The intermediality of performance

This chapter looks at how different kinds of bodies and objects interact in a performance and at how the presence and emergence of an event interact with mediation and transmediation. Our intermedial approach allows us to explore the entanglement of presence and representation, of performance and media products, of performativity and intermediality. Through a combination of the perspectives of performance studies and intermedial studies, we have achieved a richer analysis, which focuses on the performer’s body as a medium and the presence it establishes. The chapter analyses the intermedial interaction between the body and different media in several different poetry performances. It highlights the importance of performative key concepts such as presence, process and entanglement in all kinds of intermedial relations by exploring performance as a qualified medium. The specific atmosphere of a live performance affects the communication between the players and the spectators of which some groups so actively participate in the performance.