AV Assemblies. Conversations on Sight and Sound

A project by Ana Carvalho, Cornelia Lund, and Sara Luna Ruíz

AV performances involving the real-time processing of images and sound have long been an integral part of artistic expression in areas such as the arts, music, theatre, design, or clubs. In the 2000s, when the technical possibilities of combining images and sound in real time were still new, a whole new landscape emerged: festivals, venues, and events dedicated to these new AV forms, as well as related discourse, teaching, and research.
Twenty years after its initial boom, live AV performance had become a stable yet somewhat settled performative practice among others. Until recently, when a renewed interest in this practice has become palpable, with new festivals and venues emerging, and a younger, much more divers generation of artists entering the scene. That also shows a renewed interest in the related discourse, as evidenced by the growing number of downloads of The Audiovisual Breakthrough book 10 years after its initial publication in 2015.  
The three of us, Ana Carvalho, Cornelia Lund, and Sara Luna Ruíz have all been actors in the field of AV performance for some while in different capacities, as performers, curators, and researchers.

This project responds to the above diagnosis concerning recent developments in the field of AV performances. It will start by mapping and analysing the international community of performers, curators, and researchers. To do so, we will conduct interviews, to find out more about: 1) their artistic approach to AV performance, 2) their important artistic and theoretical references, 3) their use of technology; and 4) relevant performance topics. Our different geographical and linguistic backgrounds – between Columbia, Portugal, and Germany – open up many opportunities for these interviews.
Using a comparative, pluri-disciplinary methodology derived from ethnographic strategies, we want to find out what exactly defines this “new wave” of AV performances, how it relates to historical developments and the wider field of (post-)digital arts and paradigmatic technological developments such as VR and AI in terms of aesthetics, but also regarding the creative process and the reception as well as questions of (cultural) politics.

November 2025