THE RISE OF ONLINE IMPROVISATION: RECENTERING THE HUMAN

Abstract

With the onslaught of the Covid-19 pandemic, we are now witnessing immense social shifts worldwide. This dispersal of humanity in an age of social distanciation has transformed the practice and culture of theatre and dance at a distance. Improvisation communities, which thrive on social congregation and collaboration in shared spaces, are left individually disparate, unable to gather. In a bid to reconcile with loss and sustain itself, these communities turn towards technology to bridge the physical gap between people in communication. Technology hybridises improvisation as a form, creating a new means of engagement. In this visceral transition, how might we creatively explore the potentials and the boundaries of a new medium? What does hybridity entail? If this cultural climate signals permanent shifts in perspective and practice, what ethical concerns might we engage with in a new developing form? Based on four ethnographic case studies, this project observes hybridity as innovation. Methods of techno-corporeal embodiments arise as adaptations in the practice of improvisation re-ordered through digital networks. It negotiates contentions in hybridity by re-configuring obstacles encountered in liveness. These observations in-application signal ethical implications that point towards a postdigital trajectory by recentering the human.