The Intermediality in Theatre & Performance Working Group was founded in 2003 and examines the interrelationships of theatre with other media, the combinations of different media in performance and wider digital/postdigital culture through a performance studies lens.

KEYWORDS Techno-Utopias and Intermedial Transgressions

analogue and hybrid realms; applications augmented worlds and experiences; cross-media; digital
identities and subjectivities; immersive; Interactive; inter-media and multimodal cultures; postdigital
technology; trans-media;virtual

EMAIL ADDRESS intermediality.iftr@gmail.com

CFP for 2025

Call for Papers for The Intermediality in Theatre & Performance Working Group at IFTR

in Cologne, Germany, 9th–13th June 2025

Techno-Utopias and Intermedial Transgressions

In response to the host’s call for Performing Carnival! we will consider the medial and intermedial practices and processes in theatre and performance that aim at experience, exaltation, displacement and subversion. This year we will focus on the ways in which theatre and performance can forge or dismantle Techno-utopias, embracing the transformative to the transgressive. From the ekstasis of popular performance, such as Fuerza Bruta’s Arven (Argentina), to the displacement of audience in Darkfield’s 360-degree audio experiences (UK and International), the techno-utopia of intermedial practices have promised everything from carnivalesque aesthetics to transportive immersion. The rise of AI in theatre production, and the entanglement of performance within generative technologies – from ‘performing’ the voices of Forced Entertainment’s Signal to Noise (UK) to performing ‘identity’ via the ‘theft’ of Scarlett Johansson’s voice by ChatGPT – present new intermedial relations that court controversy as much they might create a kind of carnival in their wake. The impact of Intermedial practices, in tandem with rapidly developing and sometimes rogue technologies, present epistemological and ontological challenges to theatre and its performance. The Intermediality in Theatre and Performance Working Group welcome a broad range of critical engagement in mediated, intermedial and transmedial practices from the Global and planetary (Spivak) to the digital infinitesimal. We invite responses to the audacious and outrageous in any medial augmentation of theatre practice or production and, by extension, how performance infiltrates medial structures and technical operations.

We invite proposals for 15 minute presentations in any format (papers, performance lectures, practical demonstrations, workshops, etc.) or for a 10 minute position statement from established academics, early career researchers, postgraduate students and artists around the globe to join our working group. We also welcome practice-based researchers, and cross-disciplinary scholars.

Proposals may include but are not limited to any of the following themes:

· Ecstatic intermedialites · Intermedial performance and the carnivalesque; · Subverting techno-utopias; · Spectacular, digital, virtual, and augmented performances;· Technological and digital metamorphoses;· Transformations in a digital world;· Parodying subjectivities;· Sites of celebrations;· Joyful immersions;· Intermedial liminalities;· Masking crises and technical destructions;· Intermedial other-worlds;· Digital excess;· Postdigital thrills and digital entertainment;· Ambience, noise and sonicity;· AI interventions and wasteful performance;

Open Call: We encourage other submissions that address intermediality in theatre and performance, including those that do not directly refer to the conference theme. For more information, please visit IFTR Intermediality in Theatre & Performance WG.

The Intermediality in Theatre & Performance Working Group

The Intermediality Working Group (WG) examines the interrelationships of theatre with other media as well as combinations of different media in performance. It looks at theories and conceptualizations of media in live performance, historical developments and transformations of media, and contemporary manifestations of intermediality in postdigital culture. The Intermediality WG is research active. Recent publications include Avatars, Activism and Postdigital Performance: Precarious Intermedial Identities (Bloomsbury 2021), and a special edition of IJPADM ‘TechNo-fixes? Performances within Ecological Emergencies’ (2022), both edited by WG members and former convenors Liam Jarvis and Karen Savage.

Submitting your abstract

We welcome both existing and new WG members to submit papers on any aspect of intermedial theatre and performance, broadly conceived. We are keen to hear from academics and practitioner-researchers at all career stages and welcome attendees from diverse geographical locations. The WG aims to encourage lively and energized debates during the sessions and in this spirit, we also invite observers to attend and contribute to our discussions. The group is welcoming and inclusive and we will be organizing a social event for all of our WG members during the conference.

Abstracts between 200-250 words are invited for this conference from all interested scholars and students of the Performing Arts and related disciplines.

Conference Dates: 9th–13th June 2025

Conference Venue: University of Cologne, Germany

The deadline for abstracts for working group papers is 15 January 2025.

Abstracts can be submitted via the IFTR Cambridge Core portal. Please note that you must renew your membership or become a member in order to submit:

https://www.cambridge.org/core/membership/iftr.

For information about the general conference, please check the IFTR website. Please also check for updates on the Intermediality in Theatre & Performance Working Group Page at https://iftr.org/working-groups/intermediality-in-theatre-and-performance

If you have questions about the group or about attending please contact the working group convenors, Lynne Kendrick lynne.kendrick@cssd.ac.uk and Yaron Shyldkrot, y.shyldkrot@leeds.ac.uk. You can also reach us at our Working Group email address: intermediality.iftr@gmail.com.

Acceptance:

Applicants will be informed of acceptance by March 2025.