Performance Philosophy: audience participation and responsibility

Authors

  • Alice Breemen

Keywords:

spectators, Rancière, emancipation, democracy

Abstract

This article critically assesses the position of the spectator in philosophy and (participatory) performances. By means of an in-depth reading of Rancière’s notion of the emancipated spectator, Kester’s theory of dialogical aesthetics and a case study of the performance Order of the Day, an account of the changing position of the audience in contemporary society and in artistic events is established.  Research into the responsibility of the spectator in both philosophy and performance can broaden our understanding of the production and perception of knowledge in an age of media omnipresence. The field of Performance Philosophy provides potential for analyzing where performance and philosophy overlap and how this contributes to asking critical questions and generating new perspectives on how we occupy certain positions in society.

Author Biography

Alice Breemen

Alice Breemen (The Netherlands) graduated in Theatre Studies, Media and Performance Studies (Utrecht University, 2009 & 2011) and Philosophy (Tilburg University, 2013). She has presented her research nationally and internationally (e.g. at the Theater, Performance, Philosophy Conference, University Paris-Sorbonne 2014 and at The Politics of Performance and Play - Feminist Matters Conference, Leiden University 2016). Her research interests are performance philosophy, theatre and democracy and the social function of art. Currently she is employed at HKU University of the Arts Utrecht Theatre Library, and working as an independent researcher.

References

Artaud, Antonin. 1958. The Theater and its Double. Translated by Mary Caroline Richards. New York: Grove Press.

Bauman, Zygmunt. 2000. Liquid Modernity. Cambridge: Polity Press.

Bishop, Claire. 2012. Artificial Hells. Participatory Art and the Politics of Spectatorship. London and New York: Verso.

Boal, Augusto. 2008. Theatre of the Oppressed. London: Pluto Press.

Brecht, Bertolt. 1964. Brecht on Theatre. Translated and edited by John Willett. London: Eyre Methuen.

Kester, Grant. 2004. Conversation Pieces. Community and Communication in Modern Art. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.

Kester, Grant. 2011. The One and the Many. Contemporary Collaborative Art in a Global Context. Durham and London: Duke University Press. https://doi.org/10.1215/9780822394037

Lehmann, Hans-Thies. 2006. Postdramatic Theatre. Translated and with an introduction by Karen Jürs-Munby. New York: Routledge.

Rancière, Jacques. 2009. The Emancipated Spectator. Translated by Gregory Elliott. London and New York: Verso.

Woolf, Brandon. 2013. "Towards a Paradoxically Parallaxical Postdramatic Politics?" In Postdramatic Theatre and the Political: International Perspectives on Contemporary Performance, edited by Karen Jürs-Munby, Jerome Carroll, and Steve Giles, 31-46. London: Bloomsbury Methuen.

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Published

31-01-2017

How to Cite

“Performance Philosophy: Audience Participation and Responsibility”. 2017. Performance Philosophy 2 (2): 299-309. https://doi.org/10.21476/PP.2017.2267.

Issue

Section

Articles

How to Cite

“Performance Philosophy: Audience Participation and Responsibility”. 2017. Performance Philosophy 2 (2): 299-309. https://doi.org/10.21476/PP.2017.2267.