Technical Page

PirateUtopia.org is committed to the creative application of Open Source Software. If you're not familiar with the broad tenets of the open source movement you'll find cogent explanations here and here.

The use of such software is not only (in our view) an ethical imperative, it also allows us to do things which would previously have been prohibitively expensive - all of a sudden it's as if we've got a virtually unlimited number of talented programmers on the team, all of them sharing their work and all of them keen to see new things happen. The unprecedented explosion in the amount of code which is being written and shared over the net along with the speed at which Linux is maturing as a cutting-edge-cool multimedia operating system generate fresh ideas and possibilities for us almost every day. An image from the Makbeth Showcase showing computer technology at work

The use of so many different software components seems to be keeping us flexible, we're not quite there yet, but the aim is to be able to change any technical element of the performance almost seamlessly, with the kind of speed and facility with which an actor can produce changes of intonation or position.

Its liberating to work with technology like this, when for once its not just the output of the system that matters, but the way its produced. The ethos of the Open Source movement is very much in tune with the cooperative process of a theatre project like this one and as a result some interesting things are beginning to happen. Two parts of the process which can so easily get separated, technicalities and performances, are feeding off each other in what seem to be new ways because for once they really do share an ideological space.

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