Cyberformance
Encyclopedia
Cyberformance refers to live theatrical performances in which remote participants are enabled to work together in real time through the medium of the internet, employing technologies such as chat applications or purpose-built, multiuser, real-time collaborative software such as UpStage
. Cyberformance is also known as online performance, networked performance and digital theatre
; there is as yet no consensus on which term should be preferred, but cyberformance has the advantage of compactness. For example, it is commonly employed by users of the UpStage
platform to designate a special type of Performance art
activity taking place in a cyber-artistic environment.
Cyberformance can be created and presented entirely online, for a distributed online audience who participate via internet-connected computers anywhere in the world, or it can be presented to a proximal audience (such as in a physical theatre or gallery venue) with some or all of the performers appearing via the internet; or it can be a hybrid of the two approaches, with both remote and proximal audiences and/or performers.
Cyberformances have taken place in a number of the virtual environments that have emerged since the 1980s, including the multi-user virtual environments known as MUD
s and MOO
s in the 1970s, internet chat spaces (e.g. Internet Relay Chat
, or IRC) in the 1980s, the Palace graphical chatroom
in the 1990s, and UpStage
, Second Life
and Facebook
in the 2000s. Notable cyberformance groups and projects thus far include:
, which refers to any kind of digitally mediated performance, including those with no significant networked element. In some cases cyberformance may be considered a subset of net art; however, many cyberformance artists use what is termed 'mixed reality' or 'mixed space' for their work, linking physical, virtual, and cyber spaces in manifold ingenious ways. The internet is often a subject and inspiration of the work as well as being the central enabling technology.
Cyberformers often work with the dual identities afforded by avatars, exploiting the gap between online persona and offline self. They can also take advantage of the ease of switching between avatars in a way unavailable to 'proximal' actors. However cyberformance has its own unique problems, including unstable technology and "real life" interruptions.
Cyberperformance has also been used as a means to publish content. In January 2011 online magazine nthWORD
used the social network Facebook
and cyberformers to tell the story of FLYING, a play by Russian playwright Olga Mukhina. The cyberformance had the same performance run as the real world version produced by Breaking String Theatre in Austin, TX.
UpStage
UpStage is an open source server-side application that has been purpose built for Cyberformance: multiple artists collaborate in real time via the UpStage platform to create and present live theatrical performances, for audiences who can be online or in a shared space, and who can interact with...
. Cyberformance is also known as online performance, networked performance and digital theatre
Digital theatre
Strictly, Digital theatre is a hybrid art form, gaining strength from theatre’s ability to facilitate imagination and create human connections, and digital technology’s ability extend the reach of communication and visualization...
; there is as yet no consensus on which term should be preferred, but cyberformance has the advantage of compactness. For example, it is commonly employed by users of the UpStage
UpStage
UpStage is an open source server-side application that has been purpose built for Cyberformance: multiple artists collaborate in real time via the UpStage platform to create and present live theatrical performances, for audiences who can be online or in a shared space, and who can interact with...
platform to designate a special type of Performance art
Performance art
In art, performance art is a performance presented to an audience, traditionally interdisciplinary. Performance may be either scripted or unscripted, random or carefully orchestrated; spontaneous or otherwise carefully planned with or without audience participation. The performance can be live or...
activity taking place in a cyber-artistic environment.
Cyberformance can be created and presented entirely online, for a distributed online audience who participate via internet-connected computers anywhere in the world, or it can be presented to a proximal audience (such as in a physical theatre or gallery venue) with some or all of the performers appearing via the internet; or it can be a hybrid of the two approaches, with both remote and proximal audiences and/or performers.
History and context
The term 'cyberformance' (a portmanteau word blending 'cyberspace' with 'performance') was coined by the net artist and curator Helen Varley Jamieson. She states that the invention of this term in 2000 "came out of the need to find a word that avoided the polarisation of virtual and real, and the need for a new term (rather than 'online performance' or 'virtual theatre') for a new genre". Jamieson traces the history of cyberformance back to the Satellite Arts Project of 1977, when interactive art pioneers Kit Galloway and Sherrie Rabinowitz used live video mixing to create what they called "a performance space with no geographic boundaries".Cyberformances have taken place in a number of the virtual environments that have emerged since the 1980s, including the multi-user virtual environments known as MUD
MUD
A MUD , pronounced , is a multiplayer real-time virtual world, with the term usually referring to text-based instances of these. MUDs combine elements of role-playing games, hack and slash, player versus player, interactive fiction, and online chat...
s and MOO
MOO
A MOO is a text-based online virtual reality system to which multiple users are connected at the same time.The term MOO is used in two distinct, but related, senses...
s in the 1970s, internet chat spaces (e.g. Internet Relay Chat
Internet Relay Chat
Internet Relay Chat is a protocol for real-time Internet text messaging or synchronous conferencing. It is mainly designed for group communication in discussion forums, called channels, but also allows one-to-one communication via private message as well as chat and data transfer, including file...
