Who is there? Performative distance and the intermedial audience in cyberformance

Clara Gomes

doi:10.34629/rcdmt.vol.2.n.1.pp36-48

Authors

Clara Gomes ICNOVA https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2575-2981

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.34629/rcdmt.vol.2.n.1.pp36-48

Keywords:

Intermediality, Intermedial audience, Performative distance, Cyberformance

Abstract

Cyberformance, a hybrid practice mixing physical and virtual environments, challenges traditional notions of audience participation and performative distance. This essay investigates how intermediality shapes the dynamics of these performances, leading to the emergence of an intermedial audience. Drawing on classical theories from Bertolt Brecht and Antonin Artaud, and contemporary scholars like Freda Chapple, Chiel Kattenbelt, and cyberartist Helen Varley Jamieson, the essay bridges historical and theoretical perspectives and practical examples of cyberformance.

The paradigm shift enabled by internet technologies allows for convergence between artists and audience, transforming individual artistic creations into collaborative processes. Hamlet's question “Who is there?” symbolizes the enduring awareness of the audience, now reframed within digital and mixed-reality contexts. This article explores how cyberformance negotiates interaction, authorship and agency, examining the balance between performer control and audience participation.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Author Biography

Clara Gomes, ICNOVA

Clara Gomes is a performer, filmmaker, journalist, university lecturer and full integrated researcher at ICNOVA – New University of Lisbon, where she presented her PhD. thesis entitled Ciberformance - a performance em ambientes e mundos virtuais [Cyberformance – performance in virtual environments and worlds] (published by Leya, 2015). She conducts research on the use of virtual platforms and multimodal interfaces for the arts. She is involved in the mixed reality performance project Senses Places and in the development of the cyberformance platform UpStage. Some of her video-art works have been exhibited internationally in several galleries, museums and festivals.

References

Artaud, Antonin. 1938. Le théâtre et son double. Paris: Gallimard.

Auslander, Philip. 1999. Liveness: Performance in a mediatized culture. London and New York: Routledge.

Bennett, Susan. 1997. Theatre audiences: a theory of production and reception, 2nd ed. London and New York: Routledge.

Benford, Steve and Gabriella Giannachi. 2011. Performing Mixed Reality. Cambridge: MIT Press.

Blau, Herbert. 1990. The audience. Baltimore, MD.: Johns Hopkins University Press.

Brecht, Bertolt. 1964. “A Short Organum for the Theatre.” 1949. In Brecht on Theatre: The Development of an Aesthetic, edited and translated by John Willett, 1-19. London: Methuen.

Bruns, Axel. 2008. Blogs, Wikipedia, Second Life and beyond: From Production to Produsage. New York: Peter Lang.

Chapple, Freda and Chiel Kattenbelt. 2006. Intermediality in theatre and performance. Amsterdam: Rodopi.

Gomes, Clara. 2015. Ciberformance: a performance em ambientes e mundos virtuais. Lisboa: Leya.

Jamieson, Helen Varley. 2008. “Adventures in Cyberformance − Experiments at the interface of theatre and the internet.” MA Diss. Drama, Creative Industries Faculty, Queensland University of Technology.

Meyerhold, Vsevolod. 1969. Meyerhold on Theatre. Translated and edited by Edward Braun. London: Methuen / New York: Hill and Wang.

Murray, Janet. 1997. Hamlet on the Holodeck: The future of Narrative in Cyberspace. New York: Free Press.

Pethő, Ágnes. 2020. “Introduction: The Art of In-Betweenness in Contemporary Eastern European Cinema.” In Caught in Between, edited by Ágnes Pethő. 1–24. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.

Piscator, Erwin. 1929. The Political Theatre. A History 1914–1929.1978. Translated by Hugh Rorrison. New York: Avon.

Ryan, Marie-Laure. 1997. “Interactive Drama: Narrativity in a Highly Interactive Environment”. In Modern Fiction Studies, vol. 43, no. 3, 677–707.

| Performances Cited

Dress the Nation (Avatar Body Collision, 2003).

https://www.creative-catalyst.com/abc/lysis/lysis.html.

Extract/Insert (Chafer, Upton and Stelarc, 2012).

https://youtu.be/vKanHILj6X4?si=a2Sk4XNXpI1uSu5Q.

Jeux de Massacre (Gomes, Jamieson, Papagiannouli and Peric, 2020-2021).

https://upstage.org.nz/?event=jeux-de-massacre

Mobilise/Demobilise (Jamieson, 2021-2024).

https://mobilise-demobilise.eu/about/team/.

Senses Places (Valverde and Cochrane, 2010-2025).