**2. Presence Effects**

Over time, the evolution of technology and art has facilitated the blending of different art forms, allowing audiovisual artists to cultivate a distinct aesthetic centered on sound, image and 'in motion'. As a result, the synergy between sound and visual elements continues to be explored across disciplines, effectively broadening the conceptual scope of live audiovisual performance. This convergence of auditory and visual components enhances the immersive quality of 'live' experiences, creating a harmonious relationship that improves the overall aesthetic encounter.

The growing integration of new media and technologies into the performing arts has led to the emergence of diverse artistic expressions and methods. This phenomenon has also been documented in the theoretical field, and its influence can be measured by the large number of anthologies and texts that have been published on the subject in recent decades2. These approaches generally vary between understanding the use of new technologies and media as a rupture and as something new to be integrated into artistic practices or as a

continuity in the technological integration of artistic practices (Dinis 2021). For those who see this integration as a rupture, the use of technologies allows for the emergence and development of 'new artistic possibilities' (Saltz 2013, p. 422). Others, however, see these practices as the unfolding of a pre-existing potential, since "theatre has always used the most advanced technology of its time to enhance the 'spectacle' of productions" (Dixon 2007, p. 39).

These different visions reflect the construction of a critical discourse on the implications of the use of new media in transforming artistic forms and practices. One of the main issues raised in these discourses concerns the question of presence and its emptying through technological mediation, creating in the debate an apparent opposition between the 'live' and the 'mediated'.

The course of artistic movements associated with performance art, in the context of its history and its dominant languages, seeks to value the presence of the performer as something that can be experienced immediately, in the encounter between spectator and performer, and above all as the goal of the performance itself—that is, an absolute state of presence that Fischer-Lichte (2012) defines as 'radical presence', which means appearing and being perceived as an embodied spirit.

The discourse on performance tends to emphasize the character of 'live' art as its most distinctive feature, thus evading reproduction, as opposed to 'mediated' art, as Phelan (1993) argues. The ontology of performance is paradoxically enunciated in both presence and absence and in "all the conceptual oppositions of metaphysics" (Derrida 1988, p. 26). Auslander (1999) criticizes Phelan by arguing that the category of 'live' is actually an effect of mediation, not the other way around (Auslander 1999). Historically, 'live' only exists from the moment that reproduction techniques are invented, thus defining itself as what can be recorded. In this sense, the 'live' is linked to and dependent on mediation. Furthermore, Auslander (1999) notes that there is a progressive tendency to mediate 'live' events and understands the insistence of theoretical discourse on performance to situate it as a purely ideological, as opposed to a mediated or technological, form of art.

In this essay, we recognize that contrary to the emphasis on performance as something that takes place 'live', performance appears to be linked to various means and processes of mediation, mainly through the use of the image. From the perspective of those who value the 'live' character of the performance, mediation is seen as a factor that weakens the presence of the performer, but this impoverishment is not always seen as negative3.

The growing mediation in the context of theater and performance marked the postmodern deconstruction of presence in the theoretical field through the decentralization of the subject and the narrative fragmentation that emptied<sup>4</sup> the authority of the text, creating a kind of persona that functions as a strategy of deconstruction of presence and structures of authority in performance (Auslander 1994). In addition to the emptying of the character, the deconstruction of presence is also due to the conceptual approach of the collective's work, which does not rely on the direct representation of a dramaturgical text but instead creates its texts and guides of performance5.

The understanding of the use of new media as a strategy for deconstructing presence, defended by authors such as Pontbriand (1982), Fuchs (1985), Auslander (1999) or Féral (1985, 1992), has been reinforced by the valorization of the experience of presence in theater, performance and the arts in general with particular emphasis on the processes of producing presence through technological means. Thus, as Pontbriand (1982, pp. 155–56) argues, "presence no longer depends on materiality, but on the exhibition value of the work of art, its multiplicity and its accessibility". Presence, understood as 'being in front of', 'in the face of' something or someone who is 'other', always implies plurality and otherness and occurs in the dynamic between production and performance and in the reception of that presence.

Cusack (2007) also questions the increasingly dominant function of technology in performance, stating that the question is not what happens to the body and the living presence of the actor/performer but rather how to re-imagine the 'live' in a radically networked digital world, where the experiences of presence for both the performer and the spectator are increasingly mediated.

