Discomfort of the flesh: Antonin Artaud’s Theatre realised with new media technologies

Abstract

When Antonin Artaud (1896-1948 France) called for a new ‘theatre’ he was asking for a rigorous engagement with the work that would challenge both the artist and the audience. The thesis charters Artaud from birth to death, examining his 'struggle', which ultimately defines his 'theatre'. More specifically what is his theatre in the ritual form and the visceral form? Artaud’s life cannot be separated from the work itself and hence a division also emerges in relation to the intent of an artwork and if it can construct and also deconstruct the problem as apposed to an abstract realisation that moves away from the personal and the internal. The ritual form serves to experience via cognitive responses, signs symbols gesture and metaphor. It is also a space of the unknown the ‘black space’ and the liminal. The internal form, which is visceral, reacts by externalising the problem, forcing to the surface emotions such as grief, anger, despair, laughter, hysteria etc. However the question remains as to what kind of artwork can fulfill Artaud’s demands for his ‘theatre’ and is it realisable? By exploring the life and work of Artaud it became obvious that only certain types of works can echo Artaud’s demands for a theatre. The word ‘theatre’ takes on new meaning as its extended definition moves into eruption, embodiment and transformation. There are a number of threads that run through the thesis, which searches for enlightenment and deliverance on the one hand, retribution and chaos on the other. Alchemical prescriptions are enforced throughout the thesis, via life, death, urine, sputum, faeces and bile. Language and its ability to convey the internal is questioned in relation to Artaud, who devised various systems in order to deconstruct or tear off the veneer of society and art creating the ultimate sparagmos. The ritual space, which is a necessary vehicle for Artaud, gives ground in which to unravel through catharsis and in some cases abreaction. Drawing from his maxims, plague, cruelty and the double, which disrupt through the body, the thesis tests the intersection of Artaud’s unrealised ‘theatre’ and its relationship to New Media Art and the ‘self’.