STAGE
Shakespearean theatre was a minimal-visual experience. Rapid turnover, low margins and lower audience expectations meant that set dressing and design was very basic. However, or maybe because of the paucity of visual stimula, that same audience must have been extremely susceptible to the evocative power of words.
The prologue to Henry V (premiered at the Curtain in 1599) sets the audience a challenge:
Can this cockpit hold. The vasty fields of France? or may we cram. Within this wooden O, the very casques. That did affright the air at Agincourt?
The wooden O is believed to refer to the Curtain theatre itself, although the excavation of the foundations suggests a rectangular layout. In any case, the appeal is to the audience, inviting them to conjure up the imagery and spectacle from the description alone.
Generative AI has a similar appetite for language. Could there be a correspondance between a 21st century technology and a 16th century theatre goer? Both capable of summoning extraordinary scenes from simple words. The generative power of imagination.
All the World's a Stage series , 2023, AI-generated digital images
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