Nothing is New, Even If It’s Just Been Invented

Abstract

“New technologies” are often hyped as unprecedented inventions, but they do not appear out of nowhere. The Canon Project mapped historical-technical information through Open Data concepts that are structured and visualized in a thematic, collaborative, open data platform called Canonbase. For four selected cases that are representative for modern technology, we trace back their  (conceptual) history and discover that the “inventions” are in fact a slow processes of improvements that often start back in the industrial revolution.

These “inventions” often respond to a need, a desire that is significantly older. One wants the audience to participate in a live experience without being physically present, to change the scenic environment on the spot, to show the un-showable. These concepts have been tried throughout history, but didn’t succeed at the time. Often the technology wasn’t ready to fully develop the concept , the world and society were not ready for the concept or got bored because of the limitations, or other more exciting inventions or events crossed paths, with the result of the idea “dying”. But later the concept is picked up again with success . These successes are then hyped as “new technologies”.

Even with the sample of cases being limited, the results show the importance of understanding historic technology on one hand and understanding the needs and desires of theatre makers and the audience on a conceptual level on the other hand, to develop new technologies.