Cyberformance refers to live theatrical performances in which remote participants are enabled to work together in real time through the medium of the internet,[1] employing technologies such as chat applications or purpose-built, multiuser, real-time collaborative software (for example, UpStage, Visitors Studio, the Waterwheel Tap, MOOs, and other platforms).
For example, it is commonly employed by users of the UpStage platform to designate a special type of Performance art activity taking place in a cyber-artistic environment.
The term 'cyberformance' (a portmanteau word blending 'cyberspace' with 'performance') was coined by the net artist and curator Helen Varley Jamieson.
[3] Jamieson traces the history of cyberformance back to the Satellite Arts Project of 1977,[4] when interactive art pioneers Kit Galloway and Sherrie Rabinowitz used live video mixing to create what they called "a performance space with no geographic boundaries".
Cyberformers often work with the dual identities afforded by avatars, exploiting the gap between online persona and offline self.