Research Proposal - Bibliography

In case some references are useful to others for their research. I'm still looking for more good references (both theorists and artists) that deal with embodiment and technology.
Please comment if you can point me towards some.

Annotated Bibliography

Books

Brine, D. and L. Keidan eds., 2007. Programme Notes - Case studies for locating experimental theatre. London: Live Art Development Agency.
Case studies and interviews with key experimental theatre companies and artists (e.g. Tim Etchells and Forced Entertainment, Stationhouse Opera, Kira O'Reilly, Duckie) currently working in the UK. Most case studies argue for the importance of open dialogue and partnership between mainstream venues and smaller, experimental companies.

Goldberg, R., ed., 2007. Performa: New Visual Art Performance. New York: Performa Productions.
Compilation of documentation and interviews with artists who participated in Performa 05 in New York City. Foreword and Introduction offered an excellent argument for the resurgence in performance in the past decade and the challenges that arise when trying to preserve these primarily ephemeral moments in time for future generations.

Gómez-Peña, G., 2005. Ethno-Techno: writings on performance, activism, and pedagogy. London: Routledge.
A collection of essays which firmly situate Gomez-Pena's work within a political, artistic and cultural framework with a transparent account of his group's workshop and performance devising models. I was particularly interested in his description of "being" as opposed to "performing," development of personas, and how to pitch a live work when you are intertwining yourself with your audience. Also excellent resource to see how an artist explains his work to the rest of the world.

Govan, E., H. Nicholson, and K. Normington, 2007. Making a Performance: Devising histories and contemporary practices. London: Routledge.
Similar content to Lehmann, but in much plainer English and updated with examples from the last 8 years. Pragmatic account of history of devising and useful categorization of current practices that will continue to be useful when devising content and forms for new work.

Lehmann, H-T., 2006. Post-Dramatic Theatre. Translated from German by Karen Jürs-Munby. London: Routledge. (originally published in 1999).
Historical context for current performance trends in Europe and the United States. "Panorama of Postdramatic Theatre" section will be a useful resource for elements to consider when devising a new piece.

Zaporah, R., 1995. Action Theater: The Improvisation of Presence. Berkeley, CA: North Atlantic Books.
Detailed account of Zaporah's 21 day Action Theater workshop process with clear explanations about what each exercise is attempting to draw out of participants. I've used this as a key reference when developing the progression of exercises for the workshops I've led this past fall. Also instrumental in bringing my attention to the infinite resources for expression within the body.

Zaporah, R., 2007. Embodied Content in Action Theater Manual: A Practice Book for the Experienced Improvisor. Santa Fe, NM: ZAP Performance Projects. pp. 10-12.
Concise description of 3 levels of awareness that occur in your body when developing content in an improvisation setting. Of particular interest is her notion that we should always start content development from a place fully rooted in the body and be cautious of moving too quickly into attaching meaning or a narrative structure to that first "level".


Conference Papers & Seminars

Jones, A., 2007. Screen Eroticism: Contrasting Intimacies in the work of Carolee Schneeman and Piplotti Rist. Paper presented at Intimacy across visceral and digital performance, December 2007, University of London - Goldsmiths, London, UK.
A comparative study of works by feminist artists in which Jones looks at how the chosen medium for projection impacts the way that the erotic content and intimacy is communicated. Most interesting points regarding my interests: Schneeman turned film into a skin collaging cutting and baking it creating a deeper level of engagement with both the material and the subject. Rist's piece gains intimacy for viewer because it's on a TV which is a familiar object in our everyday lives.

Jones, S. 2007. De-second naturing: performance's intimate work in a world of terror. Paper presented at Intimacy across visceral and digital performance, December 2007, University of London - Goldsmiths, London, UK.
Simon Jones warned against taking performance to one of two extremes - objectification into a grand narrative or subjectivism and infantilism. A person isn't adequately expressed in the purely social or intimate. Performance can (and should in his opinion) act "as a gerund" in between these states.

