integration of, multiple media?