Digital Existence in the Digital Theater : An Ethnographic, Transnational Study of Artistic Practices and Participation

This thesis argues that the research problem, which describes a lack of a common understanding of the digital age, and what its major transformations mean for different stakeholders, can be fruitfully interrogated by attending to emergent forms of making sense in the digital theater. The aim of the study was met by raising and responding to the following research questions: How does the digital theater understand and experience digital existence in participatory potentials, and how do creatives in the digital theater bridge participatory intensities, the tensions and sometimes gaps between experienced reality and digital capabilities to expand on their own and their theaters’ participatory potential? The study combined a phenomenological approach, with an ethnographic method and narrative analysis, supported by a theoretical framework of existential media studies with a particular focus on digital existence, in combination with prospects for participation, using cultural participation theories. The original contribution of the study was to apply theoretically sampled dimensions that reflected and expanded on cultural participation theories and existential media studies in a theorizing synthesis, and that revealed three intermingling themes: subverting, intentionality expanded, and presence, i.e., how the respondents navigated, bridged and communicated participatory potentials to subvert participatory contexts to expand and extend on participation, intentionally, and with close attention to contentious considerations in the present moment.