Contextsimportant performance artworks, rather than from the entertainment industry. The
performance artist is free or ‘omnipotent’ in the same way as a painter; she plans and
pays for the artwork herself and she is responsible for all of her choices, though she
can be placeless and marginalized as well. many active performance artists have no art
education and some of them adopt a position as street artists or consider themselves
closer to activists. The average venues or festivals are small scale, and a large part of the
audiences consist of colleagues, like a subculture, almost an equivalent to a research
community. Whether a performance artwork is a small gesture or a provocative
endurance test, it is often regarded as a contribution to the debate on current issues or
on the nature of performance art and treated with due respect from colleagues, rather
than as an entertainment to be discussed in terms of publicity, audience numbers or the
enjoyment of the spectators only, as is often the case with other types of performances.
Traditionally the position of the beholder is less that of a consumer than in theatre
and dance, though some live artworks would be hard to distinguish from these. The
performance art world can be hostile to ‘theatricalization’, ‘academicization’ and art
institutions in general, which can be a challenge to artist researchers.
in using her own body the performance artist or live artist exemplifies another issue
which has implications for research, blurring the ancient theory- practice (mind- body,
intellectual- labourer) divide. she is performing herself, using her own body (like dancers,
actors, performers and musicians) rather than working with an object, performance or
event outside her body, a work that can be looked at and listened to from a distance
like painters, sculptors, composers, directors, choreographers, playwrights, sound and
light designers, costume designers, scenographers, video artists and so on. The multiple
tasks of composing an artwork, performing an artwork, being an artwork and sharing
an artwork with an audience (in case of live art often creating it together with the
public) and then reflecting upon it as research can be quite demanding. however, a
performer (actor, dancer, musician) accustomed to or dependent on feedback from
a director, choreographer or conductor can find a research situation where she is
supposed to work alone even more challenging.
The role, status, independence and agency of the artist within the art world or field in
question and within the average creation process in that field, certainly has implications
for how easy it is to adopt the role of researcher or to assume responsibility for an extended
research project. looking at the amount of collaboration or joint creation is another way
of approaching the same question. To put it roughly: insisting on doing your own thing
is a problem in performing arts, whereas it is expected in visual art. hierarchical ways
of working in theatre, music and dance have met much critique and are one of the key
issues motivating research. many artists turn to research in order to empower themselves,
to be able to work more independently, to state their personal agenda, or to investigate
why they cannot do that in ordinary production circumstances.
in contemporary visual art collaboration is mostly initiated by an individual artist and
regardless of the amount of professional and non- professional participants the project
evolves to become part of her œuvre. in classical music the conductor and the orchestra
are interpreting the work of the composer. in jazz and contemporary improvisational
forms, musicians perform together. in theatre and dance, works are named after the
director or choreographer (in drama theatre, the author), though all the other artists
and designers involved share credits (and copyrights) in the creation. i tried to explain