A State Between

This paper examines the ‘state between’ occupied by the performer in a live media performance. Working from Matthew Causey’s contention that ‘the performer becomes the medium through which the technology reaches the audience’ [2, p.45], the argument presented is that within live media performance modes, the performer actually occupies a dual state whereby she is both active within and acted upon by the developing experience which is generated. Through an examination of the onstage technology employed within a live intermedial performance, the forms of live interaction resultant from its use by the improvising performer are analysed. This direct interaction with onstage technology, which constitutes much of the performance, is seen to generate further strands of exchange and feedback between performer, experiencer and the experience itself, resulting in a live and ever-shifting ‘state between’ being occupied by the performer.