Round Table: What is the Role of New Media in Performance?

With an ever-changing 'multimedia' dominated world, where are new technological advancements placed in current cultural and arts practices? An exciting collective of arts, social and media specialists will examine and debate social, aesthetic and performance implications of modern technological phenomena that influence cultural communication.

Host: Aleks Sierz, author of In-Yer-Face Theatre: British Drama Today and The Theatre of Martin Crimp. He works as a journalist, broadcaster, and is theatre critic of Tribune. He is also Visiting Research Fellow at Rose Bruford College.

Panellists:

Zoe Bouras, performer and performance-maker who, in addition to creating her own performances, has worked with Station House Opera, translocal sonic artist, Sophea Lerner and is an ongoing member of Julia Barclay's experimental Apocryphal Theatre.

Andy Lavender is Professor of Contemporary Theatre and Head of the Postgraduate School at Central School of Speech and Drama, University of London. He is the artistic director of the theatre/performance company Lightwork, and co-convenor of the New Technologies for Theatre working group of the Theatre and Performance Research Association.

Steve Dixon is the Head of School of Arts, and Professor of Performance and Technology at Brunel University in London. His recent creative practice includes international multimedia theatre tours as director of The Chameleons Group (since 1994), two award winning CD-ROMs, interactive Internet performances, and telematic arts events staged with collaborators including Paul Sermon. His book Digital Performance: A History of New Media in Theatre, Dance, Performance Art and Installation has just been published by MIT Press (2007).

Peter M. Boenisch is Senior Lecturer and Director of Theatre Studies at the School of Drama, Film and Visual Arts at the University of Kent at Canterbury. His core areas of expertise are dramaturgy and mise-en-scène in contemporary European theatre; dance and physical theatre; intermediality and theatre; and English Restoration Theatre. His website is at www.bodiescapes.de.

Duration: 90 mins

Further panellists will be confirmed closer to the date of the event.