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Liveness is a pivotal issue for performance theorists and artists. As live art covers both embodiment and disembodiment, many scholars have emphasized the former and interpreted the latter as the opposite side of liveness. In this book, the author demonstrates that disembodiment is also an inextricable part of liveness and presence in performance from both practical and theoretical perspectives.
By applying phenomenological theory to live performance, the author investigates the possible realisation of aesthetic dynamics in live art via re-engagement with the notions of embodiment, especially in the sense provided by philosophers such as Gabriel Marcel and Morris Merleau-Ponty. Creative practices from leading performance artists such as Franko B, Ron Athey, Manuel Vason and others, as well as experimental ensembles such as Goat Island, La Pocha Nostra, Forced Entertainment and the New Youth are discussed, offering a new perspective to re-frame human-human relationships such as the one between actor and spectator and collaborations in live genres
In addition, the author presents a new interpretation model for the human-material in live genres, helping to bridge the aesthetic gaps between performance art and experimental theatre and providing an ecological paradigm for performance art, experimental theatre and live art.
List of contents
List of figures. Introduction Chapter 1 Embodiment: Self and Subjectivity Chapter 2 Actualisation, Contingency and Journey to the Unknown Chapter 3 Landscape as the Lifeworld Chapter 4 Disembodiment in Materiality Chapter 5 Disembodiment in its Semiotic Sense Chapter 6 Two Extremes of Disembodiment: Cyborgs and Holograms References. Index
About the author
Shi Ke, poet, theatre and performance maker. He is the Associate Artist at Arnolfini Gallery, Bristol and Guest Professor at Nanjing University. His research interests include contemporary performance, experimental theatre and transcultural practice.
Summary
The book explores contemporary live-art practices from both practical and theoretical perspectives. While offering a new interpretation model for the human-material in live genres, an ecological paradigm for performance art, experimental theatre and live art is successfully provided.
