Performing Moving Image: Reframing Live Visual Practice

The dominant framing of live visuals through the lens of the moving image has long overshadowed the performance aspect of the practice. This practice-based research seeks to redress the balance by taking a holistic approach in re-framing live visuals as both moving image and performance practice. The thesis argues that live visuals constitute a complex ecology of intertwined relationships between moving image, performance, music, space, context, technology and performer. This research seeks to take a new perspective of the practice and reposition it as a distinct performance discipline.

The thesis develops Richard Schechner’s performance processes as an analytical framework for live visual practice, applying it to my practice-based case studies. Within this framework, the research considers historical and contemporary methods of creation, performance and staging, whilst also acknowledging often-overlooked practicalities. The research generates a method-based toolkit for live visual performance and introduces the concepts of Random-Access Materials and ‘Visual Acoustics’. The research reinterprets Christopher Balme’s graphic model to better understand the spatial dynamics of VJing and tests Balme’s freeze-frame as an analytical tool. The thesis traces technological advances leading to new aesthetics yet finds the idea of performing through a ‘button box’ has rarely been challenged.

The methodological framework places me as participant-observer, granting unprecedented access to primary source material, interviewing artists, exploring a rare archive and attending performances, producing notable original findings from this largely unexplored field. The experimental body of my creative practice is documented through digital sketchbooks, reflective writing and recordings of performances.

This research aims to contribute to the field of live visual performance by presenting new frameworks for analysis, revealing the complex ecology of the practice, and generating knowledge of the discipline.