Ponton, A. 2007. Eye to I. Paper presented at Intimacy across visceral and digital performance, December 2007, University of London - Goldsmiths, London, UK.
Ponton contends that new technologies are giving people (and performers) a new arena which extends how our notions of "Self" can be shaped. Also of interest were statements that presence and absence are no longer discreet states, considering the gaze as a form of touch, and asked whether we can consider any work of art to be immediate and unmediated?

Sermon, P. 2007. (Dis)Embodiment Seminar as part of Intimacy across visceral and digital performance, December 2007, University of London - Goldsmiths, London, UK.
Sermon presented his work of networked telematic video projects that connected people in different locations through composite video images. His current work revolves around a gallery he has created in Second Life. In all his work, he is interested in Lacan’s definition of Self and how that is translated into the digital sphere.

Workshops

Action Theater (workshop leader: Kate Hilder). September - December 2007, movingartsbase, London, UK.
Technique which tunes your attention into what is happening in your body at any given moment and allows you to become fascinated in that moment as the foundation for an improvised performance. Exercises developed to increase awareness of the body's modes of expression through movement, sound and speech and experimentation with motion vs. stillness, fast vs. slow, noise vs. silence, etc. Embodiment on the most essential level - moving your awareness deep into your body integrating what is happening in both mind and body in reaction to your surroundings.

Intimacy and Recorded Presence (workshop leader: Kelli Dipple). At Intimacy across visceral and digital performance, December 2007, University of London - Goldsmiths, London, UK.
This workshop revisited ideas originally raised in Shahar Dor's Improvideo workshop. Dipple also raised the argument that you can achieve a greater level of intimacy with a camera than you can in a face-to-face encounter "You can't do this because I'm a person, but you can do this because I'm a machine." Dipple also had useful advice to overcome anxiety about documentation of live performances never capturing the 'real' epxerience: think of it as "versioning" as opposed to documentation. Different versions of the performance that the public can interact with at different moments in time.

Improvideo (workshop leaders: Shahar Dor and Amit Shalev). August 2007, Chisenhale Dance Space, London, UK.
Workshop conducted by Israeli dancer and videographer based on improvisation exercises designed to establish a greater understanding of the relationship between the performer and camera performer. Introduced me to the idea of keeping your body "active" as a performer when you are operating the camera. Exposed us to interacting with the “larger system” by conducting several exercises out in the public sphere, including a day-long project in SoHo and Trafalgar Square.


Performances

Complicite, A Disappearing Number. Barbican Centre, London September, 2007.
Interesting use of video shifting between roles as character and set (foreground/background)

Filter, Water. Hammersmith Lyric, London. October, 2007.
Brechtian format which involved sound engineer and stage manager on stage for the whole performance. Actors were also involved in generating sounds and lighting effects in real time during the performance and I was interested to see how they shifted seamlessly between character and technician throughout.

Phillip Glass, Music in 12 Parts. Barbican Centre, London. November, 2007.
I was impressed by the effect of a technically challenging durational piece on the performers. It seemed inevitable that the performers would lose their place or miss a note at some point during the 4 hour piece.

Grains of Sound. ICA, London. November, 2007.
Classic example of laptop-based musicians in passive tech operator mode. Performers’ bodies were completely disengaged from considering the impact that their physical presence might have on audience members. One set was an exception. They chose to perform in darkness, forcing the audience to focus solely on the sound, which is what they wanted.


Further Research

Auslander, P., 1999. Liveness - Performance in a Mediatized Culture. London: Routledge.

Checkhov, M., 1953. To The Actor- on the technique of acting. New York: Harper & Row.
Julia Bardsley recommended section on the psychological gesture as a character development strategy.

Carman, T. and M. B. N. Hansen eds., 2005. Cambridge Companion to Merleau-Ponty. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Jones, A., 2006. Self-Image: Technology, Representation, and the Contemporary Subject. London: Routledge.

Reynolds, J., 2004. Merleau-Ponty and Derrida: Intertwining embodiment and alterity. Athens, OH: Ohio University Press.

Smith, M. and Morna, J., eds., 2006. The Prosthetic Impulse: From a Posthuman Present to a Biocultural Future. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.