- analogue and hybrid realms
- applications
- augmented worlds and experiences
- cross-media
- digital
- identities and subjectivities
- immersive
- Interactive
- inter-media and multimodal cultures
- postdigital
- technology
- trans-media
- virtual
- Digital and postdigital performance
- Interactive practices
- Remediation & adaptation
- Political activism and deconstructing media
- Augmented reality
- Pervasive theatre and performance-making
- Social media & networked performance
- AI compositions
- Wearable computing, tracking & self-quantifying
- Big data in performance
- Gamification
- Cyborg theatre
- Immersive practices
- VR in performance and applied contexts
- Hacking and maker-culture
- Motion/performance capture
- Video mapping/multimedia in public spaces
- Dr Christina Papagiannouli, University of South Wales (2022-2024)
- Dr Karen Savage, University of Lincoln (2017-2021)
- Dr Liam Jarvis, University of Essex (2017-2021)
- Anna Monteverdi, University of Milan (2017-2018)
- Dr Aneta Mancewicz, University of Birmingham (2013-2016)
- Prof Ralf Remshardt, University of Florida (2013-2016)
- Prof Andy Lavender, University of Warwick
- WG Founders: Freda Chapple and Chiel Kattenbelt
Intermediality in Theatre & Performance
The Intermediality in Theatre & Performance Working Group was founded in 2003 and examines the interrelationships of theatre with other media, the combinations of different media in performance and wider digital/postdigital culture through a performance studies lens.
KEYWORDS
EMAIL ADDRESS
CFP for 2025
Call for Papers for The Intermediality in Theatre & Performance Working Group at IFTR
in Cologne, Germany, 9th–13th June 2025
Techno-Utopias and Intermedial Transgressions
In response to the host’s call for Performing Carnival! we will consider the medial and intermedial practices and processes in theatre and performance that aim at experience, exaltation, displacement and subversion. This year we will focus on the ways in which theatre and performance can forge or dismantle Techno-utopias, embracing the transformative to the transgressive. From the ekstasis of popular performance, such as Fuerza Bruta’s Arven (Argentina), to the displacement of audience in Darkfield’s 360-degree audio experiences (UK and International), the techno-utopia of intermedial practices have promised everything from carnivalesque aesthetics to transportive immersion. The rise of AI in theatre production, and the entanglement of performance within generative technologies – from ‘performing’ the voices of Forced Entertainment’s Signal to Noise (UK) to performing ‘identity’ via the ‘theft’ of Scarlett Johansson’s voice by ChatGPT – present new intermedial relations that court controversy as much they might create a kind of carnival in their wake. The impact of Intermedial practices, in tandem with rapidly developing and sometimes rogue technologies, present epistemological and ontological challenges to theatre and its performance. The Intermediality in Theatre and Performance Working Group welcome a broad range of critical engagement in mediated, intermedial and transmedial practices from the Global and planetary (Spivak) to the digital infinitesimal. We invite responses to the audacious and outrageous in any medial augmentation of theatre practice or production and, by extension, how performance infiltrates medial structures and technical operations.
We invite proposals for 15 minute presentations in any format (papers, performance lectures, practical demonstrations, workshops, etc.) or for a 10 minute position statement from established academics, early career researchers, postgraduate students and artists around the globe to join our working group. We also welcome practice-based researchers, and cross-disciplinary scholars.
Proposals may include but are not limited to any of the following themes:
· Ecstatic intermedialites
· Intermedial performance and the carnivalesque
· Subverting techno-utopias
· Spectacular, digital, virtual, and augmented performances
· Technological and digital metamorphoses
· Transformations in a digital world
· Parodying subjectivities
· Sites of celebrations
· Joyful immersions
· Intermedial liminalities
· Masking crises and technical destructions
· Intermedial other-worlds
· Digital excess
· Postdigital thrills and digital entertainment
· Ambience, noise and sonicity
· AI interventions and wasteful performance
Open Call: We encourage other submissions that address intermediality in theatre and performance, including those that do not directly refer to the conference theme. For more information, please visit IFTR Intermediality in Theatre & Performance WG.
The Intermediality in Theatre & Performance Working Group
The Intermediality Working Group (WG) examines the interrelationships of theatre with other media as well as combinations of different media in performance. It looks at theories and conceptualizations of media in live performance, historical developments and transformations of media, and contemporary manifestations of intermediality in postdigital culture. The Intermediality WG is research active. Recent publications include Avatars, Activism and Postdigital Performance: Precarious Intermedial Identities (Bloomsbury 2021), and a special edition of IJPADM ‘TechNo-fixes? Performances within Ecological Emergencies’ (2022), both edited by WG members and former convenors Liam Jarvis and Karen Savage.
Submitting your abstract
We welcome both existing and new WG members to submit papers on any aspect of intermedial theatre and performance, broadly conceived. We are keen to hear from academics and practitioner-researchers at all career stages and welcome attendees from diverse geographical locations. The WG aims to encourage lively and energized debates during the sessions and in this spirit, we also invite observers to attend and contribute to our discussions. The group is welcoming and inclusive and we will be organizing a social event for all of our WG members during the conference.
