This article examines The Encounter as an example of digital theatre in which sound media operate as a constitutive condition of performance rather than as a supplementary tool. Through binaural sound, spectators experience an auditory immersion that reorganizes perception and enables the formation of an affective community beyond visual representation. To articulate the ontological status of sound media, the article draws on key developments in media theory, including Marshall McLuhan’s understanding of media as conditions of perception, Friedrich Kittler’s materialist account of technical recording and processing, and Bernard Stiegler’s theory of memory technology. These perspectives are complemented by Mark Hansen’s emphasis on embodied sensation and Gilbert Simondon’s theory of individuation which all frame the performance as a relational process involving humans, machines, memory, and environment. These relational dynamics resonate with the overarching themes of The Encounter. Spectators perceive temporal flow as co-evolving with their environment, positioning the Amazon not within a linear conception of time but as a relational sphere structured by cyclical and non-linear temporality. Consequently, the Amazon functions not as a representational background but as a spatial condition in which relations among humans, nature, time, and consciousness are reconfigured.
Hyun-Sun Woo (Sat,) studied this question.