Production technologies and the multisensory worship experience - Progress Review, Jerrold Cuperus

The use of technology in worship or church services is nothing new. Stained glass windows have provided colourful lighting in churches for centuries; the pulpit in a church is raised and usually has a roof called a ‘sound board’ to make the preacher’s speech audible to people seated all the way in the back of a church; and graphic technologies have over time taken the shape of artworks, illustrated bibles, and overhead projector slides. In this presentation, we will walk through the ‘multisensory worship experience’ that characterises the style of the contemporary worship service in Pentecostal churches. I will introduce the concept of ’sensational forms’, used to understand the affective and embodied experiences that these services or ‘experiences’ entail, and I will explain the role that various production technologies play in this experience.