perception with sensory-assailing experience of images (Grau, ‘mind-expanding’ 2003, p.200). Scenographer and media artist Mark Reaney also points out that both virtual reality and theatre bring about a suspension of disbelief for audiences and immerse them in a fictive world. What is different between immersive experiences in these two media is that the former accentuates audiences’ sensory involvements with the world while the latter attracts the audiences’ attention to storytelling (Reaney, 1999, p.184). To acknowledge different forms of immersion and avoid misunderstanding, immersion in theatre has often been called by alternative terms such as (Reaney, 1999, p.184) or immersion’ (Packer and ‘engagement’ ‘dramatic Jordan, 2001, p.xxxi) perceived by a cognitive process with a limited range of sensory engagement. However, in of fact, it was before the development of virtual reality technologies that artistic experiments with sensory experience for an audience had been attempted in the contexts of visual art and performing arts. The lineage of immersive practice in the arts can be traced back to Antonin Artaud’s total theatre in the era of Modernism. In his seminal book (1958 [1938]), The Theatre and its Double Artaud, one of the most influential theatre theorists in the twentieth century, objects to theatre which is bound to scripts and appeals to the intellect. Instead, he proposes the concept of total theatre which underlines expressive and spectacular elements so as to provoke spectators to unleash raw and real qualities of the human condition, such as fear, pain and panic. Artaud’s total theatre also embraces the disruption of the stage and auditorium by bringing the audiences into the performance space. For Artaud, to experience total theatre implies the full immersion of the audience. Allan Kaprow’s Happening (see Chapter 2) and Richard Schechner’s manifesto for Environmental theatre in the 1960s are descended from Artaud’s concept of total theatre.
‘mind-expanding’ perception with sensory-assailing experience of images (Grau, 2003, p.200). Scenographer and media artist Mark Reaney also points out that both virtual reality and theatre bring about a suspension of disbelief for audiences and immerse them in a fictive world. What is different between immersive experiences in these two media is that the former accentuates audiences’ sensory involvements with the world while the latter attracts the audiences’ attention to storytelling (Reaney, 1999, p.184). To acknowledge different forms of immersion and avoid misunderstanding, immersion in theatre has often been called by alternative terms such as ‘engagement’ (Reaney, 1999, p.184) or ‘dramatic immersion’ (Packer and Jordan, 2001, p.xxxi) perceived by a cognitive process with a limited range of sensory engagement. However, in of fact, it was before the development of virtual reality technologies that artistic experiments with sensory experience for an audience had been attempted in the contexts of visual art and performing arts. The lineage of immersive practice in the arts can be traced back to Antonin Artaud’s total theatre in the era of Modernism. In his seminal book The Theatre and its Double (1958 [1938]), Artaud, one of the most influential theatre theorists in the twentieth century, objects to theatre which is bound to scripts and appeals to the intellect. Instead, he proposes the concept of total theatre which underlines expressive and spectacular elements so as to provoke spectators to unleash raw and real qualities of the human condition, such as fear, pain and panic. Artaud’s total theatre also embraces the disruption of the stage and auditorium by bringing the audiences into the performance space. For Artaud, to experience total theatre implies the full immersion of the audience. Allan Kaprow’s Happening (see Chapter 2) and Richard Schechner’s manifesto for Environmental theatre in the 1960s are descended from Artaud’s concept of total theatre.
Seok_Jin_Han_Choreographing_the_Posthuman.docx