Our journey in Media Arts: History and Theory starts with the Native Americans. It's roughly 1000 BC when the first people arrived in the Americas or as some archaeologists are starting to believe 12000 BC. Either way, humans were traveling the globe and settling in the west coast of the U.S. continent. These Native Americans were more advanced than some people acknowledge. Throughout the years, they developed languages, customs and civilizations.
They had an advanced irrigation system (which is more than the Romans had in 27 BC *cough* *cough* the bubonic plague *cough* *cough*). The Native Americans had multiple types of settlements. There were permanent settlements with huts, wigwams and long houses. Long houses even housed the entire tribe. There were traveling settlements with T-pees and brush shelters. The tribes that traveled were called nomadic tribes and were usually small. They reused the T-pees while they traveled, like a tent. They were a very kind people but they would still have bloody wars/battles amongst other tribes.
Native Americans did have a religion but their religion beliefs were animistic. Which means that they believed everything from humans to animals to natural objects and even the universe had a soul. Their religion was fairly similar to Catholic and Protestant religions. The Native Americans believed in one god and how everything was created, they had a devil like character to fear, and they believed in an after-life with sense of immortality. Unlike Catholic and Protestant religions, Native Americans believed that the spirit world was with them on Earth/ the material world. The Native Americans shared their religion with one another through stories and these stories were told to various generations. These religious stories were told by Storytellers.
The Storytellers were in charge of preserving the culture as well as sharing it. They played the role of the Native American's Priest and historian. They told stories that would reach the forces of nature. They were entertainers and had a magical way of telling stories. The way they tell their stories can be compared to modern day activists and performance art. The Storytellers were passionate about the topics they shared to the tribe. They expressed oneself throughout the story, engaging their fellow tribe members. For example, Little Hawk a storyteller for his tribe tells a story called buffalo dance that was suppose to bring buffalo to the tribe. In this dance, there would be different voices used, sound effects, expressiveness, hand gestures, costumes and drums.
The way these religious stories were told was in a collective experience in these Native American tribes. They took place in open fields, and were accompanied by song, music, spoken word and dance. These stories not only engaged tribe members but transported them to other worlds and was mostly based on the imaginative skill of the narrator. This was the beginning of performing.
Now we travel to Europe where Ancient Greece is thriving, especially in theater. The Greeks have a love for theater and plays so much that they build a Amphitheatre to sit all kinds of Greeks, no matter their class, so that ALL can enjoy it. Here is where one of the major differences between Native American storytelling and the Greeks Amphitheatre. The Greeks separated their actors and the audience, unlike the Native Americans that worked more as a collective.
That's not the only difference between the Greeks and the Native Americans when it comes to performance art. The Greeks now have genres, tragedies, comedy and satyr plays. They give out awards to playwriters, and actors. They are now beginning to develop stories in the same way that modern western culture does today, with technical terminology, genres, themes, plot elements even with common character tropes.
Similar to the Native Americans Storyteller, the Greeks use a chorus that used song, dance and recitation to describe and comment on the main actions of a scene throughout the play. Instead of calling the actors storytellers, the Greeks call them Thespians and it comes from the "first" Greek actor Thespis who originated the tragedy genre. Multiple people were playwrites, it wasn't just one appointed person in the village like a Storyteller in Native American tribes. Some of the most well known tragedy playwrites are Sophocles, Eurpides and Aeschylus.
The Greeks called their theatres theatrons, were built along hills and consisted of three areas for it's stage. 1) The orchestra, which was a large area in the center of the theatre and where the performance would take place. Everyone in the audience was able to hear everything from the orchestra. 2) The skene, which was the backstage area and it was used for the backdrop and dressing rooms. 3) The audience, these theatres were built to hold large audiences and were created so that everyone in the audience could hear everything that happened on stage.
The people that would perform in these performances were all male and they were amateurs who had to be very expressive and make large gestures in order for everyone to understand what was happening. Costumes and Masks were used to help audiences understand what's going on by being exaggerated. The masks also amplified the users voice to help with hearing. Everyone from everywhere in Greece came to see these shows. They would travel on long roads to be able to see these performances.
Eventually all roads lead to Rome, that brings us to the 6th century BC to Ancient Rome and the Circus Maximus. Unfortunately, the Circus Maximus did not showcase what we in the 21st century call a Circus with clowns and acrobats. The Circus Maximus was a lot more deadly. This building was for chariot-racing and was used as a huge entertainment venue in Rome, Italy. It was 2,037 ft long and could seat 300,000 uncomfortably.
It's here where segregation of the classes begin. The entertainers were not amateurs' like the Greeks, they were prisoners, slaves or traitors. They were called gladiators. The entertainment wasn't a play that made you weep or laugh, it was instead full of blood-shed. All kinds of animals were used for the entertainment as well. There would be hunting games where the human or the animal gets slaughtered. Sadly, this caused the extinction of some animals. For the most part, chariot-racing happened at the Circus Maximus. It was still a very deadly sport where not many survived.
