Direct Address

Abstract

The invention of the printing press and the resulting availability of printed, yet often unauthorized theatrical productions, allowed theatre companies to produce plays without having seen a performance, or having consulted the playwright. Writers included “margin notes” — didascaliae — to guide actors rehearsing from their scripts. The Direct Address project explores how contemporary uses of social media engage with the tradition of annotation and commentary by making them live, participatory and open to public scrutiny. How are our lives and desires represented in public space with the proliferation of media screens, the immediacy of access to products and services, linking us to an ever-expanding network of consumption while in transit? What would happen if we reclaimed and renegotiated access to some of those spaces? What if we could overwrite the corporate signature by introducing a different voice and consolidating a different civic agenda?