Mixed actor network reality: a performance in three networks

In this article, I will present an experimental methodology for considering participatory performance. Using two pragmatic tools of inquiry - actor network theory (ANT) and mixed reality - I will build a descriptive analysis of The Confidence Man, a participatory performance developed by Side Pony Productions in 2013 and performed at Arts House, Melbourne. This experimental model is one that attempts to be, as Grant Kester suggests, 'capable of addressing the actual, rather than the hypothetical, experience of participants in a given project, with a particular awareness of the parameters of agency and affect'. To this end, this experiment will consider the responses and actions of a small participant sample, and the various other 'actors' that perform. Key to this experiment will be the identification and description of the intricate relational networks assembled in interactive and participatory performance across the spatial, temporal, technological and social aspects of this production. These findings will then provide an opportunity to investigate the politics of agency and participation, focusing on moments of dissensus created by participants and technologies in The Confidence Man.