The digital has created not only new methods of communication and exchange, but also changed our ways of conceptualizing both performing arts generally, and the knowledge-production in and around the performing arts. In recent years, the digital humanities have been the locus for a more general, interdisciplinary conversation around these issues. While there is a long tradition of performance-based experimentation with technology — ranging from the futurists’ performances to contemporary motion capture dances by artists — the question of how the performing arts can fit into the discourse of the digital humanities seems to be a fairly new one. For many scholars, the digital humanities and performing arts have been equated with the quantitative study of plays and other textual elements of theatre as well as movement in dance-related projects.
This session queries the more wide-ranging impact of the digital humanities on theatre and performance studies and the artistic practices in the field but will also inquire about the impact of performance theory on the digital humanities. What might digital theories and practices offer to scholarly and critical analyses of theatre and performance practice? How has the field of the digital humanities been and continues to be impacted by performance theory and practice? What are some of the challenges and possibilities that the interconnected fields of digital humanities and theatre and performance studies are facing today?
Before the conference, participants create a collective bibliography, and a number of reflections on HASTAC.org. At the conference, participants will demo projects or performances. This is followed by a conversation about the questions above or other questions and commonalities coming up during the run of the session.
Concretely, the session, in its entire run, will generate a collaboratively created blog and conversation, reflecting on the impact of digital humanities-oriented projects on the field of theatre and performance studies as well as theatre, drama, and performance in itself, and the impact of performance theory and performance practices on digital humanities.
