PAB 2010 Cult of Listener: Podcaster as Shaman in the Post-Literate Global Theatre Adam Gratrix (@transpondency)
- Infect the listener with something they’re not expecting, that they have to work at and use their imagination
- Create binary opposition - outside/inside, chaos/order, irrational/rational - the polarity permits paradoxes
- Old paradigm connect the dots, literal, linear binary logic - computers do it well, humans - we need to move away from this in creative thinking, when you’re doing creative work A to B thinking doesn’t always apply
- Ask you to “Think Outside The Paradox” - dance instead of connecting the dots - feel and move with the music, it does not matter where you start and where you end - post-literate, non-linear, synchronicity, quantum physics, ecology, non-duality
- An ecological world - interconnected, interdependent, harmony & resonance
- Auditory space - as a listener, place in the world, the Internet is a network of non-linear connectivity with no central authority
- Your podcast is a cult - a ceremonial ritual, a performance space
- Rituals symbolize and simulate experience - a podcast is an extension of experience - wisdom is acquired through experience
- Norm Augustinus - create a cult-like atmosphere in your podcast
- The listener is a wolf in sheep’s clothing - sneaks in because they want something. The wolf represents the individual. The sheep is the universal aspect. The Shaman lulls the wolf to sleep where it dreams it’s a sheep. The Shaman pulls the rug out from underneath, the wolf wakes up to find its a man. The Shaman is the good host who invites the Stranger into his home.
- The role of Shaman in tribal culture - healers, story-tellers, actors, musician, teachers, artists
- The modern Shaman is a practical mystic - a journey where the Shaman is a guide
- The Shaman is the fool who is wise because he knows he knows nothing. A madman on the precipice between reality and dreams, death and life.
- The Shaman thinks outside the paradox
- The Internet is like a dream. Dreams are structured like a language. Language is a technology. The Internet is layers of layers of language, code, with our content sitting on top
- The Global Carnival - a post-literate society that craves fantasy, ecstasy and illusion, the cult of celebrity, gamification (work becomes play, play becomes work), augmented reality - the projection of the unconscious into the actual world
- Alan Moore - “It’s not the job of the artist to give audiences what they want but what they need.”
