An Evening at the Ballroom: Whatever Happened to Televanilla?

This article re-introduces the submerged 1968 performance Televanilla, an improvisational theatre dance piece that deployed analogue image-processing tools to establish a dialogical system with technological media. It argues that the performance anticipated principal concepts and strategies for real-time human-machine interaction, and the "virtual" representation of participants in mediated art environments. Although the performance received reviews from renowned critics in prominent New York newspapers and magazines, it disappeared from the historical records almost entirely. The article provides a critical evaluation of the artists' conceptual and technical approaches towards the deployment of analogue media technology for creating an early example of audience participation and human-machine interaction in mediated artworks. This analysis is complemented by an evaluation of contemporary reviews of the performance to illustrate to what degree the critical reception at the time was prepared to appraise the concept of technology-based interactivity through a human-machine interface in artworks appropriately. 

Citation:
Muench, Wolfgang. ''An Evening at the Ballroom: Whatever Happened to Televanilla?'', ScienceOpen. RE:SOUND 2019: Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Media Art, Science, and Technology, Aalborg, Denmark 08/2019, edited by Søndergaard, Morten, et al, 2020, pp. 258-267, doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.14236/ewic/RESOUND19.39.