By Christina McPhee

What follows is a short essay describing the structure and content of our discussion on the online list serv, -empyre- soft-skinned space, in July 2006, surrounding the Documenta 12 leitmotif, “What is bare life?’The discussion was organized, moderated and edited by Christina McPhee with substantive contributions from invited guests to the forum, international artists and theorists working in the arena of networked performance, including Michele White (US), Connor McGarrigle (IR), Susana Mendes Silva (PT), Tina Gonsalves (AU), GH Hovagimyan (US). Theorist / artist Jordan Crandall (US) also contributed some texts at month’s end.The hypertext archive of the discussion is at https://mail.cofa.unsw.edu.au/pipermail/empyre/2006-July/