Strangely, we can connect the way the Native Americans would tell their stories as a collective to the way the Romans involved their audience during the entertainment. The Romans would involve their audience by having them help make a decision of whether or not to execute the entertainer. Of course, the emperor, who had a nice cushy seat front and center of the action, made the ultimate decision but by including the audience caused the audience to feel like they had a sense of power as well and they worked collectively. This caused them to distant themselves from the entertainer because the entertainer was seen as a lesser being.
Now Circus Maximus was wild but the Roman Colosseum was on a whole other level. Fast forward to Rome, Italy 70 - 72 AD. An oval Amphitheatre is built in the center of the city called the Colosseum. It was very advanced for it's time, there were multiple entrances on the field for animals to join the fight. It held 50,000 people. Various games were played at the Colosseum and these games even had half-time performances that were basically live executions. The games always ended with a grand finale of flooding the theatre and having violent sea battles. This was the main event and helped clean all the blood and dead bodies up. At the time, this was the Romans main source of entertainment. Just like the Circus Maximus, there was segregation seating. This time it was more specific. The audience was seated by rank, social class and gender. The emperor would be front and center. They even had nose-bleed seats where woman, the very poor and slaves could sit. This area of seating was for those that were considered the lowest of the low. They also had Gladiators that were slaves, prisoners of war or people that were committed for some crime. They could win their freedom if they survived, which was very unlikely.
Although the Roman Colosseum was an architecture marvel, it's main downfall was it having no ceiling causing weather to literally rain on the Roman's parade. But do not fear, the dome is invented. In Rome 125 AD the Pantheon begins to be created. The Romans come up with the arch, dome and vault. They were actually able to create vaults of perfect rigidity, that required no buttresses. It consisted of thick walls, but as they created the dome lighter and lighter stones were used. It's not a fully enclosed dome, it does include an oculus which is a 30 foot hole at the very top of the dome. The Pantheon is the worlds largest unreinforced concrete dome. Unlike the Colosseum, the Pantheon was a temple and used for religious purposes. The inside was decorated and sculpted impressively. The Pantheon led the way for future architecture marvels.
In Constantinople 537 AD, the Byzantine empire was able to do what the Romans couldn't, a pendentive. This advancement allowed them to build the Hagia Sophia. Which is still the worlds largest cathedral ever built. The Hagia Sophia has three domes. One full dome on it's top center and two on it's sides, supporting the top one. The Hagia Sophia is bigger than the Notre Dame. The Romans did start the making of the Hagia Sophia but the Byzantines finished it. They were able to finish it by creating pendentives, an important device to placing a dome over a square piece, and squinches, a wedge that fits into the top corner of a space. With these architecture advancements, it drastically changes how there is more control since it's a completely inside atmosphere. They're able to control the lighting, the sound and the weather now. Windows were placed at the bottom of the dome, this caused an angelic lighting effect which gave guests the idea of being closer to heaven.
The Hagia Sophia connected the Emperor and the Priest together. This was a representation of heaven and Earth coming together as a collective. Like how the Native Americans came together as a collective with their Storytellers and the spirits during those stories. The Hagia Sophia didn't have art of specific spiritual characters. There was two levels, the ground floor was for men since men could only participate in rituals and the gallery above it was for woman. The two levels became the model for future churches. There was segregation with classes as well as gender. The Hagia Sophia started as a Christian Church than it became a Mosque and now in the 21st century the cathedral it is a museum.
Talking about cathedrals, let's talk about Gothic Cathedrals. 12th century Europe could not get enough of the Gothic Cathedral look. It consisted of high vaulted ceilings, had large stain glass windows to allow more light from heaven into the cathedral and tall spires to grab peoples attention and to make it easy to find. The spires were so tall that it towered over other buildings. It also had flying buttresses to help support the building from collapse, ribbed vaults, gargoyles to scare off evil and help with water irrigation, relics and gold. It was the entertainment venue of it's time. It was built in the shape of a cross with it's front having a huge and beautiful rose window. It also had three entrances that followed the father, the son, and the holy spirit.
The Gothic Cathedral was home to a Bishop, and was required to have a Bishop's chair in the shape of a cross. It also had a boy choir, created an angelic sound and was only made of young boys. Once their voice dropped they would lose their job. All cathedrals are required to have a Bishop's chair, and has to house a religious relic. Religious relics were artifacts that came from the bible and could be Christ's finger, or clothes from a Saint. These relics were often stolen from thieves to give to other cathedrals. Cathedrals with the best relic would get better attendance and more followers when it came to Pilgrimages which led to more money into the church and the town. Pilgrimages were made of people traveling in hopes to get their prays answered.
The Gothic Cathedral was filled with amazing artwork that represented God, Jesus, Mary, angels and saints. It's breathtaking setting is what caused it to prosper which also helped the Catholic Church to prosper as well.
No comments:
Post a Comment