Lecturer: Martin Bernátek
The lecture focuses on the scenic aspects of technical and staging principles of polyekran, considering its functions from an early era until present day.
The success of the polyekran Prague Spring created by Emil Radok and Josef Svoboda for the Brussels EXPO in 1958 significantly influenced the theatre culture of the beginning of the sixties and permanently marked the self-presentation of the socialist regime. The following EXPO in Montreal, 1967 was fully dominated by multimedia spectacles – so called Expanded Cinema, which covers also the production of Radok and Svoboda. Western countries extended these influences into the areas of visual art and performance art, whereas the socialist Czechoslovakia employs it mainly as a matter of exposure. Dary Birnbaum's video art, Laurie Anderson's scenic productions or the bands like Berlin and Gob Squad further develop polyekran principle within broader cultural contexts. On a worldwide scale, polyekran indeed belongs to the important milestones of the artistic usage of technology, but its Czech and Slovakian roots and application need to be developed.
Martin Beránek
Martin Bernátek is the fourth-year student of the master's degree at Masaryk University in Brno, taking the subjects Theory and History of Theatre and Theory of Interactive Media. His expert thinking concerns the relationship of art (theatre) and technology and its theoretical reflection.
