Wednesday 28 September 2011

B1 annotation on Oncurating.org (by G.E. Morland and H.B. Amudson) and Performance Studies: An Introduction (by R. Schechner)

ONCURATING.org Issue 04/10 (interviews conducted by G.E. Morland and H.B. Amudson)

This issue of ONCURATING.org, entitled The Political Potential of Curatorial Practice, is a collection of interviews with four curators based in Turin, London, Berlin and New York. The underlying theme of each of the interviews is politics and curation as the role of curator moves from the marginal to the central. The significance of this change has political potential in that it has become the one type of media that contributes to both public discourses and public domain. The task of the curator now overpasses the exhibit space and reframes cultural practice through community engagement. This period of transition has left the role of the curator as somewhat undefined. Keeping that in mind, these interviews serve us as an incentive to engage with, and possibly shape, what will emerge as the new curatorial role. 



Performance studies: an introduction (by Richard Schechner)

In Richard Schechner’s Performance Studies: An Introduction, Schechner argues that all framed, highlighted, and displayed actions are performances. In support of his argument, he supplies eight kinds of performances: in everyday life- cooking, socializing, just living; in the arts; in sports and other popular entertainments; in business; in technology; in sex; in ritual- sacred and secular; and in play.  Schechner further supports his text with input from other experts in the field; including Barbara Kirschenblatt-Gimblett, Peggy Phelan, and Erving Goffman. As a practice, Schechner stresses that Performance Studies does not incorporate any canonical texts or practices in an attempt to avoid limitations or fixed definitions in the field. However, the field does draw from texts and practices related to cultural studies, sociology, anthropology, queer studies, Post-Colonial studies, etc. While the lack of specificity is freeing, it can be also be limiting in that there are no constant points of references in the dynamic field.

No comments:

Post a Comment