, or IRC) in the 1980s, the Palace graphical chatroom
The Palace (computer program)
The Palace is a software program used to access graphical chat room servers, called palaces, in which users may interact with one another using graphical avatars overlaid on a graphical backdrop...
in the 1990s, and UpStage
UpStage
UpStage is an open source server-side application that has been purpose built for Cyberformance: multiple artists collaborate in real time via the UpStage platform to create and present live theatrical performances, for audiences who can be online or in a shared space, and who can interact with...
, Second Life
Second Life
Second Life is an online virtual world developed by Linden Lab. It was launched on June 23, 2003. A number of free client programs, or Viewers, enable Second Life users, called Residents, to interact with each other through avatars...
and Facebook
Facebook
Facebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. , Facebook has more than 800 million active users. Users must register before using the site, after which they may create a personal profile, add other users as...
in the 2000s. Notable cyberformance groups and projects thus far include:
- The Hamnet PlayersThe Hamnet PlayersThe Hamnet Players, founded in 1993, perform virtual theatre using IRC chat.-Overview:On 12 December 1994, a dozen people gathered at an event which made cyber-history: an experimental performance on IRC–Internet Relay Chat of a parody of Shakespeare's Hamlet, irreverently renamed "Hamnet."...
. Founded by Stuart HarrisThe Hamnet PlayersThe Hamnet Players, founded in 1993, perform virtual theatre using IRC chat.-Overview:On 12 December 1994, a dozen people gathered at an event which made cyber-history: an experimental performance on IRC–Internet Relay Chat of a parody of Shakespeare's Hamlet, irreverently renamed "Hamnet."...
, this group performed in IRC; their earliest performance was "Hamnet" in 1993. - The Plaintext Players. Founded by Antoinette LaFarge, this group performs in MOOs and mixed reality spaces; their earliest performance was "Xmas" in 1994.
- "ParkBench." Created by Nina Sobell and Emily Hartzell in 1994, this was a collaborative performance and drawing space using live video and a web browser interface.
- Desktop Theater. Founded by Adriene Jenik and Lisa Brenneis, this group performed in the Palace; an example of their work is "waitingforgodot.com", 1997.
- Avatar Body Collision. Founded by Helen Varley Jamieson, Karla Ptacek, Vicki Smith, and Leena Saarinen in 2002, this online performance collective uses UpStageUpStageUpStage is an open source server-side application that has been purpose built for Cyberformance: multiple artists collaborate in real time via the UpStage platform to create and present live theatrical performances, for audiences who can be online or in a shared space, and who can interact with...
, a web-based software purpose-built for cyberformance with a New Zealand government grant
Features of cyberformance
Cyberformance differs from digital performanceDigital performance
Digital Performance is a very wide category filled with a range of productions, it is a generic performance but with an extra element of incorporating and integrating computer technologies and techniques into the production. You can incorporate multimedia into any type of performance whether it is...
, which refers to any kind of digitally mediated performance, including those with no significant networked element. In some cases cyberformance may be considered a subset of net art; however, many cyberformance artists use what is termed 'mixed reality' or 'mixed space' for their work, linking physical, virtual, and cyber spaces in manifold ingenious ways. The internet is often a subject and inspiration of the work as well as being the central enabling technology.
Cyberformers often work with the dual identities afforded by avatars, exploiting the gap between online persona and offline self. They can also take advantage of the ease of switching between avatars in a way unavailable to 'proximal' actors. However cyberformance has its own unique problems, including unstable technology and "real life" interruptions.
Cyberperformance has also been used as a means to publish content. In January 2011 online magazine nthWORD
NthWORD
nthWORD is a quarterly online magazine for creative people, by creative people. The magazine publishes works of fiction, creative non-fiction, poetry and art by both established and emerging writers and artists, as well as mock ads...
used the social network Facebook
Facebook
Facebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. , Facebook has more than 800 million active users. Users must register before using the site, after which they may create a personal profile, add other users as...
and cyberformers to tell the story of FLYING, a play by Russian playwright Olga Mukhina. The cyberformance had the same performance run as the real world version produced by Breaking String Theatre in Austin, TX.
Further reading
- Corcoran, Marlena (2003). "An Internet Performance for the Third Millennium", Performance Art Journal 25(1).
- Danet, Brenda (2001). Cyberpl@y: Communicating Online, Berg Publishers.
- Engel, Manfred (2006). "Desktop-Theater: Der Cyberspace als Bühne oder die Wiederkehr des Happening im MUD", Literatur@Internet, ed. by Axel Dunker and Frank Zipfel, Bielefeld: Aisthesis, 75-97. ISBN 978-3895285349
- Jamieson, Helen Varley (2008). "Real Time, Virtual Space, Live Theatre" - chapter in The ADA Digital Arts Reader, published 2008, Clouds Publishing, ISBN 978-0-9582789-9-7.
- LaFarge, Antoinette (1995). A World Exhilarating and Wrong: Theatrical Improvisation on the Internet, Leonardo 28(5).
- Digital Performance Archive
- Horizon Zero issue 13 : Perform Jan/Feb 2004
External links
- cyberformance.org
- Plaintext Players website
- networked_performance blog
- Upstage website
- Performance Online - resesarcher Francesco Buonauito's site, includes timeline