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Drama, Theatre, Performance Studies (1)

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Epilogue
Julia A. Walker, Washington University, St Louis
Book:

Performance and Modernity

Published online:

09 December 2021

Print publication:

06 January 2022, pp 249-269
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Summary

In an epilogue that examines the current shift from human to animatronic performers in film and video, this book concludes with a meditation on the contemporary ambition to “go viral.” The history of computer-generated imaging (CGI) technology suggests that, in its pixelated form, a new - if also contested - concept of self has emerged for the twenty-first century. While fantasies of disembodiment and photo-realistic avatars of domination and destruction persist in contemporary media, pixilation offers us an alternative model of self that presages a post-Anthropogenic era. By fracturing the contours of a reified identity, the pixelated image invites us to re-envision ourselves as multi-celled organisms capable of co-existing with other such life forms within a shared biosphere. Inscribed in this new performance form, in other words, is yet more evidence for the ways we seek to comprehend and adapt to changes in our ever-modernizing world.