Oldal 156 [156]
SAMUEL BECKETT’S PLAY IN DIGITAL CULTURE: TECHNOLOGIES OF INFLUENCE
use of cinematic language in the form of cuts, editing, multiple cameras, and
offline sound design. Instead, the physical movement of the PTZ camera re¬
contextualizes the interrogator within the context of new digital technologies
and communication mediums, meaning that the sound world had to articulate
a progression whereby the audience is seduced from the analogue into the
digital. Thus, Blocks A and B had no associated sound design, using lighting
and PTZ changes alone; in the da capo, when the audience (it was presumed)
would have begun to settle into the new cinematic vocabulary, sound design
was used to accentuate the physicality and presence of the PTZ camera as
interrogator. Finally, at the conclusion of the piece, all visible elements were
removed, with only the sound of the camera heard in isolation, suggesting
the continuing hunting of the interrogator within the vacant darkness of the
visible scene. This is a further reference back to the Ethica production, in
which the “interrogator” light was active both during the pre-set and post¬
set configurations, suggesting both that the audience might yet have their
own turn inside the urn, and that “the inquirer (light) begins to emerge as
no less a victim of his inquiry than they and as needing to be free, within
narrow limits, literally to act the part, i.e. to vary if only slightly his speeds
and intensities.”'?
In Intermedial Play, the physical embodiment of the PTZ camera as
interrogator using sound was achieved in a direct manner, without the use of
pre-composed material. This was implemented using a contact microphone
mounted on the PTZ unit which picked up the electromechanical sounds of
the PTZ motors as the camera shifted from one pre-defined position to the
next. This sound was then mixed with the actor’s dialogue, captured using
three microphones mounted in each urn, and broadcast live alongside the
video feed. The audio signal picked up directly from the PTZ unit via the
contact microphone naturally matched the profile and gesture of the physical
camera movements in a very real sense. However, when considered from
the perspective of the audience, the high-frequency timbre of the small,
electromechanical motors of the PTZ unit suggested an almost synthetic,
electronic sound world, rather than the assumed weightiness of a physically
moving camera. Drawing on techniques from electroacoustic composition,
some live processing of the contact microphone signal was therefore
introduced to achieve the desired timbre, while retaining the overall sonic
shape and gesture of the PTZ motors. This was achieved by the real-time
pitch-shifting of the contact microphone signal downward by two octaves,
thereby suggesting a more plausible weightiness and less synthetic timbre.
In addition, and for similar reasons, the pitch-shifted signal was also routed
155 Samuel Beckett to George Devine, 9 March 1964, The Letters, Vol. 3, 595.