GREATEST CHANGE IN THE HISTORY OF ACTING

GREATEST CHANGE IN ACTING HISTORY:

I know the extreme magnitude of the statements IÂ’m making and I would not dare make them without a mountain of scientific evidence to back them up. The signs are everywhere, and as the saying goes, you are resposible for your career, ignoring advances in your art and craft doesnt make any sense at all.

At first I was just going to send this to teachers, but then I thought, they know where their pay check is coming from, so why not send it to actors; people whoÂ’s pay check could depend on knowing this stuff. Right now, the world is going through the biggest change itÂ’s gone through since we lived in caves. ItÂ’s called a paradigm shift. IÂ’ll make it short and to the point.

IÂ’d like to use a short recap of a personal experience which should help illuminate what this presentation was meant to convey.

My backup, as an actor was that I did construction. I was building sets in Hollywood. I was good at it; they called me “Nail’in Whelan.” I hadn’t done it in a while, but I needed some money and a friend of mine was Artistic Director on this upcoming blockbuster music video, and he gets me on. First day I show up ready for work, got my tool belt and I’m good to go. There must be thirty carpenters on this job, thing is, I noticed that all these guys had nail guns, I had on occasion, used a nail gun, but not enough to be really comfortable with one. My hammer was hanging from my tool belt, and that is what I used. My friend had enough juice that when I asked him if that would be ok, he said yes. Within a very short time, just looking around, I can see that these guys are all working, three maybe four times faster than me, I realize that regardless of who I knew, that wasn’t going to hack it for too long, and did I mention that, I really needed the money.
So I went over to my friend and said, “Show me how to use one of these things.”
New, better tools are now available to the actor, A word to the wise, use them.

Some of you may already be working from these ideas. For those who have yet to consider their implications regarding acting, IÂ’ll present, what is to me, the most blatant example. The change is no less then a very perceivable (measured) shift in society away from the linear processes, which have dominated our history to the non-linear processes, which are now beginning to take their place. Non-linear is a process I prefer to call Mosaic. The most direct example I can think of is in the way we receive, process, and disseminate information. I would like to refer you to what some of the foremost authorities on communication have to say about that trend. The point of all this being, old school acting processes are linear and new school processes (Mosaic) are non-linear, which means, you canÂ’t reach a non-linear audience in a linear manner. ItÂ’s like, trying to solve a problem between Jews and Muslims in a Christian manner.

A simple web search using the subject title, “Hyper-Reading”, would yield a heavy harvest of sustainable evidence in favor of that theory. This list is lengthy, perhaps overly so, but even if the list is not read, by merely scanning it, one would see this shift from linear to non-liner as a recognized fact in academia and in the private sector as well. The implications of a shifting paradigm to the art and craft of acting are vast and profound.

I hope, should you get bored reading the list, you will skip to the bottom and read my final remarks on the subject.

References for Hyper Reading

Hyper-Reading of Hyper Text
Barrie R.C. Barrell, Assistant Professor, Faculty of Education, Memorial U. of Newfoundland
Bolter, Jay David (1992) Writing Space:
The Computer, Hypertext, and the History of Writing (Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum) Charney, D. (1994)
"The Effect of Hypertext on Processes of Reading and Writing." In Literacy and Computers:
The Complications of Teaching and Learning with Technology, edited by C. L.
Selfe and S. Hilligoss (New York: Modern Language Association), pp. 238-263 Dillon, A. (1996) "Myths, Misconceptions, and an Alternative Perspective on Information Usage and the Electronic Medium." In Hypertext and Cognition, edited by J.-F. Rouet, J. J. Levonen, A. Dillon, and R. J. Spiro (Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum), pp. 25-42
Dobrin, D. N. (1994) "Hype and Hypertext." In Literacy and Computers: The Complications of Teaching and Learning with Technology, edited by C. L.
Selfe and S. Hilligoss (New York: Modern Language Association), pp. 305-315 Douglas, J. Y. (1994) "'How do I stop this thing?': Closure and Indeterminacy in Interactive Narratives." In Hyper / Text / Theory, edited by G. Landow (Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press), pp. 159-188 Johnson-Eilola, J. (1994) "Reading and Writing in Hypertext: Vertigo and
Euphoria." In Literacy and Computers. 195-219
Miall, D. S. (1998) "The Hypertextual Moment." English Studies in Canada, 24, 157-174 Johnson-Eilola, J. (1997) Nostalgic Angels: Rearticulating Hypertext Writing
(Norwood, NJ: Ablex) Landow, G. P. (1997)
Hypertext 2.0: The Convergence of Contemporary Critical Theory and Technology (Baltimore:
Johns Hopkins University Press)
Moulthrop, S. (1993) "You Say You Want a Revolution? Hypertext & the Laws of Media." In Essays in Postmodern Culture, edited by E. Amiran and J. Unsworth
(Oxford: Oxford University Press), pp. 69-97 Rouet, J.-F. and Levonen, J. J. (1996) "Studying and Learning with
Hypertext: Empirical Studies and Their Implications." In Hypertext and Cognition, edited by J.-F. Rouet, J. J. Levonen, A. Dillon, and R. J. Spiro (Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum), pp. 9-23 Delany P. and Landow, G. (eds.) (1991). Hypermedia and Literary Studies.
Cambridge (Mass.): the MIT Press.
Ferradas Moi, C. (1998) 'Hypertext: Explorations in Textual Texture in the Learner-Centred EFL Classroom'. "The Inner Eye ", Buenos Aires Joyce, M.(1995)
Of Two Minds: Hypertext Pedagogy and Poetics. Ann Arbor / U. of Michigan Press
Landow, G. (1992) Hypertext: the Convergence of Contemporary Critical Theory and Technology. Baltimore and London: John Hopkins U.Press.
Yellowlees Douglas, J. (1994). '
The Quick and the Dirty - Reading “I Have Said Nothing”. The Eastgate Quarterly Review of Hypertext, Vol. I, No.2, Winter 1994.

If this Linear/Non-Linear trend has piqued your curiosity, then perhaps you will find other changes that I feel are of utmost importance to the future of acting worthy of your curiosity. You can find those ideas on the web at:
http://www.mosaicacting.com
Thank you,
Jeremy Whelan
mosaicacting@yahoo.com

While scholars and scientist define the distinction between linear/non-linear, I personally prefer to refer to non-linear as a mosaic process. I believe mosaic to be more descriptive of the process, and infinitely more poetic.

JW