This genre of performance art isn’t solely Internet-based but was born on the Internet; initially identified by T.Whid in late 1997 or early 1998 after attending a chat-based performance in which the chat had been projected for the audience to follow along. Afterward, frustrated by the tedious nature of reading text scrolling up a screen, T.Whid commented that it looked fun to take part in but not to watch. Thus was Non-Spectator Performance Art (N-SPA) first identified.

N-SPA may be defined this way: Any cultural activity which requires participation by everyone involved to be fully experienced as a cultural activity.

There is no artist/audience separation. All participants are both artists and audience simultaneously. There can be an instigator of course, for example, MTAA are the instigators of the TIME!® performances.