ABSTRACT
The final chapter elicits the A/OD project's key findings and notes some possible directions of relevant enquiry expanding beyond the scope of the book. The polyphonic nature of the deployed research methodology is considered, specifically in relation to the processing of the primary research on www.auralia.space. Dramaturgies of layering characterise both the methodological approach of this research and the contemporary theatre of speech and sound which is perceived to be shaped by technological developments and the accompanying processes of de/re/professionalisation in the digital age. The aural/oral theatre dramaturgies are also defined by the specificities of audience reception they engender. Here the Aristotelian notion of mimesis collapses into methexis and the conceptual ideas of the ‘disruption of closure’ in the realm of listening (drawn from Lehmann and Conquergood), and ‘enmeshment’ vs immersion (drawn from Latour and Foley) are highlighted as the encapsulating aspects of the aural/oral theatre dramaturgies. The chapter concludes by reflecting on liminality itself as the theme arising from the temporarily all-encompassing move towards the digital during the Covid-19 pandemic.
