Performative Technologies
Description of Collaborative Research Focus Area:
Studies and research in Performative Technologies explore new methods for combining media and technology to create the visual, aural and connective material of performance. DANM performance research generates new public and performative spaces where digital media, communication networks, and interactive systems, may be fused with lighting, movement, stage and sound design, to create real-time shared multimedia experiences for audiences and performers at remote locations. Ongoing projects in this area include work in telematics, performance-driven real-time graphics, algorithmic composition of sound and image, computer vision and motion capture, and studies of ritual, performativity, embodiment, interactivity, and subjectivity.
Project Groups run Spring through Winter under DANM 250A-B-C.
Current Project Group in Progress (Spring 2007 - Winter 2008)
Performing with Digital Media 
MS Word 40KB HTML Version
This project group is taking participants through the process of creating one or more live collaborative performance pieces integrally involving digital media and digital enablers. Through the three-quarter process, we are carrying the works from conception to scripting, to the design and integration of the digital media, to actual performance in such a way that the media not only supports the performances but motivates them from within. Plays, for example, are created in which the media serve not only as support, but also act as a “performer” in the presentation. The digital media actually help drive the plot of such a play.
Upcoming Project Groups:
* Spring 2008 - Winter 2009: Collaborative Processes in Performance MS Word 72KB HTML Version
The intention of this project group is to take participants through the process of creating one or more live collaborative performance pieces that integrally involve digital media and digital enablers. Through the three-quarter process, we are carrying the works from conception to scripting, to the design and integration of the digital media, to actual performance in such a way that the media not only supports the performances but motivates them from within.
* Spring 2009 - Winter 2010: Digital Media in Live Performance MS Word 72KB
For the 2009-2010 Performative Technologies project, we will focus on the development of docudrama. This effort will concentrate on the organization of documentary materials into a cogent dramatic structure that will serve as the basis for the work we will subsequently build and perform. While we will make use of ordinary print documentation, we will pay specific attention to such digital documentation as online forums, chat rooms, and blogs; organizing and re-contextualizing them as performable dramatic material.
Through the three-quarter process, we are carrying the works from conception to scripting, to the design and integration of the digital media, to actual performance in such a way that the media not only supports the performances but motivates them from within.