Liminal worlds: Presence and performer agency in tele-collaborative interaction

Abstract

This chapter explores theories of presence, and performer agency in tele-collaborative interaction, and their application to intercultural tele-improvisation. It examines theories of listening and perception in distributed performance contexts and considers issues of spatiality, temporality and time consciousness. Included in this investigation are practitioner perspectives and examples from case study performance that reveal how participants conceptualised networked space and time as the activity of the music, rather than being external to it. The chapter concludes by reviewing definitions of networked space, third space, and cyberspace, and how our perception and cognition of online space occurs through the actions and social practices (e.g., improvisation) with which we engage.