Dancing on the emerald table: (Mis)adventures in performance and esoterica
Lance Gharavi · Text and Performance Quarterly · 2004
Science and spirituality are popularly understood as delineating opposing ideological grounds. Yet we rely on both for the models, images, and myths that bring meaning to our lives. Part of a larger project to generate new technologies for the arts, the ongoing creation of the digital performance work IM/UR uses metaphors drawn from science to explore our most profound spiritual desires. In this essay, the author describes the two principles that guided his work on IM/UR. The first of these principles emerges from Western mystic tradition, the second from the problematic position of live media in performance. Ultimately, the author finds these two principles incompatible.