The Live Event: Politics and Practice of Creating Site-Specific Performance
THEA 391
Spring 2022
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01
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In this course students will consider the role of site in performance-making. We start the semester with the assumption that there is no site that is not specific: every place carries with it a political, social, and historical identity, as well as an aesthetic and an architecture. At the same time, we as artists and makers are driven by our own values and interests. How do we enter into a collaboration with a site to create a live event with meaning and impact, both for ourselves and for our audiences? From architect Maya Lin, whose interactive Vietnam War Memorial rewrote the function of a monument to be about personal encounter and shared reckoning, to artist Paul Ramirez Jonas, whose "Key to the City" project gave thousands of people access to private spaces across New York, to "Haircuts by Kids," a project of the Canadian theater company Mammalian Diving Reflex, in which third-graders are trained to offer haircuts to adults, artists across disciplines are devising diverse answers to this question.
This class combines seminar-style discussion with studio-style making. Students will engage with scholarship by Miwon Kwon, Paul Smith, Tania Bruguera, Claire Bishop, and Shannon Jackson among others, in order to contextualize the making of our own sited live event works that explore how space, place, and architecture play into questions of narrative, performance, and community. Short written responses to reading will be turned in throughout the semester. The class culminates in either a final paper or final, sited project (individual or collaborative) on campus or in Middletown. |
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| Credit: 1 |
Gen Ed Area Dept:
HA THEA |
| Course Format: Studio | Grading Mode: |
| Level: UGRD |
Prerequisites: None |
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Fulfills a Major Requirement for: (HRAD-MN)(THEA) |
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Past Enrollment Probability: Not Available |
| SECTION 01 |
Major Readings: Wesleyan RJ Julia Bookstore
Miwon Kwon, ONE PLACE AFTER ANOTHER
Maya Lin, BOUNDARIES
Nato Thompson, LIVING AS FORM
Phil Smith, SITE SPECIFIC THEATER
Shannon Jackson, SOCIAL WORKS
Claire Bishop, ARTIFICIAL HELLS
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Examinations and Assignments:
Throughout the semester, students will turn in written work and present embodied work. This includes: a series of 2 page responses to reading, iterations of a short personal piece, an in-class presentation of a "Big Impact" artist, a personal value statement, and a culminating paper or project
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Additional Requirements and/or Comments:
We will be looking at a range of artists' work via project websites and written articles. Due to the nature of the topic and projects, subjects such as race, human rights/abuses, and class disparities may come up in class discussions-- along with wonder, community, and utopic models for society.
Students interested in taking the class should submit a statement of interest to Professor Pearl via email (kpeal@wesleyan.edu) no later than November 5 at 5pm. |
| Instructor(s): Pearl,Katie Times: .M..... 01:00PM-05:00PM; Location: RUSSMILLET; |
Permission of Instructor Required
Enrollment capacity: 10 | Permission of instructor approval will be granted by the instructor during pre-registration through the Electronic Portfolio. Click "Add to My Courses" and "To request a POI electronically, click here" to submit your request. |
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