January 06, 2006
Perform Space
Performance, Performative, Performitivity
The research project Perform Space 2002/03 explored performative spatial structural phenomena of artistic works. The main result is a model which is intended for further use as a tool in art production and research. Built upon a basic notion and approach of phenomenological philosophy known as lived space, the model and its terminology were created through collecting and interpreting descriptions of artistic works of two art in public space projects. These descriptions were then used as the foundation for discovering underlying commonalities that mark the essential core of the processes and effects of contemporary artistic works. The aim is to use the model to develop a more highly differentiated sensibility for the presence and meaning of artistic works in the concrete lives and experiences of human beings.
Performance is generally defined as an enactment or occurrence over time which is experienced and measured against some standard [system/pattern] and according to specific criteria [presentation/framing].
Performance Art was initially proclaimed as its own medium in the 1960s and 1970s. Generally it is used to specify art works conceived and enacted by an artist using his or her own body, but is also used to describe works involving the participation of the viewer.
Performative refers to the operative and systematical aspect of something as an occurrence: something is not performative in itself, but rather becomes performative by being enacted and experienced within a specified framework. For example, in language, performative utterances are speech acts which complete the action they proclaim, as in "I promise to be there," or "I now pronounce you husband and wife." The action is fulfilled through being said ö and experienced ö by particular persons in a particular social context. Thereby, to speak of a performative artistic work means to claim that the process of being realized and experienced make something art, rather than, e.g., its object qualities.
Performativity refers to the necessary performative aspect of a condition, an event or object. For example, the performativity of gender means that gender is not given, but rather results through acts based on cultural norms of femininity and masculinity. Broadly considered, the performativity of art refers to the way art is created and maintained as a special field through acts based on cultural norms. For example, since Modernism a common notion is that art be new, as in the avant-garde which disrupted previous cultural practices and beliefs about art.
Posted by jo at January 6, 2006 05:38 PM
