Shakespeare’s The Tempest and beyond

Abstract

To reflect on the role of the technical conditions of production and reception of artistic and literary works in the process of building meaning, and taking into consideration the transformations that have been occurring in social and cultural practices as well as in the forms of artistic and literary production, this text aims at approaching the relations between media and current cultural practices, highlighting the techniques used in the 16^th and 17^th Centuries and the appropriation and subversion of these techniques in the present.

To do so, I will use examples related to William Shakespeare’s The Tempest, departing from the text of the play and its possible origins to the current performances in art galleries – in the form of installations, paintings, sculptures, and others -- on stages, on social media and on cinema, computers, and other screens. Considering the choices and operational procedures of the author(s) and the context of creation, we arrive at an understanding of the meaning of the product that is not always directly and visibly manifested in the materiality of the work.