Hotel Pro Forma ' s The Algebra ofPlace ; destabilising the original and the copy in intermedial contemporary performance

This paper examines two questions that emerged from a viewing of Hotel Pro Forma's contemporary peiformance The Algebra of Place. It questions how and why the viewer's perception altered when observing the convergence of live and mediatised peiformance, with particular reference to an altered perception oforiginal and copy. It also questions the perception ofspace, time and the per­ former's identity in the performance. In an endeavour to address these questions two examples from The Algebra of Place are examined. Theoretically the paper applies intermediality as a conceptual framework to assist in the examination of these concerns, Then the paper reviews in more detail theories ofspace and time in contemporary peiformance, and theories of peiformative identity, The result of this theoretical exploration, in conjunction with the examples from The Algebra of Place, is a provisional concept digital mimesis. By articulating a contemporary repositioning of mimesis beyond imitation, mimesis is proposed in an attempt to articulate the complex power relations between the original and the copy in live and mediatised performance. As such, the paper ventures to provide a lens for theorists and practitioners who examine and create interme· dial contemporary peiformance that destabilises the original.