Experiments in Zoomumentary – telepresence and absence beyond the grid*

Abstract

ABSTRACT This report describes and reflects on the practical workshop activity that was part of the Telepresence to Teletrust online Symposium in July 2021 hosted by Bournemouth University Experimental Media Research Centre led by Professor David Garcia. The Zoom workshops co-convened by Dr Trevor Hearing and Dr. Brad Gyori were a forum for experimentation and discussion by attendees to performatively investigate the notion of ‘the third space’, in the context of an emerging hybrid environment of shared online presence and performance. The theme was set out by Garcia, acknowledging the foundational conceptualisation and use of the term in other contexts previously in the work of Bhabha, Soja, Tuan and others. The workshops explored the experience of ‘risk’, ‘liveness’ and ‘presence and absence’ in the telepresence context and were reflected on by participants as they discovered the value of practice as a method of enquiry in this developing field.