Postdigital Performances of Care

Technology & Pandemic

Karen Savage author Liam Jarvis author Karen Savage editor Liam Jarvis editor

Format:Hardback

Publisher:Bloomsbury Publishing PLC

Published:25th Jan '24

Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back

Postdigital Performances of Care cover

A timely and critical exploration of issues of care and performance in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Covid-19 has been described as a ‘digital pandemic’. But who might the characterisation of the pandemic as ‘digital’ leave behind? This timely book reconsiders the pandemic as ‘postdigital’, examining tensions between a growing postdigital attitude of disenchantment with digital technologies and the increasing reliance on adapted modes of online practice mid-lockdown in both performance-making and healthcare. What emerged amidst the pandemic restrictions was a theatre that was unable to show its face, instead adapting into a variety of ‘covid-safe’ remote forms of engagement, from ‘Zoom plays’ to self-generating experiences sent by post. This book explores the ways that both performances and healthcare practices found proxies for direct touch and face-to-face encounters, deconstructing the way that care and resilience were spectacularized by political actors online. Liam Jarvis and Karen Savage explore aspects of care in relation to technology, spectacle and facilitation, and how new modes of delivery and the repurposing of theatre spaces that were displaced amidst the mass migration online have been enabling as well as controversial. The variety of case studies assessed includes internet memes, online films, performances of everyday resilience through social media and participatory theatre productions, including Thaddeus Phillips’ Zoom Motel, Coney’s Telephone and Nightcap’s Handle with Care.

As theatre and performance struggle to emerge in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, Postdigital Performances of Care provides a distinct lens through which to review our collective experiences and to reimagine possibilities for the future. Critical, insightful and compassionate throughout, the book reflects on the many meanings of care and challenges us to reconsider the "new normal". The authors present a compelling provocation for the field and how we might rethink performance itself in the current context. * Sarah Bay-Cheng, York University, Canada *

ISBN: 9781350272101

Dimensions: unknown

Weight: unknown

134 pages