Dr Sarah Atkinson is Head of Department of Culture, Media & Creative Industries, King’s College London and co-editor of Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies. Sarah has published widely on the impacts of digital technologies on cinema audiences and film production practices. She has undertaken extensive work into the Live Cinema economy and is currently working on a number of funded immersive media projects (AHRC/EPSRC, SSHRC & Innovate UK). She is currently co-investigator on the ReFig – Refiguring Innovation in Games project.
Sarah’s research intersects with performance and theatre in a number of ways. She is particularly interested in digital performance, performance enhanced by digital technologies, and digitally networked theatre & performance. Her own practice-based PhD was underpinned by performance studies scholarship which she undertook under the supervision of Prof. Steve Dixon (Author of ‘Digital Performance’) and Prof. Susan Broadhurst in the department in the School of Arts, Brunel University, January 2009.
Her interests in theatre and performance stems from her live cinema project, where stage intersects with screen, and theatre with film. She was a consultant on From Live-to-Digital: Understanding the Impact of Digital Developments in Theatre on Audiences, Production and Distribution Report, AEA Consulting for Arts Council England, UK Theatre and Society of London Theatre, October 2016.
Theatre and Performance Publications
Articles
‘The labour of liveness: Behind the curtain of opera cinema’ for Opera Quarterly, 2019 (In production)
Atkinson, S. (2018). ‘Synchronic Simulacinematics: The live performance of film production’ in Image Action Space: Situating the screen in visual practice edited by Luisa Feiersinger, Friedrich, K. and Queisner, M. Berlin: De Gruyter.
Atkinson, S. & Kennedy, H. (2018) Virtual Reality Production Ecosystems: collaboration, interdisciplinarity and diversity across industries, geographies and technologies, Refractory Journal, Volume 30.
Atkinson, S. (2017). Hangmen Rehanged – Fusing Event Cinema, Live Cinema and Sensory Cinema in the Evolution of Site and Screen Responsive Theatre in Atkinson, S. and Kennedy, H. (Eds.) (2017) Live Cinema: Cultures, Economies, Aesthetics. New York: Bloomsbury, pp. 243-264.
Atkinson, S. (2014) Transmedia Critical | The Performative Functions of Dramatic Communities: Conceptualizing Audience Engagements in Transmedia Fiction, International Journal of Communication 8 (2014), 2201–2219.
Performance and Artistic Collaborations
Co-investigator: AHRC/EPSRC next generation immersive experiences grant collaborating with circus performance and circus technologists to re-imagine circus for the 21st Century. Included a live performance at Brighton Festival’s Spiegeltent 2018.
Producer: Hangmen Rehanged – a live, immersive, sensory screening, with promenade theatre, in collaboration with NT Live, Edible Cinema and Omnibus Theatre, King’s College London, May 2016.
Sound designer and collaborator: 1908: Body & Soul, Theatre Performance and surround sound installation, Creative Campus Initiative, Jackson’s Lane Theatre, London, June 2012.