This collection of essays and interviews investigates current practices that expand our understanding and experience of performance through the use of state-of-the-art technologies. It brings together leading practitioners, writers and curators who explore the intersections between theatre, performance and digital technologies, challenging expectations and furthering discourse across the disciplines. As technologies become increasingly integrated into theatre and performance, Interfaces of Performance revisits key elements of performance practice in order to investigate emergent paradigms. To do this five concepts integral to the core of all performance are foregrounded, namely environments, bodies, audiences, politics of practice and affect.
The thematic structure of the volume has been designed to extend current discourse in the field that is often led by formalist analysis focusing on technology per se. The proposed approach intends to unpack conceptual elements of performance practice, investigating the strategic use of a diverse spectrum of technologies as a means to artistic ends. The focus is on the ideas, objectives and concerns of the artists who integrate technologies into their work. In so doing, these inquisitive practitioners research new dramaturgies and methodologies in order to create innovative experiences for, and encounters with, their audiences.
Contents: Introduction, Maria Chatzichristodoulou and Rachel Zerihan; Creative media: performance, invention, critique, Sarah Kember and Joanna Zylinska; Part 1 Environments: Environments, interactions and beings: the ecology of performativity and technics, Chris Salter; Blurring the boundaries: performance, technology and the artificial sublime – an interview with Ruth Gibson and Bruno Martelli, igloo, Janis Jefferies. Part 2 Bodies: Orlan-vertigo/self-touching-you, Simon Donger; The path to silence, Allucquére Rosanne Stone. Part 3 Audiences: Reactivation: performance, mediatization, and the present moment, Philip Auslander; Moving audiences: strategies of exposure in the work of Gob Squad, Patrick Primavesi; How to kidnap your audiences: an interview with Matt Adams from Blast Theory, Maria Chatzichristodoulou. Part 4 Politics: The tendency to 'trans-': the political aesthetics of the biogrammatic zone, Sher Doruff; Guillermo Gómez-Peña: ethno-techno politics, Guillermo Gómez Peña and Lorena Rivero de Beer; Performative science in an age of specialization: the case of critical art ensemble, Nicola Triscott. Part 5 Affect: Affective connection, Bojana Kunst; Love at first byte, Melinda Rackham; Conclusion, Janis Jefferies; Bibliography; Index.
About the Editor: Janis Jefferies is Professor of Visual Arts, Artistic Director of Goldsmiths Digital Studios and Director of the Constance Howard Resource and Research Centre in Textiles, Goldsmiths, University of London. Maria Chatzichristodoulou [aka Maria X] is Lecturer in Theatre and Performance at the School of Arts and New Media, University of Hull (Scarborough campus) and PhD candidate (completion) at Goldsmiths Digital Studios, University of London. Dr. Rachel Zerihan is Visiting Lecturer at Queen Mary, University of London.
Reviews: 'This is an exciting and important collection of writings from experts and practitioners working in the field of art, performance and technology. Its authors interrogate conceptual elements from art and performance practitioners that utilize a broad range of diverse technologies within their artistic practices and in so doing integrate and articulate new interfaces of performance. The collection represents a timely and distinctive contribution to the field of performance and technology.'
Susan Broadhurst, Brunel University, UK
'Sliding in and out of theatrical spaces, and merging the work of scholars and artists, Interfaces of Performance expands the boundaries of technological performance scholarship. The essays in this volume represent a cross-section of practitioners, scholars, and curators exploring necessary themes in the development of media and performance. Interfaces of Performance is a valuable contribution to the field of new media and performance, expanding the boundaries of scholarship and practice to include a wide range of international practice and theory. A dynamically structured and user-friendly volume, it will be a welcome addition to reading lists for media and performance'.
Jennifer Parker-Starbuck, Senior Lecturer, Roehampton University, UK
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Full contents list
Introduction
Index