Performing Electricity. Knowledge transfer between Theatre and Electric Engineering.

My research project is going to examine the close relations and the processes of cultural transfer between theatre and electric engineering in the early years of electric lighting. It is well known (though less well researched) that the application of electric light in the theatres changed not only the possibilities of lighting the stage but also led to the new concept of scenic light: a form of lighting that in itself could bear meaning and thus could enforce the director’s interpretation of the play. Less acknowledged, but none the less as important, is the fact that at the same time theatre as well as theatrical and performative means did have a significant impact on the implementation, propagation and dissemination of electric light (which was the major field of application of electricity for nearly a decade after its “invention” by Thomas Edison). Electrically lit theatres – in many towns the first indoor venues to use the incandescent light – functioned as advertising media for the new lighting technology; at the Electrical Exhibitions (held in Paris in 1881, in Munich in 1882, in Vienna in 1883 and in Frankfurt in 1891) scenic and theatrical strategies were used to display electricity and its new technical possibilities in enchanting and compelling ways; in the cities, electric light at public places created stages for metropolitan experiences even in medium- and small-sized towns. All these different aspects of theatre’s influence on the display of electricity influenced the way in which electric light and electricity were perceived by the public – the potential consumers of the future. The project aims at analysing the many facets of the interactions between theatre and electric engineering. It takes a close look at the discourses that accompanied the dissemination of electric light that tied the technology to specific cultural contexts. Special focus will be put on local peculiarities of these discourses since these peculiarities are the basis for the discourses’ potential to influence local actors. The social and cultural practices of these actors form the second focus of the research project, trying to trace the process of reciprocal knowledge transfer between theatre and electric engineering as precise as possible. To pursue these two objectives, the project is deploying a combination of discourse analysis and Latour’s Actor-Network-Theory.