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Performing the Internet

The internet defines our present-day ecosystem. From work to play, the packets we send and receive over clouds and hard drives don’t just keep our lives running, they define how we run. As theatre artists, how can we consider the internet as a place, performer, and object in and of itself? The question is not just, “How are we performing on the internet?” but, as the internet is an ever-growing open-source tool and object, “How are we performing the internet?” In this conversation series, software engineers, musicians, culture-shaping collectives, writers, and ritual makers look at how the internet has been and is a critical unsung part of our new narrative. These makers contemplate intention, play, genesis, open-source, context collapse, collaborative mediums, and data collection, and dive into the call to action for a more robust dramaturgy and intention around the World Wide Web.

a group onstage
Sometimes the Best Technology is Relationships
Essay

Sometimes the Best Technology is Relationships

A Conversation with Complex Movements

15 January 2021

In the last conversation of the Performing the Internet series, curator Kate Bergstrom sits down with three members of the Detroit-based artist-activist collective Complex Movements—Sage Crump, ill weaver, Wes Taylor—to talk about intentional engagement in a virtual world.

an actor onstage
Write the Software and Let the World Have It
Essay

Write the Software and Let the World Have It

Forty Years of Internet Performance

14 January 2021

In this article for the Performing the Internet series, Miller Puckette and Onyx Ashanti get together for a conversation about the changing landscape of multimedia technology in the arts, how technologically mediated performance practices have taken on new relevance in the post-COVID era, and more.

youtube screenshot
“Model User Behavior”
Essay

“Model User Behavior”

13 January 2021

As part of the Performing the Internet series, Martim Galvão and Todd Anderson have a conversation about the unconscious “performance” and emotional journey of web browsing, internet mixtapes, building websites for performance, and more.

a person seated at a desk with a large projection to their left
Dawn of the Digital Apocalypse
Essay

Dawn of the Digital Apocalypse

Alchemy, Narrative, and Dismantling Borders in the Virtual World

12 January 2021

Anchuli Felicia King and Adam Cooper-Terán talk about how the object of the internet functions in their creative work, the ethics of the internet, digital apocalypse art, and more.

Beyond Wandering
Essay

Beyond Wandering

Critical Engagement in a World-Widening Web

11 January 2021

Kate Bergstrom introduces the Performing the Internet series, which asks big questions, such as: Can unpacking the internet be a bellwether for how we all can unpack and restructure our society and our organizations? Can we reconceptualize our relationship to the internet by dismantling, questioning, and addressing it in our creative work?

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