1st Edition

Routledge Companion to Performance and Technology

Edited By Maaike Bleeker, Norah Zuniga Shaw Copyright 2026
784 Pages 126 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

784 Pages 126 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

Technology has become fully integrated into the ecologies in which we live, including our ways of making and making sense of theater, dance, and performance. While these practices have long histories of incorporating tools and instruments in live performances, from masks, to amplification, lighting, and stagecraft, technology today can no longer be understood as a tool complementing essentially... Read more

Acknowledgements

Contributors Biography

 

Introduction

Chapter 1: Postdigital Performance by Matthew Causey

Chapter 2: Texts and Contexts by Sarah Bay-Cheng, Jennifer Parker-Starbuck and David Saltz

Chapter 3: Intermediality in Theatre and Performance by Chiel Kattenbelt

Chapter 4: László Moholy-Nagy’s “Theatre of Totality” by Sue Broadhurst

Chapter 5: The Digital Double by Steve Dixon

Chapter 6: The Co-Evolution of Performance and Technology by Sally Jane Norman

Chapter 7: Soulcraft Theorizing Black Techne in African and American Viral Dance by Reginold A. Royston

Chapter 8: Robots on Stage in Contemporary Performance by Elizabeth Jochum

Chapter 9: Algorithmic Theater Then and Now by Annie Dorsen and Tom Seller

Chapter 10: Proscenium as Temporary Shelter by Catherine M. Cole

Chapter 11: Performing ‘Art and Technology’ in Cold War America by Douglas Eacho

Chapter 12: Performance After Automation by Nicholas Ridout

Chapter 13: Dancing and Cameras by Bill T. Jones

Chapter 14: Choreographing Technology, A Dialog with Bebe Miller

Chapter 15: Animate: XR, Bodies, and the Future of the Stage by Timothy Thomasson and Chris Salter

Chapter 16: Body and Shado: Contingent Transformations of Light on Stage by Katherine Graham

Chapter 17: On The Notion of Verticality in Dramaturgy by Jörgen Dahlqvist

Chapter 18: Invisible Performers: Sonic Ghosts, an Acousdramatic Approach, and the Transformative Potential of Digital Audio Technology in Theater by Kent Olofsson

Chapter 19: Feminist Unboxing: A Critical Approach toward Incorporating Digital Technologies into Creative and Scholarly Work by Jessica J. Rajko

Chapter 20: Post‑Colonial Güícharo Robots and the Complexities of Sense‑Making in Performance and Technology: A Dialog with Yanira Castro by Norah Zuniga Shaw

Chapter 21: The Non-Linearity of Technical Production in the Performing Arts by Ashley Ferro-Murray

Chapter 22: Headphone Theater and the Performance of Perception by Rosemary Klich

Chapter 23: Choreoauratic Frequencies: Tuning in to Headphonic Encounters from Aotearoa by Becca Wood

Chapter 24: The Spectatorial Body in Multimedia Performance: The London International Festival of Theatre (Lift) 2010 by Jennifer Parker-Starbuck

Chapter 25: But How Will They Know It’s Live? Anonymous Ensemble’s Virtual Performances by Jessica Del Vecchio and Eammon Farrell

Chapter 26: The Digital Double as a Choreographic Technique: The Splitting Magic on Screens by Suparna Banerjee

Chapter 27: Dramaturgy of Technological Absence: Tim Crouch’s Truth’s a Dog Must to Kennel by Seda Ilter

Chapter 28: The Cyborg-Apparatus Continuum. or, how the question concerning technology has twisted and turned by Kristof van Baarle    

Chapter 29: Access, Performance, Technology: Engaging with the Omissions of a Past Creative Self by Alice Sheppard

Chapter 30: Utterances of Global Futurisms by Bhumi B Patel

Chapter 31: Performing Telepresence: Technology and Coloniality in Choy Ka Fai’s Postcolonial Spirits (2021) by Evelyn Wan

Chapter 32: The Ear That Speaks by Eddie Paterson and Lara Stevens

Chapter 33: Critical Techno-dramaturgy: Mobilizing Embodied Perception of the Human‑Technology Relationship in Performance by Stephen Fernandez

Chapter 34: The Theatricality of Mindar, Kōdai-ji Temple’s Android Buddhist Priest by Yuji Sone

Chapter 35: Technologies of Community: Digital Portraits in Black Dance by Thomas F. Defrantz

Chapter 36:  Cultural Dreams of Datafied Bodies: Motion Capture as a Technological Imaginary by Laura Karreman

Chapter 37:  “In the Half‑ight”: Phenomenological Approaches to Complex Technological Systems by Susan Kozel

Chapter 38: Landing and Dispersing at the Same Time: Embodied Awareness in Virtual and Physical Spaces by Ruth Gibson and Jenny Roche

Chapter 39: Attending to the Dandelions: Social Movement Building through Participatory Arts Practice by Lyndsey Vader

Chapter 40: Black Haptics by Andre M. Zachery

Chapter 41: Performance as an act of Generosity: Sharing Aboriginal Stories through Drone Dramaturgy in Moombaki by Christina Chau and Helena Grehan

Chapter 42: Technopoetics of Togetherness: Live Performance before the End of the World by Marcela A. Fuentes

Chapter 43: The Politics of Performance and Technology in South Africa Jay Pather in dialog with Norah Zuniga Shaw and with contributions from Dr. Ketu Katrak

Chapter 44: Addenda, Phenomenology, Embodiment: Cyborgs and Disability Performance by Petra Kuppers

Chapter 45: Blast Theory’s Karen: Reharnessing the New Digital Specificities of a Hyperindustrial World by Neill O'Dwyer

Chapter 46: A Bed of One’s Own: (In)Voluntary Choices of Disengagement in Digital Performance Environments by Eirini Nedelkopoulou

Chapter 47: The Sublime Grandeur of Inconsequential Death by Kate Ladenheim

Chapter 48: Performing Counterhistory: The Ghostly Archives of Summer of Soul by Gabriela Trigo-McIntyre

Chapter 49: Archives of Care by Gesel R. Mason, Rebecca Salzer, and Carlson H. Coogler

Chapter 50: Critical Multimedia Editions for Theater Research by Miguel Escobar Varela

Chapter 51: Evolving Practices of Choreographic Transmission for the Screen and Beyond by Shannon Cuykendall

Chapter 52: Playing at Performance: Dance Games and Intimate Media by Kiri Miller

Chapter 53: Steps by Paul Kaiser

Chapter 54: Just Moves?: Motion Extraction, Machine Learning, and the Generative Derivative in Dance By Harmony Bench

Chapter 55: TikTok and Short-Form Screendance Before and After COVID by Alexandra Harlig and Harmony Bench with Crystal Abidin, Trevor Boffone, Kelly Bowker, Colette Eloi, Pamela Krayenbuhl and Chuyun Oh

Chapter 56: Data Drama: How Machine Audiences Reprogram Theater by Sarah Bay-Cheng with contributions from Mariel Marshall and Daniela Rosu

Index

Biography

Maaike Bleeker is a Professor of Performance, Science and Technology in the Department of Media and Culture Studies at Utrecht University and Director of the Research Institute for Cultural Inquiry.

Norah Zuniga Shaw is Professor and Director for Dance and Technology at the Advanced Computing Center for the Arts and Design (ACCAD) and Department of Dance at The Ohio State University.