Dissemination

CIAC researcher publishes article on theatre in the digital environment

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Ruben Ferreira, researcher at CIAC, published the article “Performative Aesthetic Action and Theatrical Narrative in a Digital Environment: Reflections on the 20th Edition of the Lisbon Academic Theatre Festival and the Production of a Digital Media Art Artefact” in “Vista: Revista de Cultura Visual”.

This article explores aesthetic and performative action in a digital context and focuses on analysing the influence of digital devices on theatrical performative narrative, both in the context of creation and exhibition. The study covers the productions of the 20th edition of the Lisbon Academic Theatre Festival, presented online during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the production of a video performance created specifically for a digital media art artefact, with the aim of understanding the aesthetic phenomena of the transition from physical performance to digital space. In addition to observing the sensory signs that emerge from experimenting with the crossover between performance, video and the plastic arts, within the framework of the artefact’s video performance, this study analyses that same performance, as well as the festival’s performances, using the grid of the crossover of agents and vectors of cyberperformance, reappropriated and expanded for this research.

Ruben Ferreira is an artist-researcher focused on the intersections between digital media art and theatre. He completed the Technological Specialisation Course in Photography (2012) at the University School of the Arts in Coimbra, has a degree in Artistic Studies – Minor in Arts and Heritage (2018) from Universidade Aberta, a master’s degree in Performing Arts (2021) from the Faculty of Social and Human Sciences of Universidade Nova and is a PhD candidate in Digital Media Art at the University of Algarve, in partnership with Universidade Aberta. He has worked in various theatre companies as an actor, set designer and cultural communication specialist and works at the University of Lisbon’s Cultural Programming and Society Liaison Centre. He recently completed the Free Summer School Course in Theatre Genetics at the Faculty of Human and Social Sciences of the University of the Algarve and took part in CIAC’s “1st International Creation Processes Conference”.

The full article is available here (here).

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