Document:Q10444

Avatar Body Collision is a collaborative, globally distributed cyberformance troupe. We devise, rehearse and perform online using chat software that is cross-platform and free to download. Our live performances are sometimes purely online, and sometimes staged in a physical venue for a proximal audience, but always there are remote performers. "Everything happens in real time, nothing is pre-recorded."
We have been experimenting at the interface of theatre and the internet since 2002, and individually developing our art practices for much longer than that. In 2003 we began to develop UpStage, an open source web-based venue for cyberformance. We live (mostly) in London, Helsinki, Aotearoa/New Zealand and cyberspace.
Our goal is always to push the boundaries, to discover whether it's possible for remote performers to achieve the magic of live theatre. We are working with relatively new technologies in an unstable environment, but our approach is always to embrace the obstacles as part of the territory and incorporate them into the performance. We also enjoy the low-tech aesthetic: we work with free and open source technologies, often over dial-up connections, and our software UpStage is accessible for people of all ages to learn the basics and have a go.