Debate: in progress
A group of four individuals have a ‘live debate’ set up as a traditional/political debate. Their words are taken directly from online debates. The viewer sees a group of four well-dressed individuals standing in front of a black screen, each behind a podium.
RESEARCH QUESTIONS • What is the archetypal structure of online debates? i.e. main structural points • does each individual personify a particular rhetoric style or personality style that emerges online? i.e. the intellectual vs the troll Alternatively, characters are interchangeable – people wearing different masks online • to what extent is the debate coferent? • What you write about is the gap between the triangulated points • What we remember – obscene, vivid = find that point • what is the tone? Progress from banal to serious?
STRUCTURE OF ONLINE DEBATES -non sequitors -insulting -absurd strawman -sweeping statements -Voice of reason is pedantic and always drowned out -godwin’s law
PHRASING OF DEBATES -Bracketed phrases -run-on sentences -CAPS – yelling -noises -words drawn ouuuut smh/lmao -colloquial pretention emojis – bring it out – could lead to something very surreal
TOPICS -chicken vs egg -TV shows/film i.e. harry potter vs LOTR -moonlanding -vaccination/holistic medicine -gun control -climate change -cultural appropriation -BLM -feminism -holocaust
""NOTES"" don’t ignore the context of online – i.e. the silent majority watching entertained - interaction of people that would never normally interact -wide location of speakers (maybe actors are in different locations)
play with different registers\bring out the uncanny\ -guy citing facts – present it as government film i.e. how person means to present it -then you have 14-year-old girl yelling at the docs from her bedroom -then the spammer redirects you to an unrelated site -investing the sign with meaning (in reference to avatars, online personalities) -purest manifestation of the mass (Baudrillard) -the translation of personality as spectacle
need topics to ground it - prevent questioning of topic build mind of the character to be able to write a script physical displacement in real time Tino Seghal – performers speak to audience postponement