Entr'acte ― Performing Publics, Pervasive Media, and Architecture

The entr'acte denotes the specific construction of both time and space between parts of a stage performance. Generally taking place in front of closed curtains during set changes between acts, the entr'acte delivers a fleeting new purpose and event to the otherwise sometimes inert space between stage and pit. This collection employs the entr'acte as a model for conceptualizing emerging formations of publics and of public space, in particular with the rapidly evolving proliferation of communications technologies that today result in new forms and durations of the public: as spaces, as socialities, and as discourses. Formed without the vast material intervention and deployment of capital of public space past, these defy traditional limits of design and construction. This book examines their qualities and their players, both human and material, as performers of different sorts; as entr'acteurs. The book brings together key thinkers at the intersections of performance, new media, urban studies and architecture to explore this new world of interim publics.

Jordan Geiger is Assistant Professor of Architecture at the University at Buffalo, SUNY, USA.