Speaker: Yelena Gluzman (University of Tokyo)

Abstract:
The problem of documenting performance events has been widely discussed and can be summarized as stemming from the fact that a performance originates in the intentions of its creators but is only completed in the spectatorship of its audience. It is significant that most discussions of documenting performance focus on documenting the experience of the performance and, therefore, either condemn the effort as impossible (eg. Krauss, Phelan, Barba), or champion flexible documents which themselves are subject to conditions of time, space, and spectatorship (eg. Auslander, Goldberg, Abramovich). Recognizing the need for performance practice (having long exceeded boundaries of theater practice) to reflect on the state of its field, I propose a performance document that aims to record formal problematics and achievements rather than the experiential event.

This paper will examine a number of performance documents, focusing on questions of agency (who created and disseminated the document?), aim (what purpose was the document meant to serve?), and relationship (how does the document reposition the performance relative to other performances?).

Relating the current hybrid state of performance to the early days of performance art, I will use the case study of the legendary performance art magazine High Performance to propose one alternative model for documenting performance. This alternative (called Emergency Index) will seek to shift the aim of documentation toward the empowerment of practitioners, and will enable more flexible relationships in order to promote acquisition of knowledge, critical dialogue, and conscious advancement in the new and elusive field of performance.

Language: English
Admission Free; No Registration Required

Organized by the ALESS Program, University of Tokyo

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