Performing arts and virtual bodies

Abstract

Abstract The compendium of texts Performance and Technology: Practices of Virtual Embodiment and Interactivity takes as its starting point the fact that today's mixed and augmented reality, essentially defined by smart technologies, offers new challenges for both artistic practices and theoretical reflection. The central questions posed by the authors in the book are: what is the position and role of the body in these mixed, technology-supported worlds and which new possibilities for the performing arts have been opened up in consequence? The texts concentrate mainly on the simultaneous presence of physical and virtual bodies (or avatars) in the process of performing and their mutual relations, interaction, cooperation and synthesis.