http://www.authoringtheatre.org.uk/keynotes/christopher-balme
If any feature characterizes the practice of postdramatic theatre then it is sampling. Instead of an identifiable authorial presence marked by the eponymous ‘dramatist’ we encounter directorial, compositional or curatorial functions embodied by an individual or by a group. What links all exponents is the practice of sampling: reworking found material and fashioning it into a new ensemble. This – for postdramatic theatre at least – new and dominant practice clearly has its origins in the old technique of collage developed in the context of Cubism. I shall discuss this practice with reference to two artists – the German director-composer Heiner Goebbels – who terms his artistic practice ‘sampling’ which is more than just a metaphor because he literally uses a ‘sampler’ to refashion preexisting musical material. This appears to be an uncontroversial and – in postdramatic theatre circles at least – much admired practice. This is less so with the new shooting star of the Germany literary scene Helene Hegemann whose novel Axolotl Roadkill was the centre of a plagiarism scandal. It transpired that the 17-year old author had copied sections of her acclaimed book from an underground novel by an internet blogger. Her argument that it was not plagiarism but ‘mixing’ (NY Times, 11.2.2010) was legally shaky but artistically sound in the context of the Berlin Volksbühne (her father is the dramaturg Carl Hegemann) where collage is the order of the day. The novel’s subsequent adaptation for the stage earlier this year would also suggest that her claim that “there is no originality only reality” has won out over nit-picking plagiarism hunters. Against the background of a plague of plagiarism cases in the scientific and political scene in Germany, I shall discuss the competing claims of ‘aesthetics
If any feature characterizes the practice of postdramatic theatre then it is sampling. Instead of an identifiable authorial presence marked by the eponymous ‘dramatist’ we encounter directorial, compositional or curatorial functions embodied by an individual or by a group. What links all exponents is the practice of sampling: reworking found material and fashioning it into a new ensemble. This – for postdramatic theatre at least – new and dominant practice clearly has its origins in the old technique of collage developed in the context of Cubism. I shall discuss this practice with reference to two artists – the German director-composer Heiner Goebbels – who terms his artistic practice ‘sampling’ which is more than just a metaphor because he literally uses a ‘sampler’ to refashion preexisting musical material. This appears to be an uncontroversial and – in postdramatic theatre circles at least – much admired practice. This is less so with the new shooting star of the Germany literary scene Helene Hegemann whose novel Axolotl Roadkill was the centre of a plagiarism scandal. It transpired that the 17-year old author had copied sections of her acclaimed book from an underground novel by an internet blogger. Her argument that it was not plagiarism but ‘mixing’ (NY Times, 11.2.2010) was legally shaky but artistically sound in the context of the Berlin Volksbühne (her father is the dramaturg Carl Hegemann) where collage is the order of the day. The novel’s subsequent adaptation for the stage earlier this year would also suggest that her claim that “there is no originality only reality” has won out over nit-picking plagiarism hunters. Against the background of a plague of plagiarism cases in the scientific and political scene in Germany, I shall discuss the competing claims of ‘aesthetics
