Performing Science and the Virtual

This dazzling new book from Sue-Ellen Case looks at how science has been performed throughout history, tracing a line from nineteenth century alchemy to the twenty-first century virtual avatar. Theatre and science are deeply interwoven in the European tradition, both in historical development and in strategies of representation. As science and new technologies become more pervasive in the social world, whilst at the same time retreating into their own specialised disourses,...
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This dazzling new book from Sue-Ellen Case looks at how science has been performed throughout history, tracing a line from nineteenth century alchemy to the twenty-first century virtual avatar. Theatre and science are deeply interwoven in the European tradition, both in historical development and in strategies of representation. As science and new technologies become more pervasive in the social world, whilst at the same time retreating into their own specialised disourses, performances of their power provide a familiar, active interface with them. Performing Science and the Virtual reviews how these performances borrow from spiritualist notions of transcendence, as well as the social codes of race, gender and economic exchange. In this daring and wide-ranging book we encounter Faust, glimpse Edison in his laboratory, enter the soundscape of John Cage and raid tombs with Lara Croft. Case looks at the intersection of science and performance in a way that unsettles our assumptions across these disciplines.