Theatre Design & Technology - Spring 1994 - 30

PREFRCE
When a new result is reached, a new
phenomena is discovered, we try to
identify its position within the existing
context, to attach it to the old coordinate system. Sometimes it takes time to
find these correlations and, until then,
this result, this phenomena, seems to be
falling out, and it becomes something
revolutionary and new that has no connection with tradition. When this happens, the only form of connection is
opposition to that which exists. The
new result gets isolated and starts being
an object of different sorts of speculations-some deliberate, some unconscious, bur all, in any case, unprofessional-that impede its further development. This happens because there exists
a lack of vision of the number of coordinates or dimensions under consideration. But even the most revolutionary
discoveries are, in fact, nothing but
links in the chain of knowledge.
Laser light visual effects have flourished on the edge of high technology
experimentation for many years. From
the physics laboratory they splashed out
onto the stage. Born as a revolurionary
new genre of entertainment, they broke
through into a new dimension of visual
art. Up until now, this area has accumulated significant practical experience,
achieved certain results, and developed
a technical basis of its own, but it has
somehow became self-enveloped.
A complex analysis of the contemporary situation of laser light, its position in the context of traditional arts
development, and the deepest general
cultural tendencies is needed to guarantee its further practical development.
Only such a weighted approach to the
problem will allow the full potential of
the method to be realized in an optimum way. This approach will also help
to form a new perspective, under which
previous approaches to traditional arts
study may be seen in a new light,
revised and enriched providing an
opportunity to interpret old facts in a
new way and to find new links.
-Omitry Mikhalevsky

Excel/ent pieces of art are the
essence of their forlll, which was
bom before thelll.
-Paul Valery

28

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effect that has been developed exists as if by itself and methodologically remains
in a class with no specific generic designation. Contemporary laser terminology is
based on particular characteristics and does not reflect the inner essence of the
phenomena. This situation is the result of a failure to approach the problem svstematically,
Popular names, such as "laser art" or "coherent optical art," claim the existence of a re\'olutionan' ne\\' art long before it has assumed such a status'. Parallels
berween the de\'e!opment of "laser art" and other technical arts now considered to
be traditional are taken as a given. But comparison of these spheres reveals a dramatic difference, For other technical arts-such as photograplw, film and TVdespite indi\'idual differences, the following relationship exists: ., Each rather wellde\'e!oped information communication system, as its structure increases in complexin', has the tendenc\' to enrich its own aesthetic potential and to develop from
a means of deliven' of art into a form of artistic cognition and expression," 2
Histor)' demonstrates that this process of development has alwavs been complex and contradictor\'. \'(lhen first designed, photograplw, cinema, and TV were
considered mere nO\'e!ties, Little bv little, as the technical qualitv of image transmission improved, they overcame the absence of an artistic tradition through imitation of the traditional fine arts, and began to form their own language of aesthetic expression. At what poinr does a form of data communication become an
art) When does this phase change take place and creative activit\, acquire aesthetic
content?
A. Leonrye\', an ourstanding Russian psychologist, in his brief bur deep analysis of the functions of art, came to a conclusion that it is the onl\' activity to
answer "the problem of discovering, expressing, and communicating the person's
sense of realitv."; An unconscious necessitv to share this "sense of reality" with
others drives an artist to create and makes this sense the essenrial content of any
work of art; the author's message to his public. This "person's sense of realin'"
cannot be delivered through any other form of communication. Leontyev thought
"the discovery of life" to be the central goal of art. '
The artist's message reaches its audience enveloped in an outer form of the
work of art. The audience has to decode it through their own interpretation of
\\'hat they may perceive-what the\' see or hear. This process has been analyzed
by many authors, bur Leonryev considered the process of "penetration through
the meaning" of the artistic ourer form to be the primal')' content of aesthetic
activit)" He wrote: "One should get rid of the indifference of the meaning, should
go through it, and here, narurally, the activity gains the character of a struggle, a
collision, of wrecking this, maintaining that, and thus the dynamics which used to
be the dynamics of the inner life of consciousness and its drama are reproduced by
the aesthetic activit)/ in its product, crystallizing and accumulating in it." 5
This means that any method of visual image production, reproduction, or data
deliverv to the audience (if we consider the visual form of information as communication) becomes an artistic form when it presenrs a certain technology of image
creation developed and versatile enough for an artist to express his personal sense
of life; to contain and deliver it to the audience; and for the audience to be able to
understand it-to receive the artist's message at a level other than the level of data,
But on both ends of this connection, the technology should guarantee an ability to
go through the meaning of the visual image proper, thus rejecting that which was
the very first goal and has to be the very essence of the information communication technique,
In summary: Data communication becomes an art when physically communicated data rurns from an obiect of communication into a lIIeans of communication of a person's sense of realin'. Thus the partial description of life is substitured
bv the "c1iscoven'" of life as a whole, Information of a higher level is communicated rhrough rhe same channel and the recipient gets data in considerablv larger
amounts and more connected volumes. This is a good example of how quanriry
development leads to a ne\\' qualin'.
For laser-light effects-unlike photograplw, cinema, and TV-the parh from
the physics laboraton' to the artisr's workshop was short. That means rhar laser
light \'isual effects from rhe \'en' beginning had rhis "new qualin'" thar pur rhem
into a special separate group.
The laser lighr effects could nor pla\' a role in .1!W sort communicarion sysrem
in a rradirional way, since laser image generation rechnique of rhar rime was primitive, Ar firsr, artists used nothing bur narrow laser outpur beams. The main scenic
merhod wa, the demon,tration of volume (which the viewer did not pay any
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Theatre Design & Technology - Spring 1994
