[Leonardo/ISAST Network] Digital Performance by Steve Dixon - Now Available from The Leonardo Book Series

[Leonardo/ISAST]

NEW from The Leonardo Book Series and The MIT Press
 
/Digital Performance: A History of New Media in Theater, Dance, 
Performance Art, and Installation/ by Steve Dixon

The past decade has seen an extraordinarily intense period of 
experimentation with computer technology within the performing arts. 
Digital media has been increasingly incorporated into live theater and 
dance, and new forms of interactive performance have emerged in 
participatory installations, on CD-ROM, and on the Web. In Digital 
Performance, Steve Dixon traces the evolution of these practices, 
presents detailed accounts of key practitioners and performances, and 
analyzes the theoretical, artistic, and technological contexts of this 
form of new media art.

Dixon finds precursors to today's digital performances in past forms of 
theatrical technology that range from the deus ex machina of classical 
Greek drama to Wagner's Gesamtkunstwerk (concept of the total artwork), 
and draws parallels between contemporary work and the theories and 
practices of Constructivism, Dada, Surrealism, Expressionism, Futurism, 
and multimedia pioneers of the twentieth century. For a theoretical 
perspective on digital performance, Dixon draws on the work of Walter 
Benjamin, Roland Barthes, Jean Baudrillard, and others.

To document and analyze contemporary digital performance practice, Dixon 
considers changes in the representation of the body, space, and time. He 
considers virtual bodies, avatars, and digital doubles, as well as 
performances by artists including Stelarc, Robert Lepage, Merce 
Cunningham, Laurie Anderson, Blast Theory, and Eduardo Kac. He 
investigates new media's novel approaches to creating theatrical 
spectacle, including virtual reality and robot performance work, 
telematic performances in which remote locations are linked in real 
time, Webcams, and online drama communities, and considers the 
"extratemporal" illusion created by some technological theater works. 
Finally, he defines categories of interactivity, from navigational to 
participatory and collaborative. Dixon challenges dominant theoretical 
approaches to digital performance--including what he calls 
postmodernism's denial of the new--and offers a series of boldly 
original arguments in their place.

Steve Dixon is Professor of Performance and Head of the School of Arts, 
Brunel University
 
To order this book and to learn more about other titles in the Leonardo 
Book Series visit the Leonardo Book Series website at: 
http://www.leonardo.info/isast/leobooks.html
 
MEMBER DISCOUNT! Leonardo/ISAST Associate Members are eligible for 20% 
off all Leonardo Book Series titles as well as a number of other 
membership benefits! Visit http://leonardo.info/members.html for more 
details.
 
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