Project [Murmur] and the Performativity of Space‪.‬

"Where are you right now?" It is one of the most common questions one is asked when using a cell phone. "Where are you" has become a mantra of the mobile age, according to Sadie Plant (29), in an attempt to fix conceptually the disembodied voice in a particular space and time, and to "set the scene" of our discourse. Contrary to early notions of digital technologies enabling some sort of incorporeal virtual ether, a "sense of place" and situated knowledges are gradually reasserting themselves in technological discourse (see Haraway; Ryan, Marie-Laure). As Marie-Laure Ryan remarks, the "seemingly straight trajectory leading out of the constraints of real space into the freedom of virtual space is now beginning to curve back upon itself, as the text rediscovers its roots in real world geography." One result of this renewed sense of place is the proliferation of site-specific, narrative artworks that combine storytelling, performance, and locative technologies to produce new forms of street theatre. [murmur], a Toronto-based storytelling project that uses cell phones to deliver narratives to audience members at specific local sites, exemplifies some of the main strategies and concerns of these new hybrid artists, and provides a jumping-off point for a discussion of the theoretical implications of this innovative form of performance. The [murmur] project lies at the intersection of several different cultural movements that continue to influence its development: the proliferation of technologies such as cell phones, GPS, PDAs, and wi-fi, and their deployment in locative media art; site-specific performance and its dependence on the interactive spectator; Situationism and non-functionalist discourses of the city; and the still-emergent "spatial turn" in cultural studies and the humanities.