SFB - Sonderforschungsbereich Kulturen des Performativen

ABSTRACT:

The project aims at developing an aesthetic of the performative. Since the Sixties not just theatre but all art forms have privileged performative practice. The performative character prevails over the production of an artefact. The event takes the place of the art work, and this event demands to be experienced - as in pop culture, slam poetry and happenings – and not formally interpreted. Theatre thus appears to be a suitable subject to investigate because as a performative art form the specific tension between textuality and performativity is constitutive. To grasp theatre as an event requires us to reflect upon the complex relationship between stage and audience as an essential part of the performance. The performance does not end at the front of the stage, but rather it also includes the audience's behaviour and reactions. Performers are active and are observed. The audience watches and reacts. Both performers and spectators are at the same time both active and passive as the observed and the reacting respectively. The project begins with the hypothesis that the traditional heuristic division into production, work and reception aesthetics will become obsolete in an aesthetic of the performative. The research will primarily concentrate on the special relationship, evident whenever the performative dominates, between

a) subject and object, the observer and the observed, the audience and performer / stage action, and

b) the physical presence and semiotic character of the elements presented, between their materiality and their referentiality, between signifier and signified, between effect and meaning.

Essentially the research will be undertaken as a series of analyses of contemporary theatre, performance and opera / music theatre. The results attained are to be linked back to both crucial theoretical approaches as well as to various historical cultural models. One focus will be the analysis and theory of the actor, performer or singer whose body can be considered to form the intersection point between the performative and the textual.

| oben | Projektliste | Homepage | SUCHEN | Stand: 12/02




	B1 Aesthetic of the performative
	ABSTRACT: The project aims at developing an aesthetic of the performative. Since the Sixties not just theatre but all art forms have privileged performative practice. The performative character prevails over the production of an artefact. The event takes the place of the art work, and this event demands to be experienced - as in pop culture, slam poetry and happenings – and not formally interpreted. Theatre thus appears to be a suitable subject to investigate because as a performative art form the specific tension between textuality and performativity is constitutive. To grasp theatre as an event requires us to reflect upon the complex relationship between stage and audience as an essential part of the performance. The performance does not end at the front of the stage, but rather it also includes the audience's behaviour and reactions. Performers are active and are observed. The audience watches and reacts. Both performers and spectators are at the same time both active and passive as the observed and the reacting respectively. The project begins with the hypothesis that the traditional heuristic division into production, work and reception aesthetics will become obsolete in an aesthetic of the performative. The research will primarily concentrate on the special relationship, evident whenever the performative dominates, between a) subject and object, the observer and the observed, the audience and performer / stage action, and b) the physical presence and semiotic character of the elements presented, between their materiality and their referentiality, between signifier and signified, between effect and meaning. Essentially the research will be undertaken as a series of analyses of contemporary theatre, performance and opera / music theatre. The results attained are to be linked back to both crucial theoretical approaches as well as to various historical cultural models. One focus will be the analysis and theory of the actor, performer or singer whose body can be considered to form the intersection point between the performative and the textual. \| oben \| Projektliste \| Homepage \| SUCHEN \| Stand: 12/02