Telematic LASER: @ THE CROSSROADS

In the wake of Covid-19, we have witnessed a mass migration to the third space, that telematic region of shared networked space that lies between the local and the remote. We ask: what are the personal, social, and artistic implications of this migration in which our dependency on global communications to conduct the most essential human interactions has accelerated at an unprecedented rate? Panel Discussion with Randall Packer (US) (moderator), Ghislaine Boddington (UK),
Steve Dixon (SG) & Paul Sermon (UK). This acceleration into the third space has impacted, most notably, the performing arts, where alternative virtual platforms have challenged the ability to emotionally and intellectually engage with a live audience. As performance ensembles and theater companies attempt to shift, en masse and yet apprehensively, to the virtual stage – a place of impermanence and flux – they often find themselves confined to miniature boxes and a fixed frontal gaze where movement, speaking, play, and all the other critical elements of performance are compromised. For the inaugural Telematic LASER, in the face of this dilemma, our panel will discuss concepts, techniques and approaches garnered from the new media arts, those intrepid experimentalists who have been at the vanguard of telecommunication arts for decades. We will address and explore critical questions that now lie before us as we find ourselves at the crossroads between the physical and the virtual, contemplating our next steps.