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Artistic media seem to be in a permanent condition of mutation and transformation. Contemporary artists often investigate the limits and possibilities of the media they use and experiment with the crossing, upgrading and mutilation of media. Others explicitly explore the unknown intermedial space between existing media, searching for the hybrid beings that occupy these in-betweens. This publication explores the theme of mutating and adapting media in its relation with theatre and performance.

Today, artistic media seem to be in a permanent condition of mutation. The existence of mutating media is actually an evident consequence of the fact that artists have been searching for innovation and controversy throughout the whole 20th century. The avant-garde idea, that started as a revolt against the long-established traditions and a dismissal of the prevailing institutional codes, finally led to a radical deconstruction of the classical media of art. From then on, the boom of multimedia (using everything crisscross and combined) liberated art from its canonical disciplines. Concurrently, technological revolutions brought about a modernisation of old media, like film and theatre, as well as a sweeping flux of new media. Due to these transformations, contemporary artists have an extensive set of instruments at their disposal. But what is more important, they also got highly aware of the nature of media and their mutual differences. This influenced artistic interests and methods drastically. For instance, most artists do no longer work within the conditions of one medium and its traditions but rather confront and mix media. They often investigate the limits and possibilities of the media they use and experiment with the crossing, upgrading and mutilation of media. Or they explicitly explore the unknown intermedial space between existing media, searching for the hybrid beings that occupy these in-betweens. This issue of Theater Topics takes the theme of mutating and adapting media as a starting point for an inquiry of medial evolutions in its relation with theatre and performance. How did different aspects of theatre evolve? How did historical traditions in theatre adapt to new cultural contexts? What are these mutants, and what is their added value? How does the stage contextualise media that are normally used elsewhere? How do old media (i.e. their aesthetics, canon, technology and methods) get remediated in contemporary performances? What are the challenges, the restrictions and the implications of a deep play with media on a stage? Does it eventually lead to a contamination or even a disintegration of what we call theatre, or on the contrary, to a revaluation and thus to a confirmation thereof in the long run?