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Performance Art
See also:  [Dada]
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           [Performance Art]
               [The Performed Score]
               [The Performed Text]
           [(art) concepts]
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               [Pop Art]
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               [Symbolism]               
                   [Symbolism]  (cultural markers)

Performance Art

On this page:  {Intro}
               {Stuff}
               {The Usual Suspects}
               {Techniques}

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Intro

We take it as read that Interventionis art while mainly dwelling in
regions II and II of the Pop Art Realm can of course draw upon Pop
Art I - and will prob need to do so to create *bridges* to the viewers.




Stuff

So, what are the aesthetics of peformance art as opposed
to theatre? Do we need restrict our definition/usage of
theatre to "traditional theatre" -- whatever that is; ie,
elisabethian, classical greece, Mollier vs the 1800c ??

More directly:

   What are the particular aesthetics that 
   select/differentiate between 
 
            performed text 
   and
            performance;per se
?
 (it is recommended to listen to the 1st movemetn of
  Prokofiev's Symp #2 (yes; number 2, and NOT the classical)

(an old beige rain coat might help as well)

We take as read text as text as text as text
read as simple recitation and/or discussion, etc.

Even if i speak as non chalantly as possible the words

  To be or not to be 

  (or their equivalents in Klingon)

there is almsot no way that i can do so without destroying
context at that moment.  

Or, as certainly one of the most feared (or one assume so)
poets of Plato, has sed:

   >>In ancient times, paintings we-
     re given their finishing touches
     in stages. Each day brought so-
     mething new. A painting used
     to be sume of actions. In my 
     case, a painting is the sum of
     destructions. I paint a work, and
     then I destroy it.<<
            -- Pablo Ruiz Picasso

Thus, in the case of Hamlet's words (arguably the most famous words
in the Language English!), we can not escape their weight of 
destruction. Imagine a clown of most comic proportions, who 
suddenly "strikes a pose" and utters them, or a dictator
(eg, Hitler, Nero, Cardinal Jimenez, etc) - that is, the two
anti-podes of human existence (nilhilism vs obliteration).
In either case, their preceding remarks/actions/etc are 
struck into another unvierse this sort of *ultimate* dividing
mark: "To be or not to be".

Of course, we cheat here, since the words would have little
meaning prior to the widespread knowledge of Hamlet, it's
performances, and the "soaking in" of the work as pure text.

Note that only the the case of Hitler and his time (the 1900c),
would his audience be aware of what the words meant - whether
spoken in English or not. We might well ask if there have
"always" been such words?

Thus, we might have found some equivalent in the time of
the the Roman or Catholic scourages of equal maginitude in
the denigration and derrogation of the human spirit. But,
we would find such words useful in any event.

In the modern context, uttering "Fire" in a theatre, or
the word "gun" in the presence of secret service agents
protecting a president, king, or other official would be
the only equivalent in destructive power. Here, quite
literally so. 

And what of the words of a doctor concerning some critical
results of a test? For example, an "HIV" test? In my own 
case, i had determined if indeed i was still "hiv free"
i would say a certain thing from a certain play - sort
of thanks to the mues for sparing my life (at least for
a little while, and in this major way). The lab tech
got my file, went back to the back of the office - 
through which i could see him looking at my file. The
passage from the reception room, led past the desk that
served as the reception, down a darkish hall, and into
THE ROOM (that is, the room where people were counciled
when the news was not good). And the ages clicked by,
the tech (way "back there") continued, looking at the
sheets stapled to my file. 

An infinity of time passed as inifnity does (as it does 
at about 3 minutes into Satie's "Ballet Realiste"). 
Finally (as it turned out, i had had a liver cancer
test done as well, and of course, that was a bit 
unusual).... oh, you're all right..... (sed he')

so out sprang these works,

  Very well, then we shall have a new opera.   
  And Herr Mozart shall write it. And it shall
  be in German; there 'tis, then.

Odd, how performance just "happens".

START AGAIN

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The Usual Suspects

Jacques Derrida

  

Techniques