there is an air of excitement as intensedrama productions anniversary celebration begins. the troupe is planning on giving several solo performances over the next month, starting with a new work from Colas ongoing "life of a Media Whore" series.
Cola's new piece "the circle of life" has proven to be a New Step on her path to becoming a World-Renowned Artist. she has moved beyond the Theatrics of her pervious work to produce a rather calm, almost quite piece about the merging of influences in the Media today.
Cola manages to do away with preconceptions about her work while also embracing some of her previously established methods of presentation. Cola has not made a complete break from her roots as of yet. she presented it in her old stomping ground, the intensedrama media studio. the location played into the audiences expectations for the show. up until now most of Cola's Work has been done in this space and the Cult-Like Fans of this Young Artist surely expected the sort of one-woman show that Cola has received so much attention for in the past. the Audiences expectations where not met in this, but they were surely not disappointed.
what the Audience got was a piece that was presented in much the same way as a standard intensedrama performance, but with no live actors. instead, the attendees were met with four Giant Screens, each with a live feed of different television shows Clearly Formatted for different age groups. the screens were labeled Child, Young Adult, Middle Age, Old.
the First Screen had childrens programming on it. it played cartoons and some live action shows that included children having slime dumped on them. the Next Screen music videos playing on it. as its programming flashed, the audience was fed familiar images of Boy Bands and Mainstream Alienation that so dominates music today. the Following Screen was also filled with music videos, but the type of entertainers presented were Significantly Different. all of the performers were middle aged, and playing Easy Listening and soft pop. in the Final Screen, there was programming that seemed Obviously Intended for an audience of senior citizens. at the end of the of the installation, there was a large sign reading:
wHOcONTROLSyOURmEDIAlIFE?
to the more Media Savvy, Colas statement was completely clear. each station was owned by one MegaCorporation. each station was Targeted at a specific age group. on the surface, the piece seems simplistic, but Cola managed to present it in a way that added layers of Experience to the installation.
it is a testament to a keen sense of space that Cola was able to set up her canvases in the studio while also managing to keep a sense of openness in the room. the Audience could stand back and watch all the screens at the same time, or they could get close enough to examine the screens individually. people could become absorbed in each set of programming or they could watch from a distance, becoming detached from the Spectacle.
the behavior of the viewers seemed to mirror the reactions people have to Mass Media in general. some Audience Members stood back and commented on the work as a whole, others commented on individual programming, while others just got sucked into whatever programming happened to be on. in classic Cola fashion, the Audience becomes part of the art, adding meaning to the Work, and taking whatever they wish from her Basic Statement.
it is the symbiotic relationship between Colas performances and her audience is the over arching theme of her work. in the final analysis, it is the most interesting part of her performances. the whole of Colas work has covered many different issues, but in each she seems to explore the relationship between audience and performer in new and interesting ways, playing off their collective experiences and individual reactions. it seems fitting that this piece would cap off the first year of intensedrama productions official formation. im already on my knees begging for more.
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