Chris Eaket

This work examines theatrical performances that occur outside of traditional spaces or create new spaces through the use of various types of digital technology. While theatre and technology have often had a somewhat adversarial relationship–mainly due to the emergence of film–the deployment of various technologies towards theatrical ends is currently resulting in new forms of intermedial performance. These new works produce unique representational spaces each with their own audience dynamics, semiotic codes, epistemologies and modes of interactivity.

The primary focus of my work is to examine the types of spaces and spatial relationships that come into existence when specific technologies are mobilized to create new types of mise-en-scene, noting how each one creates, informs, or critiques specific spaces through a combination of theatrical practice and the tools of technology. Since the works examined here cover a broad range of practices, this thesis builds on previous scholarship by formulating a taxonomy of Digital Performance , which provides a framework for the systematic analysis and classification of these hybrid performances. Each chapter of this thesis examines different facets of this taxonomy, comparing the characteristics and spatial dynamics of Traditional Theatre, Digital Theatre, Locative Media, Interactive Drama and a still-emergent VR Theatre.