Theatre Design & Technology - Winter 2005 - 47

example, the time honored term "multi-media" doesn't fully reflect the capability of today's technology. To some it conjures images from the days of using slide projectors and clunky dissolve units in the context of some avant-garde theatre
production. More recently the term reflects the inclusion of both still and moving images along with the possible addition of sound in Web page design and digital business presentations. Neither approach considers the full potential of
digital media itself, nor is either particularly concerned with the design process and the application of digital media to
live performance. Thus, we discover the need to create a more inclusive vocabulary to better embody the experience
offered by the technologies available to all designers today.
The combinations of media and processes in current use are better reflected by the term "combined media." It
better encompasses the plethora of digital tools and processes available to the designer from conception through performance. Therefore the following clarification is offered:
Combined media is a means of processing one's thoughts during the design process. It can assist the designer in
generating, processing, and communicating ideas about the design. In supporting a live performance combined media
functions as a tool to implement, and, in real time, interpret and modify one's design.
Today people understand the functions and values of word processing-once considered a radical and expensive
means of typing a letter. In the early days of computer aided design (CAD) some people who wrote the software code
urged potential customers to think of their new product as a "line processor." They equated the potential impact of their
software upon drafters to that experienced by those who took advantage of word processing. Today, by logical progression, one can view not a single package, but multiple pieces of software used in combination as an exceptionally powerful tool for the designer. The digital revolution provided us with the ability to process thought, lines, shapes, space,
colors, still images, moving images, sound, light, textures, design, execution, and performance. Combined media theory
looks upon this quantum advance as providing designers for live performance with revolutionary tools to process their
designs from conception through visualization to realization. Further, at any stage of the process the designer retains
complete and even greater artistic control over the product than was previously possible.

media t ypes and digital editing tools
The following lists can convey a sense of the types of media,
contexts, protocols, and software encountered by the author
in working on combined media projects.

Media Types Applicable to Combined
Media Applications:

Combined Media/Performance Interfaces:
* The live performer in the performance space
* Static scenery
* Fixed location themed attractions
* Location specific events

* Captured still images

* Entertainment specific architecture

* Captured moving images

* Web based entertainment

* Virtual still images
* Virtual moving images
* Virtual environments
* Real-time generated data projections
* Multi channel digital audio
* MIDI sequences
* Automated lighting
* Automated scenery
* Automated prosthetics
* Automated wearable effects
* The remote live performer
* The recorded performer

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Communication Protocols:
* MIDI show control
* General MIDI
* MIDI time code
* SMPTE time code
* DMX 512
* AMX
* MCI
* RS-232
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Theatre Design & Technology - Winter 2005
