The Virtual Machine: Projection in the Theatre

We begin in Chapter 2 with a discussion of data projection and the ways in which it has thoroughly transformed the notion of liveness in the last two decades. New projection technologies enabled the harnessing of data-based images to create immersive, multiple, virtual stage-spaces that became increasingly easier to reproduce in inverse proportion to the disappearance of the auratic analogic image. To this end, we discuss examples of video projection in dumb type’s seminal works S/N and OR and show how projection renders the theatre space informatic and performative rather than simply illustrative. Meanwhile, analysis of works such as Ong Keng Sen’s Desdemona and Kris Verdonck’s HUMINID foreground the experience of viewing mediated artworks and proposes a form of projection as critique. Finally, consideration of Chunky Move’s Glow shows the integration of projection with the performer to create a real-time and dramaturgically transforming expression of intermediality. Overall, this chapter shows that projection in the context of new media dramaturgy is something that has its own agenda and agency and is not simply at the service of a story or characterisation.