Overview

What is the impact of virtual models and realms in contemporary theatre, art and architecture? This volume explores the evolution of virtual models, their transformative spatial potential, and their capacity for world-making using a range of case studies drawn from global contemporary theatre, art and architecture practice. It draws upon a rich array of contemporary examples, including the Japanese artist collective Dumb Type, Chinese artist Lu Yang, US­-Iranian artist Morehshin Allahyari, Björk, and the UK research agency Forensic Architecture. In parallel, a historical overview focused on the formative years of digital society provides context to the rapid development of virtual technologies, including the work of architecture collectives Superstudio and Archigram and seminal art, performance and technology collaborations from 1960s New York onward, enabled by institutions such as MoMA and Bell Labs. Behind this inquiry is a historical and theoretical positioning of the immaterial and its relationship to the material. Discussing emerging forms of expanded reality (XR) as devices in the theoretical and cultural framework of the virtual model, this study reveals the processes made visible in exhibitions, installations and performances while focusing on overlapping spaces, narratives and actors as they contribute to constructing virtual worlds. Virtual Models in Theatre, Art and Architecture: Making Worlds reframes the virtual model as dispositif at the interface of the real, the fictional and the virtual, encouraging the reader to critically consider how new technologies open new spaces for knowledge creation and creative expression.

Full Product Details

Author:   Thea Brejzek (University of Technology, Sydney, Australia) ,  Lawrence Wallen (University of Technology, Sydney, Australia) ,  Joslin McKinney (University of Leeds, UK) ,  Professor Scott Palmer (University of Leeds, UK)
Publisher:   Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Imprint:   Methuen Drama
Dimensions:   Width: 15.20cm , Height: 1.60cm , Length: 23.60cm
Weight:   0.440kg
ISBN:  

9781350449800

ISBN 10:   1350449806
Pages:   208
Publication Date:   27 November 2025
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Tertiary & Higher Education
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Manufactured on demand  
We will order this item for you from a manufactured on demand supplier.

Table of Contents

List of Figures Acknowledgements Introduction Chapter 1 - On the Virtual Model The Site The Virtual Model -Dispositifand Critical Instrument The Imaginary and the Imagined Model, Doppelgänger and the Digital Twin The Map and the Territory The Real and the Virtual The Locus of the Virtual Chapter 2 – Art, Science and Engineering – Imagining the Virtual Media Art, Visionary and Virtual Architecture New York as Site for Experimental Art and Technology 9 Evenings: Theatre and Engineering The Machine as Seen at the End of the Mechanical Age Architectural Imaginaries Utopic Vision of a Future City Forensic Architecture's Virtual Models Performance, Media and Architecture Chapter 3 – Performing the Virtual Model in the Material World Deconstructing Nation, Gender, Race Liminal Spaces - Dumb Type Body and Code - LuYang Digital Colonialism - Morehshin Allahyari Imagining the Future - Yael Bartana Other Spaces Chapter 4 – Immersion, Animism and Technology Between the Virtual and the Real Deconstruction and Myth - Romeo Castellucci Metamorphoses and Masks - Björk Embodied Experiences - Olafur Eliasson Duality and Transformation - Apitchong Weerasethakul Memory, Iconoclasm, Animism Chapter 5 – Researching the Virtual The Art and Science Lab The Emergence of the Immaterial Virtual Reality Typologies Ontologies of the Virtual From a Sense of Proximity to a Sense of Distance To Be A Machine But what happens if the Theatre stops Working? Notes References Index

Reviews

Author Information

Thea Brejzek is Professor of Spatial Theory at the School of Architecture, University of Technology Sydney, Australia. Lawrence Wallen is Professor at the School of Architecture, University of Technology Sydney, Australia.

Tab Content 6

Author Website:  

Countries Available

All regions