In 2020, many people encountered online performance for the first time.
We asked some of our peers “When was your first online performance?”

“Before the first” is a brief glimpse of the diversity of online performance created before 2020.

Compiled by Annie Abrahams, Helen Varley Jamieson and Suzon Fuks. Edited by Suzon Fuks.

WITH THANKS TO

• 2019 Gwendoline Samidoust | XD,^_^,:3,:-D Le Rire en tant que Language, with Constallations | Zoom
• 2019 Lucie Desaubliaux | Enter the Dragon, with WMAN | Second Life & ManyLand
• 2018 Muriel Piqué | Distant Movements, with Daniel Pinheiro and Annie Abrahams | Zoom
• 2018 Soyung Lee | Online En-semble – Entanglement Training, concept by Annie Abrahams | Adobe Connect
• 2017 Lily Robert-Foley | We nooses tous des bastardi elettronici che usano lingue globali | readingclub.fr – an adaptation of Etherpad
• 2016 Gilson Moraes Motta | Cortege on the Beach | Waterwheel Tap
• 2014 Atefeh Khas | Metamorphosis, with Amin Hammami | Waterwheel Tap
• 2013 Elaine Vaan Hogue | All the better to see you with, with Helen Varley Jamieson, Gabriella Sacco and workshop participants | UpStage
• 2013 Alejandra Ceriani | Waterhole, with Alberto Vazquez | Waterwheel Tap
• 2012 Ximena Alarcon | Letters and Bridges | Soundjack
• 2012 Daniel Pinheiro | Identity Project, with Tiago Bôto and Whitney V. Hunter | video conferencing
• 2011 Emma Che Raethke-Martin | So far away, yet so near | Waterwheel Tap and Skype
• 2011 Christina Papagiannouli | Cyberian Chalk Circle, with Evi Stamatiou | UpStage
• 2011 Martina Ruhsam | Angry Women – take 2, concept by Annie Abrahams | mosaika.tv
• 2009 Rosa Sanchez | Umbrales_Artes vivas en casa, with Konic Thtr | SAGE (Scalable Amplified Group Environment) and video conferencing
• 2008 Caroline Delieutraz | Double Bind – Bras de tête et Tête de fer, with Justine Abittan | flash and javascript by panoplie.org
• 2007 Jorge Rojas | Lucha Libre | BlogTV.com
• 2007 Rebekah Wild | Baba Yaga, with Vicki Smith | UpStage
• 2007 Miljana Perić | Learn to hear through the lies of your eyes: the cyberforming hybridisation of Tuxedomoon, with Teodora Perić and Ana Marković | UpStage
• 2006 Alan Sondheim | Dropping off the Edge of the World | Second Life
• 2005 Patrick Lichty | Dissention Convention, with Maya Kalogera & Marc Garrett | VisitorsStudio
• 2004 Roger Mills | Sonic Circuits, with Neil Jenkins | VisitorsStudio
• 2003 James Cunningham | Improv on ‘Thanatonauts-Navigators of Death’, with Suzon Fuks, Igneous, Bonemap, Keith Armstrong and Kelli Dipple | Access Grid
• 2002 Johannes Birringer | Here I come again / Flying Birdman, with ADaPT (Association for Dance and Performance Telematics) | QuickTime Streaming Server (QTSS) with QuickTime Broadcaster, older video format, Real time sound mix with Max/MSP
• 2001 Joseph DeLappe | Howl: Elite Force Voyager Online | Start Trek Elite Force Voyager Online
• 2001 Keith Armstrong | Liquid Gold, by Transmute Collective | Quicktime streaming, Shockwave clients & server
• 2001 Karla Ptáček | Paycheck, Performance Poet | The Palace
• 1999 Auriea Harvey | Wirefire, with Michael Samyn | Flash and handmade cgi scripts
• 1998 Jean-Marc Matos | Un Thé Extravagant, with Anne Holst and Caroline Tymen | Studio télévision and ADSL internet
• 1995 John Hopkins | Eight dialogues | Internet Relay Chat
• 1995 Nina Sobell | An Interactive Telerobotic Sculpture Performance, with Emily Hertzell | Netscape’s server push animation
• 1994 Antoinette LaFarge | The Greenest Fools, with the Plaintext Players | PMC MOO
• 1994 Adriene Jenik | El Naftazteca, with Ruben Martinez, Guillermo Gomez Pena and Roberto Sifuentes | Mbone
• 1992 Paul Sermon | Telematic Dreaming | ISDN video conferencing

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DISCLAIMER

“Before the first” is a response to the many claims of online “firsts” in 2020. We aim to draw attention to the long and rich history of online performance, which stretches back to the earliest days of the internet. This video is only a very tiny sample of this field of creative work.

For some of the artists in “Before the first”, the performance shown was not their very first online performance. Many early works were never documented, or for other reasons later works have been used. This video is a snapshot and provocation to further exploration of the field, rather than an historical record.

Annie Abrahams, Helen Varley Jamieson and Suzon Fuks