Modes of Media in Digital Performance

HowlRound Theatre Commons: In the late 1980s and early 1990s, theatre and performance artists such as George Coates, the Wooster Group, Troika Ranch, Mark Reaney, and Laurie Anderson began to explore the use of emerging digital technologies to expand the possibilities of live performance. Those who were scenic designers, such as Reaney, who established i.e.VR at the University of Kansas, conceived of digital media primarily as a way to enhance theatrical illusion through virtual scenery. By contrast, performers and directors, like Anderson and the Wooster Group’s Elizabeth LeCompte, exploited technology’s ability to probe the nature and significance of live performance itself.