by Kurt Heintz, e-poets network, Chicago

What is the purpose of this website?
This website will introduce you to the art of telepresent performance. Using basic videoconferencing gear and other items you may find in your home or school, this Young Person's Guide will show you how to create and conduct a direct, online link-up. The telepresent performance will combine original writing with performance, picture-making, and sound. The Guide will show you how to share this experience electronically with partners elsewhere.

Telepresent performance, as an art form, is very new. It depends upon new technologies which only became widely available since 1995. This is a "learning by doing" guiode. You will understand more about videoconferencing technologies by using them. Through use, you will see how the art and technology relate to each other. You will learn how to create poetic videoconferences for yourself, and how different arts -- such as theater, writing, movie making, music -- come together to make an artistic experience for you and your audience.