Abstracts between 200-250 words are invited for this conference from all interested scholars and students of the Performing Arts and related disciplines.
Conference Dates: 9th–13th June 2025
Conference Venue: University of Cologne, Germany
The deadline for abstracts for working group papers is 15 January 2025.
Abstracts can be submitted via the IFTR Cambridge Core portal. Please note that you must renew your membership or become a member in order to submit:
https://www.cambridge.org/core/membership/iftr.
For information about the general conference, please check the IFTR website. Please also check for updates on the Intermediality in Theatre & Performance Working Group Page at https://iftr.org/working-groups/intermediality-in-theatre-and-performance
If you have questions about the group or about attending please contact the working group convenors, Lynne Kendrick lynne.kendrick@cssd.ac.uk and Yaron Shyldkrot, y.shyldkrot@leeds.ac.uk. You can also reach us at our Working Group email address: intermediality.iftr@gmail.com.
Acceptance:
Applicants will be informed of acceptance by March 2025.
CURRENT CONVENERS
Lynne Kendrick – lynne.kendrick@cssd.ac.uk
Yaron Shyldkrot – y.shyldkrot@.leeds.ac.uk
MISSION STATEMENT
The Intermediality in Theatre and Performance Working Group has played a highly significant role in defining and mapping the field and continues to represent one of the leading international forums for the sharing of research in the study of intermediality in performance practices. The group looks at theories and conceptualizations of media in live performance, historical developments and transformations of media, and contemporary manifestations of intermediality. The group members work in diverse areas and within different methodologies but share a focus on the self-reflexivity of media, an interest in media applications and functions in culture and society, an analysis of technology’s effects and affects, as well as an understanding of theatre practice as an object and method of research.
The group's recent research interests include, but are not limited to:
We welcome early-career researchers and postgraduate scholars, and our panels are mostly open to new or non-group members during conferences. The group also attracts a variety of researcher-practitioners working in or across various media.
Alongside traditional papers, we host a range of unique performance experiments and experiences (e.g. performance lectures, podcast submissions, audio provocations, headphone pieces, VR/gaming experiences) that enrich the group’s critical discussions. Our research is disseminated in various forms, including journal editions, edited collections, and performance events.
The Intermediality WG has been prolific and research-active in terms of publications (see the WG bibliography below), and we are currently working toward a new group publication.
CURRENT PROJECTS
New Intermedialities in Theatre and Performance: From Minutiae to Magnitude. ed. Lynne Kendrick and Yaron Shyldkrot, Routledge, forthcoming.
This new collection examines how contemporary technologies are transforming theatre and performance practice. From the microscopic level of digital interfaces to the vast movements of data, contributors explore how notions of scale reshape performance, design, materiality, temporality, training, industries, and the body. Drawing from the latest research of the Intermediality in Theatre and Performance Working Group, this collection investigates the impact of digital and post-digital media—such as AI, AR, and VR—on theatre practices, aesthetics, and processes, by resizing, reconfiguring, and redefining the scope of intermediality in contemporary theatre.
The call for chapters for the upcoming collection can be found here: https://iftr.org/working-groups/intermediality-in-theatre-and-performance/call-for-chapters-new-intermedialities-in-theatre-and-performance
COMPLETED PUBLICATIONS / OUTPUTS
Jarvis, Liam and Karen Savage, eds. 2021. ‘TechNO-fixes?: Performances within Ecological Emergencies’, International Journal of Performance Arts and Digital Media. Affiliated Issue with the International Federation for Theatre Research’s (IFTR) Intermediality Working Group. 18.1
Savage, Karen and Liam Jarvis, eds. 2020. Avatars, Activism & Postdigital Performance: Precarious Intermedial Identities. London: Bloomsbury Metheun Drama
Arfara, Katia, Aneta Mancewicz and Ralf Remshardt, eds. 2018. Intermedial Performance in the Public Sphere. Palgrave Macmillan.
Bay-Cheng, Sarah, Chiel Kattenbelt, Andy Lavender and Robin Nelson, eds. 2010. Mapping Intermediality in Performance. Amsterdam: Amsterdam UP. MediaMatters, 5.
Chapple, Freda, Chiel Kattenbelt (eds.) and International Federation for Theatre Research's Theatre Intermediality Working Group (2006). Intermediality in Theatre and Performance. Amsterdam and New York: Rodopi. Themes in Theatre: Collective Approaches to Theatre and Performance; 2.
Other
Past WG convenors:
Annual Reports: The group’s annual reports are accessible via the following link: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1tE9m8AYPzew_BCOC1hqO1aeqHhcHl5sx3jJaT22iQxU/edit?usp=sharing
Previous CFPs: The group’s previous CFPs are available via the following link: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Lft6JjeO2ajvVhd8gjb2ynOjkKY13bMnNoKxzZYvko8/edit?usp=sharing
IFTR bursaries: https://iftr.org/organisation/bursaries
IFTR New Scholars: https://iftr.org/new-scholars