Before starting this module I only ever thought of performances as people reciting lines on stage. However, after a few seminars I am beginning to understand that a performance can be anything. As Marvin Carlson states ‘’the recognition that our lives are structured according to repeated and socially sanctioned modes of behaviour raises the possibility that all human activity could potentially be considered as performance, or at least all activity carried out with a consciousness of itself’’ (2004, pg.4). A performance is whatever the artist decides is a performance. Some of the pieces we have looked at so far, including Marina Abramovic’s The Artist is Present, have had a big impact on me. At first, when I just read about this piece, I thought who would actually want to go and see something like that. However, once I had experienced it I felt completely different. We sat opposite one another for one hour and five minutes, in a similar style of The Artist is Present, and experienced a fragment of what this performance was. It left a huge impression on me as it was an extremely tense, yet thrilling, experience which helped me to understand what Contemporary Experimental Performance is.
Work Cited
Carlson, Marvin (2004). Performance: A Critical Introduction. London: Routledge.