Paper short abstract:

The proposed paper aimed to analyse the VR version of Kuro Tanino's play "The Dark Master" to enquire about the symbiotic relationship between the audience and the artist, relying on posthuman practice to fluidly change the perspective by seeing through different eyes.

Paper long abstract:

The COVID-19 pandemic forced many performing artists to rethink the way to perform and propose their pieces, relying on technology to continue staying as close as possible to their audiences. In this sense, virtual events have been produced by connecting people to performers who delivered their works on video-sharing platforms and video telecommunication software and services even though the audience would not feel the same human closeness provided by in-person attendance. To technologically recover such a close experience, the employment of virtual reality can be an opportunity to allow the audiences not only to keep in touch with the performers but also to renew the concept of “technoculture” by putting the audience in the actor’s shoes.

By taking into account the VR reworking of the psychiatrist-turned-director/playwright Kuro Tanino’s work “The Dark Master”, the discussion will highlight how the use of technology in theatre can create a symbiotic relationship between the audience and the artist, relying on the posthuman practice to fluidly change the perspective by seeing through different eyes. The analysis of this experimental performance would underline how the implementation of technology in performing arts can lead us to inquire about the aspects of our society and the individual’s conditions under a new viewpoint by thinking of a crisis as an opportunity to question our existence through a technological mindset.