Digital Scenography: 30 Years of Experimentation and Innovation in Performance and Interactive Media

This book uses digital media theory to explore contemporary understandings of expanded scenography as spatial practice. It surveys and analyses a selection of ground-breaking, experimental digital media performances that comprise a genealogy spanning the last 30 years, in order to show how the arrival of digital technologies has profoundly transformed performance practice. Performances are selected based on their ability to elicit the unique specificities of digital media in new and original ways, thereby exposing both the richness and shortcomings of digital culture.

O'Dwyer argues that contemporary scenography is largely propelled by and dependent on digital technologies and represents a rich, fertile domain, where unbridled creativity can explore new techniques and challenge the limits of knowledge. The 30-year genealogy includes works by Troika Ranch, Stelarc, Klaus Obermaier, Chunky Move, Onion Lab and Blast Theory. In addition to applying a broad scope of performance analysis and aesthetic theory, the work includes artists' interviews and opinions.

The volume opens important aesthetic, philosophical and socio-political themes in order to highlight the impact of digital technologies on scenographic practice and the blossoming of experimental interdisciplinarity. Ultimately, the book is an exploration of how evolutionary leaps in technology contribute to how humans think, act, make work, engage one another, and therefore construct meaning and identity.

Author: Néill O'Dwyer
Publisher: Methuen Drama
Published: 10/06/2022
Pages: 224
Binding Type: Paperback
ISBN: 9781350232754

About the Author
O'Dwyer, Néill: - Néill O'Dwyer is a Senior Postdoctoral Research Fellow in V-SENSE, in the Department of Computer Science, at Trinity College Dublin (TCD). He is an adjunct lecturer and research fellow of the School of Creative Arts, where he teaches Performance and Technology. He is a co-editor of The Performing Subject in the Space of Technology: Through the Virtual, Towards the Real (2015). Néill specialises in practice-based research in scenography and design-led performance focusing on digital media, computer vision, human-computer interaction, prosthesis, symbiosis, agency, performativity and the impact of technology on artistic processes.McKinney, Joslin: - Joslin McKinney is Associate Professor in Scenography, Deputy Head of School and Programme Manager for the postgraduate course in Performance Design in the School of Performance & Cultural Industries at the University of Leeds, UK.Palmer, Scott: - SCOTT PALMER is a Lecturer in Scenography and Deputy Head of the School of Performance & Cultural Industries at the University of Leeds, UK.
Et al...