Rhetorical considerations for innovative approaches to performance and audience engagement

This research explores how digital media could be used to enhance engagement between an audience and a presenter, orator, or lecturer. Our aim is to think creatively about what a presentation could become and how the use of digital media technologies could form an intrinsic part of the presenter/audience experience. To help anchor this concept, we devised a development framework, which is briefly described. The framework was used to develop a potential component element of a performance presentation: the use of multiple video projections that would supplement a presentation and form a connected but non-linear narrative to produce an element of a performance presentation. To contextualize the framework and assess its effectiveness, an evaluation study of a multiple video projection project was evaluated. The study revealed the importance of audience priming within the rhetorical considerations of the development framework.