This book investigates the implications of technology on identity in embodied performance; the discussion within it forms a forum of debate exploring the interrelationship of and between identities in performance practices, informed by new technologies. This collection considers how identity is formed, de-formed, constructed, deconstructed, blurred and celebrated within diverse approaches to technological performance practices.Digital practices as experimental artworks and performances both serve as critique and have an indirect affect on the social and political. The discussions included in this collection highlight how a redefinition of the latter term comes about in as much as they question the very nature of our accepted ideas and belief systems regarding new technologies. These essays demonstrate how embodied technological practice, as with all avant-garde art, presents itself and any analysis applied to it as an experimental extension of the socio-political and cultural experience of an epoch.

"Digital Practices" offers a description of a range of art and performance practices that have emerged within the context of a broad-based technological infiltration of all areas of human experience. They are integral to alternative and also to mainstream performance and culture, and demand perceptive strategies that can address the interface between the physical and the virtual. In this pioneering study, Susan Broadhurst explores the aesthetic theorisation of these practices and extends her analysis to include other approaches, including those offered by recent research into neuroesthetics.

This original and timely collection features writings from international contributors who specialize in digital art and performance practices (including Johannes Birringer, Robert Weschler and Philip Auslander). There are few writings per se that attempt to interrogate the interaction between new technologies and performance practice. Furthermore, none have so far linked the sensuous contact that must exist between the physical and virtual, together with the resultant corporeal transformation. In certain technological practices, physicality is both transcended and ludically inscribed - the play ("jouer") being all. Consequently, digital practices potentiate creative and aesthetic possibilities and demand new perceptive strategies.

"Digital Practices," now in paperback and with a new preface, offers a description of a range of art and performance practices that have emerged within the context of a broad-based technological infiltration of all areas of human experience. They are integral to alternative and also to mainstream performance and culture, and demand perceptual strategies that can address the interface between the physical and the virtual. In this pioneering study, Susan Broadhurst explores the aesthetic theorisation of these practices and extends her analysis to include other approaches, including those offered by recent research into the emergent field of neuroesthetics.

Now in paperback and with a new Preface, this collection of writings from international contributors who specialize in a diverse range of digital art and performance practices, surveys various aspects of performance and technology. The discussions interrogate the interaction between new technologies and performance practice. Furthermore, in an innovative way they link the sensuous contact that must exist between the physical and virtual, together with the resultant corporeal transformation. Not only do bodies morph and (de)morph but their identities consequently become destabilized. In certain technological practices, physicality is both transcended and ludically inscribed - the play (jouer) being all. Consequently, digital practices potentiate creative and aesthetic possibilities and demand new perceptive strategies that not only affirm sensate presence but also 'deceive'. The work identifies a new performance practice at the cutting edge of experimentation, and at the same time explores the evolution of new art practices. Especially, practices that are pivotal in alternative and also mainstream performance and popular culture.

This project investigates the implications of technology on identity in embodied performance, opening up a forum of debate exploring the interrelationship of and between identities in performance practices and considering how identity is formed, de-formed, blurred and celebrated within diverse approaches to technological performance practice.