Integrated Composition, Improvisation and Technology (ICIT)

In this essay, I present a concept of ritualized performance as an ideal way to approach the telematic medium, arguing that many longstanding performance rituals share characteristics that can be exploited in networked performance. After delimiting a notion of ritual, I introduce three aspects of this performative mode that make it a valuable approach to networked environments: 1) democratization of the space (a concept I explore through Victor Turner’s ideas on liminality and communitas), including integrating audience participation as well as moving beyond single-author models, 2) hybridization of media, merging audio and visual technologies, and 3) interculturalism and collaboration across geographically-defined cultures and traditions. Many artists in the 20th century have explored these ideas to create alternative approaches to performance, and in this essay I argue that they can be extended in new ways within the telematic realm. Drawing on theoretical and philosophical writings by various

authors and three case studies by artists whose work is related to each of the aforementioned aspects of the mode I am studying, I situate these ideas in relation to my thesis capstone project, Spatia and seek to contribute to the body of scholarly reflection on performance ritual in the era of telepresence.