PROJECT PROPOSAL

Claire Elizabeth Barratt

First Year Project Plan

Describe Project Proposal

Outline proposed first year of study

Include references & resources

Discuss how research may inform your practice.

“The Process and Praxis of Constructing the Self as Medium”

a practical pedagogy for the practice of Performance Art

As far as I understand it, Performance Art appears to have acquiesced to the label of “Unruly Stepchild” of the Modern Art world. Nonconformist and defiant by nature, over the course of history it has been defined by a number of disparate entities.

Historically recognized as originating through the work of the Futurists and Dadaists, it has developed and split into various “camps”.

The “Avant Garde Theatre camp” claims such contemporary visionaries as Robert Wilson, Richard Foreman and The Wooster Group; while the “Dance camp” heralds Trisha Brown, Pina Bausch and DV8 Physical Theatre. Music performance includes the famous Laurie Anderson, while Meredith Monk manages to defy pigeonholing.

The Gallery Art World’s Performance Art scene boomed with Fluxus, while there are the antics of dear Gilbert & George, as well as disturbing thrusts into endurance experiments by those such as Chris Burden and Tehching Hsieh. And now, of course Marina Abramovich has shown the movement capable of producing “movie star”– like status. And we can’t go without mentioning the “Happenings” in the days of Black Mountain College.

So what exactly IS Performance Art?

As an Inter-Disciplinary Performing Artist with a background in professional Dance plus Music, Theatre and Visual Arts, the objective of my Creative MFA Practice project proposal is twofold:

To develop a deeper cognizant grasp of the various aspects of this broadly encompassing genre and to establish a context for my own work within its history;

To develop a pedagogy in which my methods of training, preparation and execution can be integrated into a curriculum for the practice of Performance Art.

Over my first year of study, my projected areas of research include: a comprehensive study of the chronological history of Performance Art; a study of contemporaries writing about their own practice; interviews with individuals who are currently teaching Performance Art.

I plan to facilitate a regular workshop series in which my own physical and creative methods of training and preparing body and mind can be fully explored within a synergetic setting.

The discoveries and developments of this research process will be continuously assimilated and assessed throughout the course of the year.

Projected reading material includes:

Richard Schechner – ‘Performance Studies’

Victor Turner – ‘The Anthropology of Performance’

Amelia Jones – ‘The Artist’s Body’, ‘Perform, Repeat, Record’ & ‘Performing The Body/Performing The Text’

Josephine Machon – ‘Immersive Theatres’ & ‘(Syn)aesthetics’

Sandra Reeve – ‘Body & Performance’

plus Roselee Goldberg’s Performance Art chronology synopsizes.