Abstract
This presentation explores the significance of examining remote bodily interaction within telematic environments. As audio-video conferencing systems have become increasingly integrated into both artistic and everyday practices, studying how bodies interact in these digitally mediated settings—particularly within performance—offers a critical lens for rethinking how bodily presence is sensed, communicated, and co-constructed.
These environments also point to a broader epistemological shift prompted by telecommunication technologies: from conceiving interaction as inherently tied to shared physical space, to understanding co-presence as distributed, technologically mediated, and dynamically reshaped. This shift challenges longstanding assumptions about liveness, agency, and relational dynamics in collaborative creative work.
I will briefly reflect on two recent studies: an experimental investigation of remote dance improvisation, and a networked music-dance performance staged across separate physical spaces at Popsenteret. Together, these cases illustrate how performers adapt sensory-motor strategies, negotiate technological constraints, and discover new ways to sustain embodied connection and co-presence across distance.
Bio
Bilge Serdar is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the RITMO Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies in Rhythm, Time and Motion at the University of Oslo. With a background in theatre studies, dance anthropology, and somatics, her research explores the aesthetics of bodily interaction dynamics within performing arts contexts. As part of the AMBIENT project, she currently investigates how performers adapt to digitally mediated environments, with a focus on the nuanced experience of remote intercorporeality.