Synopses & Reviews
Now in paperback and with a new Preface, this collection of writings from international contributors who specialize in a diverse range of digital art and performance practices, surveys various aspects of performance and technology. The discussions interrogate the interaction between new technologies and performance practice. Furthermore, in an innovative way they link the sensuous contact that must exist between the physical and virtual, together with the resultant corporeal transformation. Not only do bodies morph and (de)morph but their identities consequently become destabilized. In certain technological practices, physicality is both transcended and ludically inscribed - the play (jouer) being all. Consequently, digital practices potentiate creative and aesthetic possibilities and demand new perceptive strategies that not only affirm sensate presence but also 'deceive'. The work identifies a new performance practice at the cutting edge of experimentation, and at the same time explores the evolution of new art practices. Especially, practices that are pivotal in alternative and also mainstream performance and popular culture.
Review
"...a timely and informative survey of digital performance practices." -- Tracey Warr, editor of
The Artist's Body
"An enjoyable, well-researched, inspiring book that everybody with a keen interest in performance and technology should consider reading." -- Iryna Kuksa, New Theatre Quarterly
"Broadhurst and Machon's volume provides a snapshot of a relatively nascent scene, and an opportunity to survey both its strengths and weaknesses." -- Paul Rae, Contemporary Theatre Review
Synopsis
This book, now in paperback, interrogates the interaction between new technologies and performance practice, linking the sensuous contact that exists between the physical and virtual, along with the resultant corporeal transformation. It features writings from international contributors specializing in digital art and performance practices.
About the Author
Susan Broadhurst is awriter and practitioner in the creative arts. She is Professor of Performance and Technology within the School of Arts at Brunel University, West London. She is the author of Liminal Acts: A Critical Overview of Contemporary Performance and Theory (1999) and Digital Practices: Aesthetic and Neuroesthetic Approaches to Performance and Technology (2007), co- editor of Performance and Technology: Practices of Virtual Embodiment and Interactivity (2006), Sensualities/Textualities & Technologies: Writings of the Body in 21st Century Performance (Palgrave MacMilllan, 2009) and of the online journal Body, Space and Technology. Susan is currently working on a series of collaborative practice-based research projects entitled, which involve introducing various interactive digital technologies into live performance.
Dr. Josephine Machon is Senior Research Fellow in Contemporary Performance Practice at Middlesex University, London, UK. She is the author of Immersive Theatres - intimacy and immediacy in contemporary performance (2013) and (Syn)aesthetics: Redefining Visceral Performance (2009, 2011). Josephine is also joint editor of the Palgrave Macmillan Series in Performance and Technology and the co-editor of Performance and Technology (2006), Sensualities/Textualities and Technologies (2010) and Identity, Performance and Technology (2012).
Table of Contents
List of Illustrations
Notes on Contributors
Preface
Introduction; Body, Space and Technology; S.Broadhurst& J.Machon
Bodies Without Bodies; S.Melrose
Truth-Seeker's Allowance: Digitising Artaud; S.Dixon
Transformed Landscapes; The Choreographic Displacement of Location and Locomotion in Film; J.J.Cook
Saira Virous: Game Choreography in Multiplayer Online Performance Spaces; J.Birringer
Artistic Considerations in the Use of Motion Tracking with Live Performers: A Practical Guide; R.Wechsler
Materials vs. Content in Digitally Mediated Performance; M.Coniglio
Learning to Dance with Angelfish; Choreographic Encounters between Virtuality and Reality; C.Brown
Kinaesthetic Traces across Material Forms; G.Schiller
Sensuous Geographics and Fugitive Moments; The Interface of Body and Technology; S.Rubidge
Body Waves Sound Waves; B.Edwards& B.Jarlett
Intelligence, Interaction, Reaction, and Performance; S.Broadhurst
The Tissue Culture and Art Project; O.Catts& I.Zurr
Addenda, Phenomenology, Embodiment: Cyborgs and Disability Performance; P.Kuppers
Technology as Bridge to Greater Audience Participation; C.Carson
Afterword; P.Auslander
Index