Presence does not belong to a particular medium or living body but is produced through performative, live and mediated moments (Dinis 2020). The technological means of artistic expression allow the integration of different arts in the same work, and in this sense, the means allow dialogue and communication between different artistic realities. At the same time, these technological, audiovisual and/or multimedia media are auxiliary means of reproduction of the artistic object, becoming themselves artistic objects, distinct and autonomous forms of art, linked only by ties of descent from the other arts. Technological means, especially audiovisual media, must then be seen as a bridge between art objects and not as an artistic goal.

Audiovisual creations are an extension of the emotions and senses of the individual through media, making it possible to experience sensations that would otherwise be out of reach. The presence of performers is thus articulated in the relationship between live and mediated performance, in the tension between the isolation of bodies and technological encounter, in how physical and electronic presences are interdependent and complementary rather than exclusive or antagonistic and in the dynamics between performance and reception of that presence in the performative moments.

## **3. Performative Moments**

In these performative moments, where the relationship of presence in a mediated performance is established, it is important to reflect on the concepts of performative space and time in performative practice that promotes a symbolic liturgy. A work of art can be completely liberated from space (Goldberg 2007), since all spaces in which any action can be performed attended by at least one person can be considered performative spaces (Rancière 2010; Alvarez 2004). However, in the case of performance, it is necessary to have an adjusted understanding of the conception of this performative space so that it can be assumed as such.

The experience of space is based on two conceptions linked with performative space: (i) the space that is conceived as a space that must be filled; (ii) the space that is conceived as invisible, unlimited and linked to its beneficiaries by coordinates, displacements and trajectories and observed as a substance to be extended. These two conceptions of space correspond to two different ways of describing it: the external objective space and the gestural space (Pavis 2003).

In addition to these conceptions of performative space, we can also highlight the multiplicity of other performative spaces and/or the adaptation of spaces with other functions, such as performance venues. These are conceptions of space that are intrinsically linked to a language of their own, where concepts such as performance and improvisation extend the limits of performance (Artaud 1996; Brook 2008; Rancière 2010).

This opens up new possibilities, recursive processes, repetitions, nonlinear structures, simultaneous events and a mixture of languages, where time, performative space and the performativity developed between the performer and the spectator are related with greater choice, with the cooperation of different means and often with the appropriation and invasion of new spatiality and in different performative moments (Dinis 2020).

These performative moments are the artistic expression in themselves, since they are the encounter of the performers, through their work, with the spectators and with their fruition. Thus, live audiovisual performance proposes the moment as an artistic expression that will always be a po(i)etic event (Duque 2018). Despite the possibilities of technologies for infinite repetition, the conceived performative moment is unique. This is because the quality of unrepeatability is not the result of chance or the unexpected, as is common between rehearsed and improvised performances. This quality is the result of the unrepeatable dynamic between the audience and the artists, in the way the latter react (albeit emotionally) to the sound and visual work of the performers, and also the dynamic between the artists themselves (Dinis 2020).

The conditions of the space also have an impact on the performance (Howell 2022), thanks to some specific qualities. The spaces that host these practices of the moment are of variable typology: gallery, theater, cinema hall and museum, but can also include outdoor spaces, and found spaces, among other spaces that are momentarily contextualized as artistic, such as religious places.

Religious places are spaces where special, intangible qualities can be revealed as a kind of quality that makes a place special (Barrie 2010). Qualities that are intertwined with the sense of place, the genius loci, which concerns fewer observable qualities in an environment, such as character and atmosphere (Norberg-Schulz 1988). These are spaces that seek to create a place of spiritual connection and reinforce the ontological religious positions in the world, where an interaction with the sacred is found and where the meaning and significance of human existence are intensified (Barrie 2010). These are also spaces that invite contemplation of the divine mystery in the built form and encourage a deeper understanding of the construction of place, our presence in the space and our role in human life. Space is not only transformed into place through meaning, and the religious place has an intangible meaning that is revealed in its spatial constructions (Norberg-Schulz 1979).

In this sense, religious places are relational and contingent, experienced and understood differently by different people, because they are multiple, contested, fluid and uncertain, producing multiple effects on the individual and provoking different transformations throughout live audiovisual performative moments.

During these live audiovisual performative moments in religious places, sound and image become convergent expressive processes, configuring a production of effects of presence, stimulating a representation of memory and promoting the creation of new immaterial meanings. The articulation between sound and image also promotes the creation of new narratives, making them denser and more immersive in artistic figuration, reflecting the complementarity of place and time, and opening new performative paths that are developed and experienced in live audiovisual performances.
