Avatars, Activism and Postdigital Performance

Book excerpt: "In the context of the postdigital age, where technology is increasingly part of our social and political world, Avatars, Activism and Postdigital Performance traces how identity is developed, created, hijacked, manipulated, sabotaged and explored through performance in postdigital culture. Considering how technology is reshaping performance, this timely collection reveals how we engage in performance practices through expanded notions of intermediality, convergence and layering. This book examines the artist as activist and avatar, and how body hacking, zombification, the cyborg and digital doubles problematize and expand our discussions of identity. Using a range of theatre and film performance examples, including Avatar, Calpurnia Descendin and User Not Found, chapters explore how the uncertain boundaries of the body in mediatized cultures, along with machine algorithms, apps and a commitment to a digital legacy, can operate as interventions between the senses, creating mediatized resonances between the body and one another. This is an incisive study for scholars, students and practitioners interested in the wider conversations around identity in mediatized culture."--