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Why I Went from the Visual Arts to Theater
The unconscious is alive and well in at least one art form: the theater. It is a medium that depends deeply on both the artists’ and the audience’s willingness to enter that world of the shadow cave, and allow themselves to be affected at a most fundamental human level. It is still humans telling each other stories in the dark, except here the campfire has been replaced by the projection lens.
I was fortunate to have had excellent theater training, as a graduate of the Yale School of Drama in their Projection Design concentration. I bring this training and combine it with my former life as a video and installation artist. Theater allows me to expand outside the limits,of an art world that seems stuck in a view of consciousness grounded in the light world of the white box. The black box of the theater is, for me, the unconscious.
Contributor
Michael F. BergmannMichael F. Bergmann is a Canadian-born video and installation artist, and projection designer for the theater. He approaches art with an optimistic eye towards technology. MFA Yale School of Drama, BFA Ryerson University (Toronto). bergarts.com.