Abstract:
The first part of this paper provides a critical survey of
theoretical responses to the questions of liveness, embodiment,
performance and subjectivity thrown up by the increasingly wide-ranging
modes of intersection between the Internet and theatrical performance.
While signalling scepticism about the naïve, utopian and sometimes
retrograde positions the 'over-theorisation' some such events have been
subjected to, the paper nonetheless acknowledges that online performance
does give rise to important questions about presence and community. The
second part constitutes a case study of a performance initiated by the
author, and brings the practical issues of online performance-making to
bear upon the theoretical issues already raised.
Steve Dixon is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Media,
Music and Performance at the University of Salford. He is director of
the multimedia performance research company The Chameleons Group, and
has produced two CD-ROMs documenting and critically analysing the
group's work, both of which have won international awards. He is
co-director of the Digital Performance Archive, which records and
analyses developments in virtual-theatre and cyber-performance and is
currently completing a book and accompanying DVD with co-director Barry
Smith for MIT Press entitled Digital Performance: New Technologies in Theatre, Dance and Performance Art.
He has published internationally on a range of subjects including
performance studies, virtual theatre, community arts, hypermedia theory,
and film hermeneutics.
Related links:
Digital Performance Archive: http://art.ntu.ac.uk/dpa
Online articles:
"Digits, Discourse and Documentation: Performance Research and Hypermedia", copyright TDR: The Drama Review, Vol 43, Number 1 (T161), Spring1999, pp 152 - 175. http://mitpress.mit.edu/journals/DRAM/43-1/pdf/dixon.pdf
“IT and the Audio-Visual Theatre Essay" in Creating Digital Performance Resources, Edited by Barry Smith, Oxbow Books, Oxford, 2002, pp 65 - 76. http://www.pads.ahds.ac.uk:81/padsGGPPerformance
CD-ROMs:
Two research CD-ROMs have been produced about the work of The
Chameleons Group. Gratis copies are available by emailing the contact
address below
Contact:
S.Dixon@salford.ac.uk