Re-situating Performance Within The Threshold

ISBN-13: 9783639146677 / Angielski / Miękka / 2009 / 228 str.

Franziska Schroeder

Opis

This work investigates performance as an embodiedpractice. It draws on theories of embodiment thatact as a catalyst for thinking about performance, andthus provide an interdisciplinary framework forconceptualising the body in performance. I explore adiscourse that situates performance itself within theliminal, as an in-between condition, as somethingthat does not fit in. I reflect on performances,ranging from music to cosmetic surgery, and Ihighlight the in-between conditions and themarginalised space that in my view posits performanceas multivalent, multifaceted and full of potential.This line of enquiry is informed by my view of thebody as a site of change, discord and ambiguity; whatone can refer to as the threshold condition, or whatVictor Turner calls the "state of betwixt andbetween". I take the body as a starting point forthis discussion, as I consider the body as a vanguardto providing a different view to the majority ofcurrent music and performance writings. I subscribeto the view that the multi-faceted and, at times,highly controversial debate that has been applied tothe body, has not been equivalently explored in thediscussion of performance.

O autorze

Franziska Schroeder is a performer and theorist. Her research
interests address the intersection of critical theory and
performance practice.
She is the founder of the digital media collective l a u t, and
has released two recordings on the Creative Source label.
Franziska is a Research Fellow at the Sonic Arts Research Centre
in Belfast.