The performance apparatus: performance and its documentation as ecological practice

Donald, M. (2016) The performance apparatus: performance and its documentation as ecological practice. Green Letters: Studies in Ecocriticism, 20(3), pp. 251-269. (doi: 10.1080/14688417.2016.1191998)

Abstract

The essay re-evaluates the relationship between performance and its documentation – particularly in the form of performance scores – as a means of exploring human–non-human, and specifically human–water, interrelations. It does so through reflecting on the interplay between performance and its documentation in my ongoing project, Guddling About, which, I argue, builds on materialist and ecological tendencies in other practices and practitioners that use performance scores, such as Fluxus and Lone Twin. Using Karen Barad’s concept of the ‘apparatus’, I consider the interweaving and reconfiguring of performance and performance documentation as a paradigm that recognises and troubles the paradoxes of performance as an ecological practice, such as the inescapability of human subjectivity and the extent of more-than-human agency. The ‘apparatus’ of Guddling About, I suggest, allows space for (human) accountability in fostering attentiveness and flexibility, while acknowledging and surrendering to the unknowability and unruliness of the universe.

• Item Type: Articles
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Donald, Professor Minty
• Authors: Donald, M.
• College/School: College of Arts & Humanities > School of Culture and Creative Arts > Theatre Film and TV Studies
• Journal Name: Green Letters: Studies in Ecocriticism
• Publisher: Taylor and Francis (Routledge)
• ISSN: 1468-8417
• ISSN (Online): 2168-1414
• Published Online: 17 June 2016
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2016 Routledge
• First Published: First published in Green Letters: Studies in Ecocriticism 20(3):251-269
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced in accordance with the copyright policy of the publisher