The first full-length book of its kind to offer an investigation of the interface between theatre, performance and digital arts, Virtual Theatres presents the theatre of the twenty-first century in which everything - even the viewer - can be simulated.
In this fascinating volume, Gabriella Giannachi analyzes the aesthetic concerns of current computer-arts practices through discussion of a variety of artists and performers including:
* blast Theory
* Merce Cunningham
* Eduardo Kac
* forced entertainment
* Lynn Hershman
* Jodi Orlan
* Guillermo Gómez-Peña
* Marcel-lí Antúnez Roca
* Jeffrey Shaw
* Stelarc.
Virtual Theatres not only allows for a reinterpretation of what is possible in the world of performance practice, but also demonstrates how 'virtuality' has come to represent a major parameter for our understanding and experience of contemporary art and life.
Biography
Gabriella Giannachi is a lecturer in Theatre Studies at the University of Lancaster, where her specialist areas include new technologies and performance. She is also co-editor of On Directing (1999) and co-author of Staging the Post-Avant-Garde (2002).
'A welcome addition to the growing range of works currently available on virtual reality and performance. It is clearly written and offers a useful historical overview of the field to date ... Giannachi has done impressive work in collating a vast and stimulating array of relevant examples ... There is no question that Virtual Theatres is a tremendously useful teaching and research resource. It will be of great use to teachers of new media, as well as post-graduate and under-graduate students of theatre studies.' – Studies in Theatre Performance
