Performance Art: Progress as a Radical Outsider

Catalog description

This class will combine the study of contemporary performance art with applied projects that allow students to practice and explore performance art techniques. In class we will discuss performance art aesthetics, performance histories, the economics of performance art, collaboration strategies, public participatory works, and performance artists who are not labeled as such in pop culture, but fall squarely within the genre (examples include Grace Jones, Nikki Minaj, Bob the Drag Queen, and Pee Wee Herman). We will engage the history and aesthetics of "abstract action/movement, Butoh dance, humor and Camp, and performance art as activism. We will consider performance works that use strategies of provocation, identity-based work, participatory vs. private performances, and works that focus on intimacy. This class will emphasize Black, Brown, and Queer artists who are not always included in the academic canon. Students will be expected to engage in individual research and assigned readings, which will come from sources such as Radical Presence: Black Performance in Contemporary Art, edited by Valerie Cassel Oliver, and Notes on Camp by Susan Sontag, among others. Participation in class discussions and in-class movement workshops are mandatory, and always based on each student's physical ability. Part of being a great performance artist is knowing what your body does best. In this class you will explore your unique physical abilities and how your individual body can impact social thinking in ways that no other person can. ALL BODY TYPES AND ABILITIES ARE WELCOME AND NEEDED FOR THIS COURSE TO BE A SUCCESS.