Britain has a long established history of festivals, pre-dating that of the fabulous PotWalloping festival of the 1800’s where local people wandered down to Westward Ho, to show the creative side of their personality...

However, the Victorians were a progressive people and it was not long before the likes of Felix Mendelssohn were giving an audio 19th Century equivalent of Garage meets Heavy Metal.  I refer, of course to Mendelssohn’s Premiere of his Oratario, Elijah at the Triennial Music Festival on August 26, 1846 in Birmingham. Goethe was a great influence upon the young Mendelssohn, having several of his great poems set to music by Mendelssohn without an Ipod or MP3 player in sight!

The Edinburgh Festival brings me to the centrepiece of our discussion. This year, there is an experiential debut of Installation meets Performing Arts in the shape of the Hotel, a concept developed and produced by Mark Watson. It appears to be “polite society is introduced to Fawlty Towers” and the unsuspecting audience is thrust into the performance itself, rather like experiential marketing is entrusted with a budget. However, I can’t help feeling that in 2009, there could be more emphasis upon the technological wizardry of the time – in short they are missing a video conference.

What fun it would be, with all of the available technology to let one’s imagination run amok, creating scenes that the sensitive and creative among us would happily pay for.

Imagine if you will, several characters, who may one day shape the future of European Art, Culture and Literature; having a chat during a meeting together. Now take yourself back to a former age and let the Nineteenth Century be the stage upon which such a conference is set.

Our meeting comprises John Everett Millais, William Holman Hunt, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Edward Burne-Jones, William Morris, Ford Madox-Brown, John Ruskin, Elizabeth Gilbert-Scott, et al possibly with Charles Dickens chipping in. They are all actively engaged in lively debate, drawing on information from Sir Giles Gilbert-Scott, Angela Burdett-Coutts (to whom Dickens dedicated Martin Chuzzlewit) and are active in their response to suggestions from the great philanthropists among them.

As one would expect, they can see and hear one another well, despite the fact that there is a short time-lapse on the video-conferencing facilities at their disposal. “Did you see Rosie’s canvas on Facebook?” inquired a roguish Millais, as he fiddled with his Twitter settings.

“That’s quite enough of that!” remonstrated Baroness Burdett-Coutts “ and do we really have to call this virtual device a loo box? I appreciate that we need a collective name in order to engender community spirit. “

“As we are appealing to a geographically dispersed audience, I feel that we need something collective but inclusive” agreed Rossetti “How about an Our Box?”

“Couldn’t you persuade Mr. Webb to join us?” enquired Madox-Brown of William.

“Oh he’s joining us later by Video Link from London” said Morris in a matter-of-fact way, “but before he does, I need to upload my designs onto Powerpoint in order that Morris & Co., can use them on My Brainshark Domain”
 “What is he talking about?” grumbled Dickens, who was still struggling with Semaphore, let alone the new-fangled electric telegraph.

“A Video Link, Mr. Dickens is a means by which sounds and images can be passed in real-time in order to disburse the maximum amount of information to the greatest number of people, thus eradicating ignorance and prejudice at a stroke” explained the zealous and egalitarian Morris, beaming happily.

“Unless of course that ignorance is caused by a lack of understanding artistic media packages,” mused Sir Giles Gilbert-Scott.

“Aren’t your stained-glass windows designed with overlays to get the precision in alignment?” queried Madox-Brown.

“Yes, I have used that method,” stated Edward calmly, ” however I understand that it is quite common when painting murals,” he shot a wicked glance at Rossetti who quickly retorted that The Brotherhood were always at the forefront of innovation.

There was an understanding that presentations could be sent to other locations without the trouble of making trips which were unavoidable, but that the signals sometimes suffered delays.

“Corporate Communications are all the rage” commented Sir Giles Gilbert-Scott, “I don’t know how I kept updated with all the various architectural sites before Brainshark” 

“One could always send it by email” suggested Burne-Jones “including a real-time link of course”
“Do you really find it useful?” asked Ruskin, always ready to hear all sides of an argument.

“Oh, hugely so” enthused Morris. “I can give presentations of all our designs at the touch of a few switches, and it has become a growth industry, gainfully employing many people. The potential for the furthering of knowledge is quite limitless really!”

“But not egalitarian, my dear fellow. How do blind people benefit from it at all?” persisted Dickens smugly.

“Why they can download Mr. Mendelssohn’s music on their MP3 player to enhance their auditory experience” continued Morris “giving a quality of life greater than before or indeed use Guide to read your stories aloud.”

“Ah, There is no wealth but life!” dreamed Ruskin, flicking through his digital photo album.

The Audio Visual Technologies Credited are:-

Brainshark           
IPod
MP3 Player
Video Conferencing
MS Powerpoint
Guide (RNIB – Software)
Facebook
Twitter
Wii Box
Digital Photo Albums
Digital Photo Albums

This article is contributed by
Mrs. Anne Goodsall, B.H. (Hons), PGCE  Principal of The Literacy Lounge

www.literacylounge.co.uk