Contemporary practitioners such as Orlan, Franko B, Robert Wilson and Tim Etchells are creating work that flies in the face of traditional thinking about what performance might mean. This book offers contextualization and guidance for those wishing to exp

Product Description: "Performance" has multiple and often overlapping meanings that signify a wide variety of social behaviors. In this invitation to reflect on the power of performance, Diana Taylor explores many of its uses and iterations: artistic, economic, sexual, political, and technological performance; the performance of everyday life; and the gendered, sexed, and racialized performance of bodies...read more

Product Description: Across a series of twelve in-depth interviews with a diverse range of major artists, Dominic Johnson presents a new oral history of performance art. From uses of body modification and physical extremity, to the creation of all-encompassing personae, to performance pieces lasting months or years, these artists have provoked and explored the vital limits between art and life...read more

Product Description: This book reflects on the aftermath of shifts encountered in the maturing of digital culture in areas of critical theory and artistic practices, focusing on the awareness that contemporary subjectivity is one that dwells within both the virtual and the real.

Product Description: Omi Osun Joni L. Jones provides the first full-length study of an artistic form, the theatrical jazz aesthetic, that draws on the jazz principles of ensemble—the break, the bridge, and the blue note. Theatrical Jazz:  Performance, À??, and the Power of the Present Moment is a study of the use of jazz aesthetics in theatre as created by major practitioners of the form, giving particular attention to three innovative artists: Laurie Carlos, Daniel Alexander Jones, and Sharon Bridgforth...read more

Product Description: Omi Osun Joni L. Jones provides the first full-length study of an artistic form, the theatrical jazz aesthetic, that draws on the jazz principles of ensemble—the break, the bridge, and the blue note. Theatrical Jazz:  Performance, À??, and the Power of the Present Moment is a study of the use of jazz aesthetics in theatre as created by major practitioners of the form, giving particular attention to three innovative artists: Laurie Carlos, Daniel Alexander Jones, and Sharon Bridgforth...read more

Ron Athey is an iconic figure in the development of contemporary art and performance. In his frequently bloody portrayals of life, death, crisis, and fortitude in the time of AIDS, Athey calls into question the limits of artistic practice. These limits enable Athey to explore in his work key themes including gender, sexuality, S&M and radical sex, queer activism, post-punk and industrial culture, tattooing and body modification, ritual, and religion. Now in a second edition, Pleading in the Blood foregrounds the prescience of Athey’s work, exploring how his visceral practice foresaw and precipitated the central place afforded sexuality, identity, and the body in art and critical theory in the late twentieth century.   “Pleading in the Blood offers a remarkable and enduring contribution to literatures on performance and contemporary art. . . . The potency of myth in Ron Athey’s work is the problem tackled by this formidable new book.” —Contemporary Theatre Review

This is a fascinating overview of the history of sound art. The rise of a prominent auditory culture, as seen in the recent plethora of art exhibitions on sound art, in conjunction with academic programs dedicated to "aural culture", sonic art, and auditory issues now emerging, reveals the degree to which sound art is lending definition to the 21st century. And yet, sound art still lacks related literature to compliment, and expand, the realm of practice. "Background Noise" sets out an historical overview, while at the same time shaping that history according to what sound art reveals - the dynamics of art to operate spatially, through media of reproduction and broadcast, and in relation to the intensities of communication and its contextual framework.

Performance art encompasses a wide variety of artistic pursuits, from modern dance to artists presenting something about themselves as art. Its another form of art that divides the art community: some say its art, others say it isnt. Readers consider both sides of the coin through an introduction to the topic, informational sidebars, and full-color photographs. A colorful, fun layout invites readers into the vibrant world of performance art while the main content engages their brains with critical thinking questions which ultimately askis it art?

Performance Studies in Motion offers multiple perspectives on the current field of performance studies and suggests its future directions. Featuring new essays by pioneers Richard Schechner and Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, and by international scholars and practitioners, it shows how performance can offer a new way of seeing the world, and testifies to the dynamism of this discipline. Beginning with an overview of the development of performance studies, the essays offer new insights into: contemporary experimental and postdramatic theatre; participatory performance and museum exhibitions; the performance of politicians, political institutions and grassroots protest movements; theatricality at war and in contemporary religious rituals, and performative practices in therapy, education and life sciences. Employing original reflexive approaches to concrete case studies and situations, contributors introduce a variety of applications of performance studies methodologies to contemporary culture, art and society, creating new interdisciplinary links between the arts, humanities, and social and natural sciences. With studies from and about places as diverse as Austria, Belgium, China, France, Germany, Israel, Korea, Palestine, the Philippines, Poland, Rwanda and the USA, Performance Studies in Motion showcases the vitality and breadth of the field today.

Product Description: At an ecopark in Mexico, tourists pretend to be illegal migrants, braving inhospitable terrain and the U.S. Border Patrol as they attempt to cross the border. At a living history museum in Indiana, daytime visitors return after dark to play fugitive slaves on the Underground Railroad...read more

Product Description: Sensational Devotion examines contemporary Passion plays, biblical theme parks, Holy Land recreations, creationist museums, and megachurches in order to understand how they serve their evangelical believer-users while also shaping larger cultural and national dialogues...read more

Archaeologies of Presence is a brilliant exploration of how the performance of presence can be understood through the relationships between performance theory and archaeological thinking. Drawing together carefully commissioned contributions by leading international scholars and artists, this radical new work poses a number of essential questions: What are the principle signifiers of theatrical presence? How is presence achieved through theatrical performance? What makes a memory come alive and live again? How is presence connected with identity? Is presence synonymous with 'being in the moment'? What is the nature of the ‘co-presence’ of audience and performer? Where does performance practice end and its documentation begin? Co-edited by performance specialists Gabriella Giannachi and Nick Kaye, and archaeologist Michael Shanks, Archaeologies of Presence represents an innovative and rewarding feat of interdisciplinary scholarship.

How do performers and artists use media technologies to create live events? How have developments in audio-visual technology changed the relationship between the spectator and the performer? How can performance respond to the technology-saturated consciousness of contemporary culture? What are the key concepts and terms needed to understand multimedia performance? Multimedia Performance provides a comprehensive overview of the development, theory and definitive characteristics of this rapidly developing and popular area of practice. Drawing on case studies from across a wide range of contemporary performance, the book introduces key artists, companies and debates. Klich and Scheer describe new and emergent forms including video performance, digital theatre, interactive dramaturgies and immersive environments, presenting an up-to-date analysis of the evolving relationship between technology and aesthetics in contemporary performance culture. Exploring the different ways in which technology can activate new aesthetic potentials and audience experiences, Multimedia Performance demonstrates the vital role of multimedia technologies in contemporary theatre practice. Supported by illustrations, media theory and textboxes, this is important reading for anyone interested in questions of the live and the mediated aspects of performance, and essential reading for students of theatre and performance.

Product Description: The Port Huron Project is a series of reenactments of Vietnam-era protest speeches staged between 2006 and 2008 by artist Mark Tribe. The original speeches were given by Angela Davis in Oakland, Cesar Chavez in Los Angeles, Stokely Carmichael in New York, Paul Potter in Washington, D...read more

Product Description: This groundbreaking work of scholarship explores convergences between performance and science through an investigation of new technologies that drive computer-mediated, interactive art. Wide-ranging and richly illustrated essays uncover shifts that have occurred globally in the aesthetic understanding of performance within computer-augmented virtual and networked environments...read more

Product Description: Performance [Performance] Performers Volume 1 consists of fourteen interviews with leading performance artists in Canada and the U.S. conducted from 1977-2007, and is generously illustrated with photographs of many now landmark art performances.