This book explores technology’s influence on artistic performance practices in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. The author shows that technologies, from the mechanical to the computational—from a “ballet of objects and lights” staged by Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes in 1917 to contemporary, technologically enabled “responsive environments”—have been entangled with performance across a wide range of disciplines. The author examines the rich and extensive history of performance experimentation in theatre, music, dance, the visual and media arts, architecture, and other fields; explores the ... More

This book explores technology’s influence on artistic performance practices in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. The author shows that technologies, from the mechanical to the computational—from a “ballet of objects and lights” staged by Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes in 1917 to contemporary, technologically enabled “responsive environments”—have been entangled with performance across a wide range of disciplines. The author examines the rich and extensive history of performance experimentation in theatre, music, dance, the visual and media arts, architecture, and other fields; explores the political, social, and economic context for the adoption of technological practices in art; and shows that these practices have a set of common histories despite their disciplinary borders. Each chapter in the book focuses on a different form: theaterscenography, architecture, video and image making, music and sound composition, body-based arts, mechanical and robotic art, and interactive environments constructed for research, festivals, and participatory urban spaces. The author shows that the survey and analysis of performance traditions have much to teach other emerging practices—in particular in the burgeoning fields of new media. Students of digital art need to master not only electronics and code but also dramaturgy, lighting, sound, and scenography.