Performing Science and the Virtual by Sue-Ellen Case

by Sue-Ellen Case

This dazzling new book from Sue-Ellen Case looks at how science has been performed throughout history, tracing a line from eleventh-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 specialized discourses, 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.About the Sue-Ellen Case is Professor and Chair of Critical Studies, Theater UCLA

Paperback

First published October 25, 2006

Reviews

[David · Rating 1 out of 5]

I feel that I should write a review if I'm going to give 1 star. I read this book in 2011 to try to help with a paper I was writing on performing science (specifically I was trying to focus on plays that presented science related topics, like Inherit the Wind, etc.) . There isn't that much on the theory of performing science, so I was very excited when I found this book. I was disappointed because much of what was presented as 'science' does not pass muster to what a scientist would call science (at the time I was working on a BS in Chemistry, and now have a PhD chemistry). If the reader is interested in performing the virtual this is probably a good book, but it does not address performing science from what I would consider a 'rigorous' (or scientific) interpretation of science. The large focus on Mme. Blavatsky was a considerable deal breaker for me.

[micha cardenas]

Incredibly well written and so, so relevant to everything elle and I are thinking about with our current art practice. A deeply informed viewpoint with lots of relevant, contemporary examples.